Grant McLennan - RIP

I won't write much since I'll probably compose something longer later, but anyone who knows me knows how much the Go-Betweens' music has meant to me over the years. I'm just happy he died at the peak of his powers; last year's Oceans Apart was as extraordinary as their peak '80s material.

(xpost to Anthony)

Seemed to be a very genuine, sincere man.
....who happened to write some great songs.

RIP.

I just saw the Go-B's last summer and got to meet Grant a bit backstage. He looked to be in incredible shape and in good spirits.

R.I.P. Grant.

Man. You know, I never saw them live or him solo, and I regret it terribly now. Had many chances too. You just think you'll eventually get the time.

The one story I have -- I interviewed him around the time Horsebreaker Star came out. Funny as hell, great times had. Towards the end I asked him about the song "Simone and Perry" and he mentioned it was about two friends of his. I offered that I had read the title thinking about Nina Simone and Lee Perry -- not being serious, just the first thing that leapt to mind. He laughed heartily and said, "That's a good idea, I might say that in the future!"

RIP. This is seriously sad.

Arrrgh.

Wishful thinking, I know.

Yet in the end, as cultists know and too few others will find out, the lyrics are worth digesting. If my favorite line involves, of all things, songs--"Really loved the one about those L.A. freaks/Did it take a day to write or was it weeks?"--that's only to say he knows more about them than the competition.

So true. Like I just muttered elsewhere, it's those people who actually break through my own 'the lyrics don't matter' stance that I end up cherishing all the more because they're actually good.

"Jim, with all due respect, are you joking? Grant's a serial sartorial shocker, and there he is, alas, caught once again on 'The Friends...' Why not hunt down a Forsterish canary-yellow suit instead? I'm not sure where you'd get that shirt, sorry."

I still want that shirt.

Yup. *sigh*

This guy should be remembered as one of the greats, and only about 5% of music lovers recognize his achievements.

4th martini coming up.

5th martini coming up.

What a horrible fuckin' day.

An actual genius. Not many that can be said about. RIP.

6th martini coming up.....

Yeah, Pontiac, MI at the 7th House. I remember it really vividly.

This completely sucks. Grant was what, only 48? Awful.

Our relationship’s changing all the time. We’re still discovering its magnitude. Any successful relationship requires a lot of give and take. If the spotlight’s on your partner instead of you, you learn to accept it. We’ve seen famous bands where they’re all friends break up, and it’s sad. We’re passed that point, though. We’re concerned with the greater good. Certainly in the ‘80s, when we faced a lot of commercial pressure—to write hit singles and so forth—it’s a bad situation for two songwriters, and was not good for our friendship. But the peak is still there, and we’re looking for new ones.

Just out of curiosity, how big were they in Australia?

grant seemed to have a way of opening up his mouth
and singing instant choruses
hed plucked outta the ether
words flew to him
he walk with melodies at his beck n call

i somehow fanangled my way into seeing him at urbis orbis in chicago about 12 years ago now, opening for...are you ready for this?... Jewel. there was a line through the coffee shop to the door before the door opened. he played solo accoustic and put on an incredible show -- the song i most remember is "haven't i been a fool", which remains my favorite from him probably because of the performance. the crowd (geez, maybe 75?) was so respectful, hardly a whisper uttered during any of the songs. it was gorgeous.

after a standing ovation, 90% of the crowd got up to leave. i remember Jewel, who took the floor very quickly, was reduced literally begging "please don't go!"

G.W : I ruined it for you. Did I steal its only tune? I'll give you a credit next time I see my publisher.

Very sad news, this.

I'm so glad that I saw the G-Bs play live last year.

-- "Dusty in Here"

Haha, yeah, I was there too, great show. Shit, this is awful news, I'm heartbroken.

ABC-TV (Aus) evening news just reported his death as the 3rd or 4th story. Which was pleasantly surprising. Many viewers of a certain age probably stopped chewing their dinner, even if he wasn't a household name...

Put '16 Lovers Lane' on at work on Friday and listened to it all the way through - I rarely do that with any album these days. Very, very sad news indeed.

