Draining the POLL for you - ILM artist poll #98 - The Go-Betweens

http://i68.tinypic.com/2e65x12.jpg

#14
THE GO-BETWEENS - BRIGHT YELLOW BRIGHT ORANGE
February 2003

Points: 7
Votes: 3
First-place votes: 0

Caroline and I / Poison in the Walls / Mrs Morgan / In Her Diary / Too Much of One Thing // Crooked Lines / Old Mexico / Make Her Day / Something for Myself / Unfinished Business

"We had a PA and monitors in the studio, which they had hardly ever seen, and we basically played a lot of it very, very live. There's overdubs, of course, but it's mainly bass, drums, guitars, vocals. Just people strumming in a room. It's very much the way people recorded from the late '60s to the mid-'70s, the way we've done this album. And very counter to the way we recorded in the '80s." - RF

Youtube audio track: Old Mexico

Firmly the weakest of the three reunion albums, despite a couple of classic Robert tracks. I'm up for a top 40 solo btw.

I frequently like the sound of it when it's playing but, even after this period of immersion, I can't bring to mind several of those tracks from their titles.

This is an interesting one. Not so much a 'best-of' as Xgau suggests, more a condensate of BH + SHF for the USA. I see no reason to exclude it and can easily imagine giving it a first-place vote myself if I'd grown up with it. :) It seems the cassette had additional tracks -- denoted by *.

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#13
THE GO-BETWEENS - METAL AND SHELLS
1985 (compilation)

Points: 10
Votes: 1
First-place votes: 1

Part Company / Bachelor Kisses / By Chance / That Way / Draining The Pool For You / Man O'Sand To Girl O'Sea / Ask* // Cattle And Cane / Unkind & Unwise / As Long As That / A Bad Debt Follows You / You've Never Lived / Slow Slow Music / This Girl, Black Girl*

"When what the Brits call pop isn't popular, it's usually rock and roll chamber music if it's any good at all. This U.S. debut, a best-of that highlights the soulful ache in the vocals and the quirky opacities in the lyrics and does what it can for a modest tune sense, honors that suspect notion. It's not stylized, and not static either, but it's pretty subtle, and its half-finished edges and kinetic lyricism are best appreciated in tranquility if not repose. Where it can be expected to unfold for quite a while. A-" - Robert Christgau

Youtube audio track: Ask

(Pssst! It's possible I posted 'Ask' there because I voted for it and am sad that it's unlikely to appear later. But that's a minor spoiler, so don't tell anyone.)

The title of that, Metal & Shells, is from the lyrics - and title too, I think- of an early version of the song “Before Hollywood,” iirc.

"When what the Brits call pop isn't popular, it's usually rock and roll chamber music if it's any good at all. This U.S. debut, a best-of that highlights the soulful ache in the vocals and the quirky opacities in the lyrics and does what it can for a modest tune sense, honors that suspect notion. It's not stylized, and not static either, but it's pretty subtle, and its half-finished edges and kinetic lyricism are best appreciated in tranquility if not repose. Where it can be expected to unfold for quite a while. A-" - Robert Christgau

I don't think I'll ever understand the enduring popularity of Christgau's reviews.

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#12
THE GO-BETWEENS - 78 'TIL 79: THE LOST ALBUM
1999 (compilation)

Points: 12
Votes: 4
First-place votes: 0

Lee Remick / Karen / Help Or Something / Just Hang On / Long Lonely Day / Day For Night / Love Wasn't Made For You And Me / Summer's Melting My Mind / Obsession With You / Rare Victory / The Sound Of Rain / People Say / Don't Let Him Come Back

"The album is a composite of what we were at the time. Remember we were only at second single stage, and had existed for little over a year. But there's an album there, you can hear it. Grant and I, shortly after this period was over, believed it and still do, which is why this is coming out." - RF

Youtube audio track: Karen

For 35 years I've thought Metal and Shells was a live album, for some reason. Were they doing the double L thing deliberately by then, or was it still a coincidence?

I've never heard of Metal and Shells before, can't really argue with that tracklist!

^ I know right!

Didn't think of the double-L thing. Maybe that could explain the recycling of the title despite jettisoning "Before Hollywood"/"M&S", the song!

What proportion of ballots included compilations? I left them off mine but I guess you could make a case that the branding of 78-79 could make it an exception.

We've seen the full extent of the compilations now. So 5 selections out of about 200. I vaguely mumbled that the more conventional best-of sets were probably not a great thing to include, and I saw none of those on ballots.

