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.
― Taylor, Sunday, 7 May 2006 15:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jim M (jmcgaw), Sunday, 7 May 2006 16:34 (eighteen years ago) link
"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.
― Taylor, Sunday, 7 May 2006 16:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mippy (Mippy), Sunday, 7 May 2006 18:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Sunday, 7 May 2006 18:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Sunday, 7 May 2006 18:55 (eighteen years ago) link
Hammer the HammerToo 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 KissesWe 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 RoadWe 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 CaneWritten 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 HereThis is a song about my father who died when I was four. -GM
Second-Hand FurnitureI 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 GoneI'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
― TRG (TRG), Sunday, 7 May 2006 19:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― Bidfurd (Bidfurd), Sunday, 7 May 2006 20:02 (eighteen years ago) link
http://karimamir.blogspot.com/2006/05/rip-grant-mclennan-youtube-tribute.html
― TRG (TRG), Sunday, 7 May 2006 20:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Sunday, 7 May 2006 20:21 (eighteen years ago) link
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
― Theodore, Sunday, 7 May 2006 21:01 (eighteen years ago) link
"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."
― PeopleFunnyBoy (PeopleFunnyBoy), Sunday, 7 May 2006 22:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 May 2006 22:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― DJ Martian (djmartian), Sunday, 7 May 2006 22:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― TRG (TRG), Sunday, 7 May 2006 22:46 (eighteen years ago) link
Most definitely they had a low-rent Aussie Rumours-type psychodrama goin' on.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:29 (eighteen years ago) link
A strange day. I've had to concentrate on many other things, and I'm glad of that, but still...
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:53 (eighteen years ago) link
*checks for the first album*
Ah, there ya go. :-)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 7 May 2006 23:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 May 2006 00:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 May 2006 00:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― LOL Thomas (Chris Barrus), Monday, 8 May 2006 00:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 8 May 2006 00:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jeff K (jeff k), Monday, 8 May 2006 01:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jay Vee's Return (Manon_69), Monday, 8 May 2006 01:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 May 2006 01:15 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 8 May 2006 04:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Monday, 8 May 2006 04:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Monday, 8 May 2006 04:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 8 May 2006 04:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Monday, 8 May 2006 04:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― daavid (daavid), Monday, 8 May 2006 04:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― Archel (Archel), Monday, 8 May 2006 07:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Monday, 8 May 2006 07:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― Vitbe... *pause*... Is Good Bread (Dada), Monday, 8 May 2006 08:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― Vitbe... *pause*... Is Good Bread (Dada), Monday, 8 May 2006 08:26 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19058067-16947,00.html
― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Monday, 8 May 2006 08:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 8 May 2006 11:01 (eighteen years ago) link
damn.
― dave's good arm (facsimile) (dave225.3), Monday, 8 May 2006 11:15 (eighteen years ago) link
I may put a few things up on Dime this week too, if there aren't already a ton of others.
― dave's good arm (facsimile) (dave225.3), Monday, 8 May 2006 11:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― cw (cww), Monday, 8 May 2006 12:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― TRG (TRG), Monday, 8 May 2006 12:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 8 May 2006 12:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― Aaron W (Aaron W), Monday, 8 May 2006 12:42 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― dave's good arm (facsimile) (dave225.3), Monday, 8 May 2006 12:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 May 2006 13:03 (eighteen years ago) link
http://download.yousendit.com/DBC560E0147F6B36
(*that I have)
― dave's good arm (facsimile) (dave225.3), Monday, 8 May 2006 13:08 (eighteen years ago) link
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.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 May 2006 13:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 May 2006 13:17 (eighteen years ago) link