Not in every state! Didn't get a mention on ABC News down my way.

the go-betweens are one of those bands i love when i listen to them - but i don't listen to them enough. i was lucky enough to see them live, though, and i'm grateful for that.

this is genuinely terrible, upsetting, tragic news. RIP.

Thank you, Grant, for that and so much, much more.

I just can't believe it.

RIP.

I am devastated by the news of Grant Mclennan's death. He was one of the great songwriters of the past 25 years. "Cattle And Cane" is transcendence as song. "Boundary Rider" from their last album is just a good.

I hung out with Grant and Robert backstage in Vienna, about a year ago. He was in a positive, chatty mood. The club was packed and the show was WONDERFUL. The Go-betweens were back and as great as ever.

This is a cruel, cruel blow. This is absolutely not fair. The loss is immense. My heart aches for Robert.

And man, some of the great stories there:

i first met Grant in Los Angeles on their first trip out here in 85...instantly charmed, we became fast friends, along with Robert and the rest of the group.
He told me he was dying to try REAL mexican food for the first time, so he and Lindy hopped in my car and we headed for the best i could find. of course we had to stop for beer first and although i mentioned a certain law against opening and driving, we cracked a few and headed to santa monica.
at the table, he spied some EXTEMELY HOT peppers that they set out for the daring. i warned him against eating any. he ignored my warning and bit into one whole pepper, chewed for a while, and the sweat started pouring off his face...he went RED!!...smiled, guzzled some beer and then DID IT AGAIN...3 more times!! "we dont have anything like that down in australia" he said...!

---

Grant worked in my record shop in the late 1970's in Toowong, He came in late one night after closing with a flagon of wine in his hand and said to me that he and Robert were thinking of recording two songs for a single. I said "Gee, do you you think that will work?"

---

I recall late one night in 1981 Grant standing at the bar of the Queensland Institute of Technology (now QUT) Campus Club, one of the many live venues in Brisbane at that very lively time. My band had just played a not very memorable gig, but Grant strained to offer a compliment "I liked that Wire song (Outdoor Miner) you played". A more recent memory is of driving down Moray Street in New Farm and seeing Grant walking along the footpath. I slowed the car and offered him a ride. Grant jumped in and before I could establish where he was going we got to talking about the Bob Dylan concert that I'd seen a few nights before down on the beach at Ballina. Grant hadn't seen the show but he wanted to know what I thought. I recall him expressing disappointment that Dylan had stopped singing or even trying to sing. I remember saying "yes, you're right, but it didn't really trouble me because he looked just so into playing with his band". Grant then said "Could you see if he was shaking his leg, that's the real indicator you know ?" Before I could answer (and indeed I had seen the famous Dylan leg-shake), Grant indicated that we had travelled as far as he was going, thanked me for the lift, and was on his way again. Bon voyage.

They're playing Cattle and Cane on 6Music as I write this post...

McLennan was often considered to be the more pop-oriented half of the Go-Betweens' songwriting team, but his work is also often tinged with sadness and melancholy, most notably "Cattle and Cane", a haunting rumination on aging and memory, and "Dusty in Here", written for his late father.

McLennan also excelled at marrying breezy melodies to world-weary, evocative words, crafting cerebral tracks that exuded a delicate warmth and depth of humanity rare in three-minute pop songs. The best examples of which are "Bye Bye Pride", "Bachelor Kisses", "Right Here", and "Streets of Your Town". Among other compositions for which McLennan will be most fondly remembered are the Go-Betweens' "That Way", "The Wrong Road", "Dive for Your Memory", "Love Is a Sign", and "Finding You", and solo tracks "Put You Down" and "Simone & Perry".

By the way, I recommend re-reading as I just did Grant's and Robert's touching and witty song-by-song liner notes on the Anthology.

"Bye Bye Pride"
Cairns is a lazy, small town full of boats and cane fields. It is also unbearably hot. An old army officer once said to me that the heat took away his pride. He then sucked loudly on the straw in his gin and headed out to the first hole. I was his caddy so I followed him.
—G.M.