It occurs to me that The Lost Album was the first GBs new release I purchased as an established enthusiast, after collecting secondhand copies of the '80s records in the '90s. I can't say I've returned to those demo tracks terribly often! It's fairly impressive really that Forster was given another opportunity to release even more of that stuff in G is for Go-Betweens.

Um, wait, when did Spring Hill Fair go missing from streaming?

i am surprised that bybo does not get more love. i think there are some of their best songs on it. "caroline & i", "mrs morgan" , "too much of one thing", "make her day" and "something for myself" are five classic gems. with my #1 vote - which unfortunately came in too late for the album poll - bybo would have probably finished in the top ten, wouldn'it?

I noticed your number #1 vote just as I was starting this thread and almost went back to redo the number-crunching I'd done the night before. Almost. :) (Rest assured that your tracks were added to the tally, as promised.)

That would have shifted BYBO up to where we are now, but no higher, IIRC. There's a bit of an uptick beyond here.

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#11
GRANT McLENNAN - HORSEBREAKER STAR
December 1994

Points: 22
Votes: 7
First-place votes: 0

Simone & Perry / Lighting Fires / Ice In Heaven / What Went Wrong / Race Day Rag / Don't You Cry For Me No More / Put You Down / Coming Up For Air / Open Invitation / Open My Eyes / From My Lips // Dropping You / Hot Water / Keep My Word / Girl In A Beret / All Her Songs / No Peace In The Palace / I'll Call You Wild / Horsebreaker Star

"One thing I actually like about Horsebreaker Star is how dense it is. I understand the one-note critique but I love that one-note enough that I love throwing it on at random places and letting the distinctions and specific tracks appear to me gradually." - Anthony Miccio

Youtube audio track: Horsebreaker Star

otm

I was looking for words from you on this one, Alfred! Because I know I've read some at various points, but my search skills apparently evaporated.

That title track sounds great at this instant.

one of the few times on the album he plays electric lead

Alfred’s been waiting to comment throughout this thread the same way Grant waited out that whole album before he busted out the lead at the end.

hi!

👋

(XP) I can see a 10-track Sire version of SHF on Spotify from here. But I was almost certainly streaming that expanded one with beloved outtakes quite recently!

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#10
THE GO-BETWEENS - SEND ME LULLABY
November 1981 / February 1982 [expanded (*) Rough Trade issue]

Points: 24
Votes: 6
First-place votes: 0

Your Turn, My Turn* / One Thing Can Hold Us / People Know / The Girls Have Moved* / Midnight to Neon / Eight Pictures* // Careless / All About Strength / Ride / Hold Your Horses / Arrow in a Bow* / It Could Be Anyone

"Send Me A Lullaby is to me an inauspicious debut. It's a record that I think if I'd heard - well, it's hard for me to say that, but if I'd heard that and I wasn't in the band, I think my comment would have been 'What the fuck is going on here.' There's great melodies but then there's changes which to this day I can't work out. There's lyrics to this day which I don't understand and when I actually summon up enough courage to get to the microphone, I sound like a choirboy with a mouthful of fruitcake." - GM

Youtube audio track: Complete SMAL tracklist

Eeek! "Send me *A* Lullaby", obviously.

SEND MORE LULLABY

again i do not understand why "send me a lullaby" is so unpopular. i do not especially like the classic period from "before hollywood" to "tallulah" but i love the quirky SMAL and the tunefulness of everything from 16LL onwards.

You don't find the so-called classic period tuneful?

not really, i find those tunes pretty hard to decipher if they are there at all. they do not grab me but i must admit i have not listened to them many, many times. in the 80s i did listen to other music, not the go-betweens.

I gave SMAL some points. I sometimes wonder how it'd be perceived if it was the only LP they managed to release. I can still imagine it having a sizeable cult following in Australia, at least. Gawky Queenslanders prone to stumbling into weird rhythms who came down and hung with the Birthday Party and left us this strangely compelling LP. Or something. (Though apparently Rough Trade only became interested in them at about this point, having deemed their first two singles 'too pop'. Maybe such a cult following would still endure further afield.)

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#9
ROBERT FORSTER - DANGER IN THE PAST
November 1990

Points: 34
Votes: 9
First-place votes: 0
Youtube audio track:

Baby Stones / The River People / Leave Here Satisfied / Heart Out To Tender / Is This What You Call Change // Dear Black Dream / Danger In The Past / I've Been Looking For Somebody / Justice

"I wanted Mick Harvey to produce my album, and we recorded it in a way that I’d wanted the Go-Betweens to record but had been, to an extent, thwarted – in a big studio, live, trusting the songs and the glorious sound. In Hansa you don’t have to double track an electric guitar, everything’s so big. It’s a sound that goes back to Buddy Holly’s records or to Highway 61 – there are no overdubs on those records. We did it in 12 days, recorded and mixed, with Hugo Race, Thomas Wydler and Mick – a very tight crew – and it was a beautiful experience." - RF

The River People

Whoops, mangled it again.

