That looks so great. I only just ordered Robert Forster's 10 Rules of Rock n Roll the other day.
― Kitchen Person, Thursday, 21 July 2016 14:55 (seven years ago) link
The book looks just great. As for the big question posed by this thread, well, I have come to think that the Go-Betweens were pretty much what Pavement wanted to be, but with a romantic side Pavement never had. Post-punk with Guy Clark hanging around at the bar, if you will. If anything, Forster and McLennan were every bit the equal of lauded songwriters like Clark or Townes Van Zandt or any number of Nashville or Memphis tunesmiths. I don't own the box, but a friend of mine does, and I've heard the tracks (the remastering of Spring Hill Fair, which is my favorite album when Tallulah isn't, is superb. And the demos and live stuff are often stunning, with the version of "Part Company" particularly stunning. These guys were musical--the oddball meters and foreshortened licks were integrated structurally into song form that hits my ears as addictive as, say, Big Star's stuff, just way more skewed and modest and literary. And the box contains this live-with-John-Peel version of the Spring Hill track "Five Words" that may be the greatest thing the band ever did, or at least the one track you'd play to demonstrate how a literary band with seemingly little song smarts turned out to be songful as hell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4snhqQ9eP24
― Edd Hurt, Thursday, 21 July 2016 15:04 (seven years ago) link
"Five Words" always reminds me a little bit of Seals and Crofts' "Diamond Girl."
― The Professor of Hard Rain (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 21 July 2016 15:10 (seven years ago) link
They probably liked Seals and Crofts.
― Edd Hurt, Thursday, 21 July 2016 15:28 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, the intro to "Part Company" is like Seals and Crofts play Television.
― Tim, Thursday, 21 July 2016 15:34 (seven years ago) link
I'm definitely looking forward to reading that!
― the hair - it's lost its energy (Turrican), Thursday, 21 July 2016 18:06 (seven years ago) link
Review of Forster's memoir:
The heart of the book, though, is about a close friendship with someone who remained unknowable: a “naive boy” who kept a close watch on his inner life, only to pour it out in songs such as the revered Cattle and Cane and its companion, Dusty in Here. Both songs reference McLennan’s father, who died when he was six. Yet as Grant & I (and the band’s career) unfurls, McLennan recedes; as his friendship with Forster is attenuated to a few words or glances, it’s easy to lose sight of him.
And in this, there is an omission. The shadow of heroin hangs over this book, but we don’t know of it until Forster drops the bombshell of his own diagnosis with hepatitis C, a likely consequence of his own dabbling with the drug. It’s well known in rock circles that McLennan was a long-term user; Steve Kilbey’s book Something Quite Peculiar speaks bitterly of McLennan introducing him to opiates, and the journalist Clinton Walker has also written of his habit.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/australia-books-blog/2016/aug/29/grant-i-review-the-go-betweens-robert-forster-grant-mclennan-moving-definitive-portrait
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 14:10 (seven years ago) link
ha, Lindy pops up the comments there ... knew of mclennan's heroin habits, didn't know of forster's ... seems it was really a big part of the aussie music scene in the 80s.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 14:13 (seven years ago) link
Thanks for a reminder that this book is coming out.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 14:15 (seven years ago) link
That photo there sure captures a divide -- the 'regular' McLennan, Forster going for the alien sculpted beauty look.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 15:41 (seven years ago) link
love goes on anyway
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 15:42 (seven years ago) link
Lindy's comment is definitely the clearest I've seen regarding that whole legal tangle.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 15:46 (seven years ago) link
love how she wouldn't name them, just used "the songwriters"
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 15:52 (seven years ago) link
yeah it's a bummer they still haven't really buried the hatchet (though maybe there's not outright animosity). though it was obviously mclennan/forster focused, it is impossible to imagine the bulk of the GB's best stuff w/o morrison.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 15:57 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, harsh, but she says no ill will.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 15:57 (seven years ago) link
still think "twin layers of lightning" (which i think is about forster/morrison's relationship) is one of the best/weirdest love songs.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 15:59 (seven years ago) link
On how many GBs tracks was Lindy replaced by a drum machine? "Bachelor Kisses"?
― Edd Hurt, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:09 (seven years ago) link
That early?
― BIG RICH aka the steampunk: End of the Century POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:11 (seven years ago) link
And what other pop star has written as well as Forster? Caetano Veloso? Scott Miller?