Hammer the Hammer
Too many late nights in St Kilda, Melbourne. An incomplete meditation on loneliness and violence, sometimes mistakenly thought to be about drugs. Recorded during a lull in the Birthday Party's "Junkyard" session. This was the last song we cut before moving to England. -GM

Bachelor Kisses
We came back from Christmas in New York having lost our record company somewhere along the way. I wrote this in immigration having been refused entry to the United Kingdom. The first person who heard the song was my sister. She said that Marianne Faithful should sing it. -GM

The Wrong Road
We lived in London for almost six years. I shared a dark flat with a painter and then a comedian. The painter was obsessed with grey. The comedian loved Tommy Cooper. This song fits somwhere between these two things. -GM

Cattle and Cane
Written in summer on a borrowed guitar in a Paddington bedroom, London. The other rooms were occupied by unconscious friends. The rhythm struck me as strange, the mood as beautiful and sad. The song came easily, was recorded quickly and still haunts me. -GM

Dusty in Here
This is a song about my father who died when I was four. -GM

Second-Hand Furniture
I had a dream about a divorced man who looked into a shop window and saw his old bed. I think it was snowing. The catalogue of objects was an ad lib. For some reason this song is popular in Stockholm. -GM

Don't Call Me Gone
I've always liked country music. This is a typical mix of pathos and sentimentality in the tradition of George Jones and Tammy Wynette. It comes close to pastiche but the Go Betweens seldom genre hop so this is what it is. -GM

http://karimamir.blogspot.com/2006/05/rip-grant-mclennan-youtube-tribute.html

Happily, east coast bands making a trek over to the UK (and back again) invariably stopped in Perth for a show or two, often in addition to any national tour they might happen to be on. Excellent news for fans of the Go-Betweens (and The Triffids).

Consequently, I was lucky enough to see them many, many times and they never disappointed. Memories of Grant plucking out the notes of Cattle & Cane under a single spotlight at the Shenton Park Hotel (also RIP) or of his and Amanda Brown's soaring harmonies in Bye Bye Pride or Streets of Your Town will be with me forever. His passing is such a terrible loss.

RIP G W McLennan

"The early line-up of the band that included Morrison, Forster, McLennan and his then partner Amanda Brown fragmented amid acrimony, but the four were reunited in Sydney several weeks ago where, said Morrison, they were able to resolve some of their differences."

Most definitely they had a low-rent Aussie Rumours-type psychodrama goin' on.

A strange day. I've had to concentrate on many other things, and I'm glad of that, but still...

*checks for the first album*

Ah, there ya go. :-)

This is sad news -- my first exposure to the band was "Dusty in Here" when it was new; it stopped me cold, as few songs ever do.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19058067-16947,00.html

damn.

I may put a few things up on Dime this week too, if there aren't already a ton of others.

Here's Cattle & Cane from the 7th House.
http://download.yousendit.com/2401DE992BD823E4

Mods - my understanding of the policy is that anything we have recorded ourselves is OK to post here. This is technically an ambient recording of an hour of my life, with some music going on in the background. If that's taboo, please remove the link & email me.

http://download.yousendit.com/DBC560E0147F6B36

(*that I have)

As some of the readers here know I have been writing about The Go-Betweens for many years now in my work as a magazine editor and later as the music writer at The Courier-Mail in Brisbane.
I've been privileged to know Grant and Robert and to be present on the Sunday after their last Tivoli show in Brisbane, asking the questions for the DVD documentary section of That Striped Sunlight Sound. One of the many Go-Betweens moments I will always cherish. Here is a personal piece I wrote for this morning's edition:

I can't remember the first time I met Grant McLennan.
It might have been in about 1981 at the Basement recording studios in Roma St, Brisbane, where The Go-Betweens were recording.
I will never forget the last time we met, on Wednesday, at a film screening I hosted for the new Neil Young concert film Heart of Gold.
Introducing the film, I told my one paltry Neil anecdote: that I had interviewed him on the phone, found him sweet and kind, but on the afternoon of his Brisbane concert I actually walked past him in Edward St and, in shock, neglected my chance to introduce myself.
Grant chipped in: ``You should have.''
After the screening, I missed my chance to say to Grant what I had intended to: that after a year of listening I still stood by my five-star review of The Go-Betweens' Oceans Apart album, that it sounds to me as strong as any album I have heard in years.
I should have.
In numerous conversations and interviews I conducted with Grant, he was unfailingly enthusiastic about the arts, film, books, painting, music.
In his student years he wrote perceptive film reviews.
He was always mentioning that he had been to some exhibition or other, some book he had found, or would talk about two of his great loves; the music of Bob Dylan and the music of The Monkees.
Loving Dylan and The Monkees was not a paradox in his world, and it said something of the kind of songwriter he became, with his love of precise yet poetic language and sharp, memorable melodies.
If good reviews were dollars Grant McLennan would have been a millionaire. But his ability to write so many great songs, so many enduring songs, so many songs that cut so deep with so many people, is testament to his achievement, to the kind of life he admired and lived.
An artist's life.

Reading back over the liner notes I posted above I paused at this one because it seems so similar to Grant's fate:
Dusty in Here
This is a song about my father who died when I was four. -GM

A friend just passed this along, it's short but good --
http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/story/0,20797,19061372-5003421,00.html

Haha!

A month ago this made me smile and laugh, now i want to cry.

Yeah, me too. The Jack Frost album is damn-near flawless, but even so, Providence is a stand-out. It conveys such a sense of deep melancholy, and yet isn't self-pitying in the slightest. It was also interesting and not at all surprising to learn after all these years that the sad, beautiful Civil War Lament was Grant's composition.

R.I.P.

Lindy Morrsion, the drummer of the first incarnation of the Go-Betweens is quoted here:

She says McLennan, 48, was getting ready for a housewarming party on Saturday when he fell ill.

"He'd moved in with Adele, the bass player in the second version of the Go-Betweens, and they were putting up decorations and he didn't feel well.

"And he went to lie down and everyone left him for an hour to sleep, then tried to wake him as people were coming, and he had gone."

Apparently it was a heart attack.

What can you do? If he had no history of trouble he probably didn't think much of it himself. At least he was at rest, and I can only hope it was as quick and as apparently painless as Nikki Sudden's own passing.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002464163

It would have been nice, though...just to have three more albums, even that. Six and six, as it were, a round dozen. Though I suppose with 78-79 and Very Quick on the Eye we had eleven already. Still not enough.

I went to see the Go-Betweens last year when they played at Hepburn Springs. We had booked both dinner and the show and my friends were running late so I made my way out to the bar to look for them and sneak a quick ciggie. Instead I saw Grant sitting at the corner of the bar, contently cupping a glass of frangelico with one hand while the other held a cigarette. I did a little bit of mental juggling about privacy and respect and intrusion but figured if he was sitting at a bar at his own gig he might not be too suprised if someone spoke to him. I approached him with my heart racing, aplogised for interrupting him and asked him if I could tell him a funny story. He smiled, asked my name, introduced himself(!) and said he'd love to hear a funnny story. I relayed a childhood adventure which, as I told him, was in fact more embarrassing than it was funny, and I could feel my cheeks burning hot with the rush of memory. I told him how over half my lifetime ago, when I was just fifteen years old and in love with the Go-Betweens music, my best friend and I had stayed at the same hotel as they had after one of their gigs. We were so in awe of them that we did not want to disturb them and spent the night in our hotel room, innocently enjoying the fact that it was enough to be close to them and we had managed to pull off a night away from home without our parents knowing! The next morning as they were leaving we rushed down the stairs and asked for their autographs. Robert was reading "On The Road" and did not want to be disturbed. Grant and Lindy chatted with us and signed a school book. I finshed my rather slighly stupid breathless account and was astonished to find that not only did Grant remember that day, he remembered the colour of our uniforms too. We then spoke of everything from politics, to boarding school, from surfing to the heat and light of Qld, about other languages we spoke and the places we had lived in. We smoked and drank till I was wobbly, I missed my dinner and my friends by by the time we had finished speaking my life was already changing.
Thankyou Grant for your gentle humour, your emotional generosity and your grace. Thanks too for getting me to Qld, onto a
board and over my fear of sharks.x

"Today I went to the website and read some of the magnificent tributes that have flown in for Grant. People for some days have been telling me of the beautiful things written there. And today I felt well enough and strong enough to go in and read. I thank you all. In time I shall read every one of them. I see familiar names scattered from our past. The vast majority I don't know. All of you Grant and I have met through our music. Your words and thoughts I find very, very moving. I sense the love and understanding for Grant and his music, and I take the support you send to me to my heart.

These last days I have Grant in my head. He talks to me in odd moments. I hear him... and I always will.

all my love
Robert Forster"

A lot of melancholia and loss here amongst Brisbanians for whom these globe-trotting gents were the poets of our corners.

A lot of melancholia and loss here, amongst Brisbanians for whom these globe-trotting gents were the poets of our corners.

Beggars have done a tribute putting "fingers" online: "http://www.beggars.com/news/fingers.mp3".

RIP Grant, you'll never be forgotten

The news was stunning, somewhat bewildering. The man was only 50% older than me. It seems particularly sad, perhaps, in that he was part of a partnership, which must now end.

I have not always shared the view of the Go-Betweens held by many others (including, for instance, people on this thread). Curiously, though, my doubts about them have often led me to listen to them more extensively and even intensively than to lots of other artists. Through the struggle to hear the alleged greatness, I have become fond of them. Just recently I had dug out the tape that Cook made me and played it over and over - I had to write to Cook and tell him, and revive that conversation. I nearly revived the old GBs thread yet again, to express awe at some magnificent moment - of which there were, to borrow a phrase from Elvis Costello, more than one or two.

"We encourage you to remember Grant at this time, wherever you are in the world. Thank you."

I plan on doing just that with a playing of "Dusty in Here" and a glass of red wine.

such a lot has happened to all of us since that night at the lyceum, hasn't it?
i was reminded of how much time had passed when i last saw the go-betweens play, maybe a year ago, at the barbican.
grant sang cattle and cane, and i had to swallow hard and blink a few times. i guess i always will when i hear it now.

this goes out with much love to everyone at planet go-between, especially robert.
and grant, we always knew you didn't steal that line about his father's watch being left in the shower. it was just a joke...!

Orange Juice, The Go-Betweens and the Marine Girls all one one bill.

If only I had a time machine.

http://blogs.smh.com.au/entertainment/archives/club_metro/004542.html

I got the news from Bob on the rainy saturday afternoon in England.While driving home, I was trying not to think of the songs.

Keep away from Cattle and Cane. Keep the bloody beautiful song from creeping into my head.

I have to play a record. Keep away from the old records. Play it safe.
Oceans Apart.Think of the time you and Grant went to Oceans Apart for a pint. I'll be fine.

No Reason To Cry and everything falls apart.Tears for Grant. Tears for Robert,Bob, Sharon, Bernard and all the Go-Betweens family.

Then tears for me. No more Grant songs.No more joyous happy shows with Robert.

I am priveliged and proud to have looked after and baby sat Grant's (and Robert's) songs for a quarter of a century.

Grant leaves behind an amazing and beautiful body of work that will be forever timeless.

Love Goes On !....

(god-damn! The git solo in The House That Jack Kerouac Built ... That's what I always loved about the go-betweens - those 'one-note-ish' plinkety plink solos.)

The terrific instrumental break near the end of 'Cattle & Cane' is the best I can think of.

Raggett, could you post here what Lloyd said?

I can only speak for my wife and I, but this is terrible news. Robert and Grant were rejuvenated by the Rachel Worth record which is my favourite 'come back' record by anyone, ever, and serves as great encouragement for notsoyoung folk trying to make music.
I'm toasting Grant, alone in a Lisbon hotel lobby.

we got francis macdonald to do an appreciation too, but for some reason it didn't go on the website. i'll try and swipe it from the library and post it here if anyone wants; i don't think francis will mind.

ROBERT Forster's songwriting partnership with Grant McLennan was forged 30 years ago over Earl Grey tea and scones, and he toasted his departure from this world in the same way.