― Edd Hurt, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:12 (seven years ago) link
Johnny Mercer
― Planking Full Stop (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 20:56 (seven years ago) link
xpost Do you mean prose?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 21:02 (seven years ago) link
In that case, Chico Buarque.
― Planking Full Stop (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 21:06 (seven years ago) link
And what's-his-name, our own Chachi Loves Aerosmith, apparently, although I personally have not read yet
― Planking Full Stop (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 21:08 (seven years ago) link
Prose, yeah. I haven't read Buarque...
― Edd Hurt, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 21:10 (seven years ago) link
Chuck BerryDean Wareham
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 21:10 (seven years ago) link
Keen to get the book, curious if the second and third box sets are still happening/progressing.
― michaellambert, Tuesday, 30 August 2016 21:17 (seven years ago) link
anyone seen the film?
https://vimeo.com/243460646
― piscesx, Wednesday, 10 January 2018 22:22 (six years ago) link
I liked it a lot.A genuinely odd cast of characters they were. Not odd like Klaus Nomi or GG Allin, but subtly off. That def comes across.Lots of genuine warmth (particularly in the direction of GM from RF) and a real awareness of what they actually were.
I found it kinda beautiful.
― mr.raffles, Wednesday, 10 January 2018 22:53 (six years ago) link
i wish it was twice as long.
― nerve_pylon, Thursday, 11 January 2018 00:40 (six years ago) link
the Forster book is among the best rock memoirs I've read.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 January 2018 00:42 (six years ago) link
Been reading some of Robert's stuff in The 10 Rules of Rock and Roll and finding it pretty well written so based on that and positive reviews by the likes of Alfie and a writer in the Grauniad I think I am going to have to buy it.
― Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 11 January 2018 00:57 (six years ago) link
Second “it” meaning the memoir
― Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 11 January 2018 01:01 (six years ago) link
Don't call me Alfie, please.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 January 2018 01:03 (six years ago) link
So sorry. I thought I saw someone else do it, but perhaps they were referring to another poster who actually went by that name.
― Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 11 January 2018 01:09 (six years ago) link
Might also have been subconscious effect of watching Jeopardy! with the Redd family and seeing a question about Maurice Micklewhite.
― Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 11 January 2018 01:19 (six years ago) link
it's all good!
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 January 2018 01:20 (six years ago) link
Was wondering if albums had even been polled and found that this was the relevant thread Best Go-Betweens Album, which contains as a bonus a link to your piece about Spring Hill Fair
― Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 11 January 2018 01:30 (six years ago) link
Thanks! And here's yet another good Go-Bets thread. For instance, you might (and well you might) scroll down to May 2015, where the links that I posted back then and just now checked still work, though haven't yet tried 'em all; quite a few are on that doomandgloomfromthetomb page I started with (thanks for those, tyler):The Go-Betweens - POX or CDR
― dow, Thursday, 11 January 2018 02:51 (six years ago) link
Thanks. Been randomly listening to the catalog today, both group and solo. Right now totally digging The Evangelist.
― Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 11 January 2018 03:29 (six years ago) link
What is weird electro-noise which arrives with first chorus of Part Company that sounds like a cross between a theremin and a hissing radiator?
― Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 January 2018 03:43 (six years ago) link
That's the instrumental element which most haunted me; it sounded like a tea kettle.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 January 2018 03:45 (six years ago) link
And RF doesn’t give the secret away in Grant & I?
― Before Hollywood Swing (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 12 January 2018 03:48 (six years ago) link
He gives away too many secrets about McLennan.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 January 2018 03:51 (six years ago) link
I think that's Jacques Loussier on a Prophet 5.
― Whiney Houston (Tom D.), Friday, 12 January 2018 11:55 (six years ago) link
Has anyone heard anything as to whether the second box set is still happening?
― michaellambert, Friday, 12 January 2018 14:14 (six years ago) link
the door is open wide!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBDe9BGNBnM
― scott seward, Friday, 12 January 2018 15:15 (six years ago) link
Best use of oboe in pop music?
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Friday, 12 January 2018 19:07 (six years ago) link
Yep! I've said so.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 January 2018 19:10 (six years ago) link
only Roxy comes close ("Out of the Blue," "Nightingale").
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 January 2018 19:11 (six years ago) link
but what about "Crazy For You"!??? (just kidding, "bye bye pride" is the best use of oboe in pop music)
― tylerw, Friday, 12 January 2018 19:17 (six years ago) link