At yesterday's memorial service for the other half of the songwriting partnership for cult band the Go-Betweens, Forster recalled how last Sunday - the day after McLennan's death - he had gone to St John's Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane.

At the end of the morning service, when the parade of high church pageantry walked out the door, Forster felt his songwriting partner go with them.

"Then this nice Anglican lady asked me if I wanted a cup of tea, and I had a scone with it," he said. "It was the same in 1978 at a house around (Brisbane suburb) Toowong where Grant and I had learned to drink Earl Grey tea, and that really constituted the beginnings of the Go-Betweens."

Among the 500 mourners at yesterday's memorial service for McLennan were fellow respected Australian musicians Paul Kelly and Ed Kuepper.

But significantly, the service was also attended by members of the next generation of Brisbane bands after the Go-Betweens, such as Powderfinger, George and Regurgitator. McLennan had played with them all during the 1990s.

Forster and McLennan started the Go-Betweens when they were students at the University of Queensland. They achieved success with songs such as Cattle and Cane and Streets of Your Town, which U2 singer Bono regards as one of his top three favourite songs.

They were described in some quarters as Australia's Lennon and McCartney, but they were never stars of the charts, despite attracting a cult following in Europe, especially Britain and Germany. The Times of London this week carried an obituary of McLennan.

Yet they always came home to Brisbane. Even at age 48, McLennan still lived in one of Brisbane's best-known share houses in the inner suburb of Highgate Hill.

The Go-Betweens had several changes in line-up over the years and band break-ups were often acrimonious, but other band members Lindy Morrison, Amanda Brown and John Willsteed forgave and forgot enough to attend yesterday's service.

Ian Haug, from Powderfinger, and current Go-Betweens bass player Adele Pickvance read Psalm 23, and McLennan's sister Sally started her eulogy yesterday by saying, "I really do recall a schoolboy coming home through fields of cane to a house of tin and timber", the opening lines of Cattle and Cane, which has been voted among Australia's 10 best songs.

Forster described not only the Earl Grey and scones but also McLennan's sense of spirituality and his "warm, open and generous" nature.

Then the casket containing his body was taken out the door of into the bright Brisbane sunlight, loaded into the hearse, and, for the last time, Grant McLennan travelled through the streets of his town.

They played "I'm a Believer" as people filed out, which seems perfect.

http://www.popmatters.com/music/features/060512-grantmclennan.shtml

My Aussie relatives have never shown any interest in home-grown talent. Maybe for his birthday I'll buy my brother in law Simon "16LL."

My narcissistic reaction to the news (still sinking in) was that, as long as my own health holds up, every single musician I love and respect will pass in my lifetime. It's a sad, scary thought, incentive alone, I suppose, to find new bands and musicians to love and respect. Though few I imagine will be on par with what the music Grant made meant to me.

The Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) the loss suffered by the Australian music community and music lovers with the death on 6 May 2006, of Queensland born and bred songwriter and musician, Mr Grant McLennan,

(ii) the contribution made to music by Mr McLennan as a songwriter and performer over nearly three decades, which is highly respected and widely recognised as very influential,

(iii) that the song ‘Cattle and Cane’, written by Mr McLennan and performed by the Go-Betweens was named by the Australian Performing Rights Association as one of the ten greatest Australian songs, and

(iv) the significant inspiration that Mr McLennan and the Go-Betweens provided to musicians from Brisbane and beyond over many years; and

(b) conveys its sympathies to his mother, immediate family and past and present band members.

the service was ok
a few too many messages from our sponsor, maybe
but it was ok

...

i had one of grants fave drinks a long island tea
which seemed to have 5 different white spirits in it
and certainly knocked me around
i met the moody and enigmatic ed kuepper
(and i hugged him!!)
what a gentlemen

http://hemlocktavern.com/prog_guide.php?

I asked him to talk about Grant which he was more than happy to oblige. He talked about working with him and what type of person he was. It was really nice to talk to someone who worked and knew him. Steve is very poetic and speaks with bravado at times. He lightened up the conversation saying, "Why did Grant have to go? He was such a gentleman. Why couldn't it have been Liam Gallagher?"

* Tribute show in Brisbane on Nov. 30

* First Jack Frost album has been remastered/reissued with extra tracks

And now, four years.

Damn. I've currently no Go-Between or McLennan songs on my iPod.

One of my favorite ILM threads, this. Lots of good writing, fond memories.

I've currently no Go-Between or McLennan songs on my iPod.
Wha???

Peter Milton Walsh (he of The Apartments) posted a rather stirring tribute to Grant today:
http://rileyrecords.blogspot.com/2010/05/may-6th-grant-mclennan.html

His observations on The Go-Betweens are equally fascinating:
What I liked most about them and the world of their songs, was its immaculate innocence. A childlike world, radiant with hope. Huge, huge hope. Daydream believers. In the howling chaos that seemed to be my life at the time, there was nobody like that. I’m not sure there ever had been.

That's crazy, I broke out Before Hollywood on Thursday, and then the rest of the catalogue, first time I'd listened to them in ages. Was thinking about how sad it was to lose that talent, and I didn't even notice the significance of the date. His River of Money gets me more and more every time.

My first thought when I saw this thread revived was that he wasn't dead anymore. :(

Eternally missed.

will play "Dusty in Here."

Aw man, that'd bring real tears. It's a strange feeling having real emotions for someone you've never met.

I write these words to his tune
that he wrote on a full moon
And a river ran, and a train ran, and a dream ran
through everything that he did

oh dear

10 years. Sigh.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wB0sgi5uL2w

Memory wastes.

Bigger-than-usual one of these tonight: http://www.bushhallmusic.co.uk/whats-on/events/6-may-16-this-nights-for-you-a-grant-mclennan-tribute-show-bush-hall/

(The one where Robert turned up and played some songs a couple of years ago was all-time for me.)

I miss him, I miss this band. Going to be playing their stuff today.

from Forster's Facebook page:

May 6, 2016. Ten years ago today Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens passed away. A sad anniversary to mark, but necessary in so many ways, not the least because he was a great singer-songwriter and a wonderful friend. I think of him often; he is not someone who has faded - remaining close to me as he always will be, in memory and music. We knew each other for just over thirty years - for seventeen of them we were in a band, for the remainder of the time the friendship was just as important and central to us. Grant and I did a lot of talking together. Pitching ideas, making plans, swapping enthusiasms we had, and laughing. We were a force together. The sting to this day shall be strong as he died in Brisbane, The Go-Betweens were a Brisbane band, and today I shall be out in the city and tonight will sleep in it. Thinking of Grant. Warm greetings to all who read this, and have Grant firmly in their lives too. Hold on. Fond Regards. Robert.

Beautiful tribute

That tribute gig looks great. Can't believe it's been 10 years.

I'm afraid to wear my Grant McLennan t-shirt anymore because I don't want it to fade.

Lovely piece here

https://medium.com/@RyanMaffei/gentlemanly-melancholy-7ff32d02763f#.8ssrq56xz

The best of Forser and McLennan's solo work.

Is the book ever coming out in the US?

Steve Kilbey's compiled and selling 3 hours of Jack Frost performance and interview footage as a download via his Facebook. $20 bucks. Grabbing it in the morning as I imagine it'll be perfect accompaniment to early Xmas Day wine drinking and vegetating.

I love this strummy alubm.

*album even

Fifteen years.

Robert Forster remembers:

https://www.facebook.com/robertforsterofficial/posts/202652301677146

Fifteen years since I wept at the passing of someone whom I didn't know personally. I now understand that I was grieving the end of the source of so much of the music that both defined and enhanced my youth. RIP Grant. Your songs were good company.

Coincidentally, I just bought his double album Horsebreaker Star after looking for it for a very long time. (It's not hard to find outside of the U.S., but I wanted a reasonable price for it since the U.S.-only single-disc version goes for peanuts, and I've been told that all but one of the excised cuts aren't really missed. I still wanted the original version though.)

I didn't listen to the Go-Betweens until well after Grant passed. Love them, wish I saw Grant and Robert on-stage when I had the chance.

Happy birthday.