I love this record, Forster otm about its sound.

Still the highest rated solo outing on my ballot. Even after a year of remedial McLennan listening. :)

lovely 9 & 10, Danger in the Past is the only solo one I listen to much.

Also love the picture at the top of the thread. The four-piece lineup looks so timeless and great in pretty much every photo I've seen.

Oh wait, just looked at the cover of Metal & Shells, let me immediately retract that statement.

why is John Willsteed on the cover of M&S?

I believe he contributed some peroxide to the recordings

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#8
ROBERT FORSTER - THE EVANGELIST
April 2008

Points: 68
Votes: 14
First-place votes: 0

If It Rains / Demon Days / Pandanus / Did She Overtake You / The Evangelist // Let Your Light In, Babe / A Place To Hide Away / Don't Touch Anything / It Ain't Easy / From Ghost Town

"I might make an album in three or four years, or five years. There won’t be one in two years, I know that. But I’m very happy to have The Evangelist as my last album for as long as possible. People will think well of me." - RF

Youtube audio track: Don't Touch Anything

That'll have to be the last one for now. Brain is insisting on sleep. I'll return soonish for the thrilling conclusion!

Big jump in points for The Evangelist, and a great quote from Robert.

Fucking good album.

otm

Big Star’s 3rded

the album is good but the cover is awful and looks very cheap and amateurish. i love the cover of SMAL, those drawings of the band members have got something very human to it.

Send Me A Lullaby and Before Hollywood have the only good album covers.

I've never had a strong association between the first three album covers and the music, because my first exposure to many of those songs was with the 1978-1990 compilation. Then for the actual albums, the late 90s Beggars reissues with redone "consistent identity program" cover art.

I would take issue with calling the Evangelist cover any more amateurish than many of their others, except that it does look like it was selected from a menu and assembled by a bot. Select popular background pattern A and trendy typography effect B. Insert photo X. Voila!

Kind of surprising, because I think of Forster as having a more sophisticated sense for things visual.

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#7
THE GO-BETWEENS - THE FRIENDS OF RACHEL WORTH
September 2000

Points: 90
Votes: 16
First-place votes: 0

Magic in Here / Spirit / The Clock / German Farmhouse / He Lives My Life // Heart and Home / Surfing Magazines / Orpheus Beach / Going Blind / When She Sang About Angels

"Rachel felt really natural – it wasn't like Robert and I had separate managers or any of that industry bullshit. We'd always wanted to record in America, too, so that was a real dream. I think it has a really mysterious, otherworldly, "lost" feel to it." - GM

Youtube audio track:German Farmhouse

Perhaps we could have a quick round up of Go-Bs soundalikes. Someone mentioned "The Sun a Small Star" by The Servants upthread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2R-dV6uwYk

and I'm going to throw in "When Daddy Blows His Top" by Frontier Scouts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDYhjZGI7Cs

Going to have to seek more Frontier Scouts methinks!

I think I suggested in the other thread that the Servants sounded like ever earlier GBs as time went on. Didn't realise there was an official video for this excellent example. I understand one of those there people is Luke Haines!?

I know Trembling Blue Stars (the Field Mice chap) named Her Handwriting after "Part Company", though I don't recall an obvious resemblance.

there's also, uh, the goon sax

I was once told Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever sounded like the Go-Betweens but better. The first part proved sort of true, the latter not.

I don't hear many similarities myself: the rhythms, uh, roll too powerfully for a Go-Be's album, and they run out of tunes quickly.

otm re: RBCF.

Re: The Frontier Scouts: They were from Brisbane—there's a compilation. Grant and Lindy play on two tracks (it was a 7" single if I remember correctly), and Robert wrote the liner notes.

Correction—I see they formed in Sydney.

Oh yeah! I've been meaning to pay proper attention to that comp. Thanks.

Re RBCF, it's never been clear to me that they resemble the GBs much more than they resemble... I don't know... The Feelies or The Clean.

Big shout out to the other person who voted for I Had A New York Girlfriend. Forster described the collection of cover versions as "the one mistake of my recording career", but it's a great album to relax to with a glass of wine in your hand. He interprets other people's songs with the same degree of empathy with which he writes about them as a journalist, and the band (including Mick Harvey, Warren Ellis, Clare Moore, Conway Savage & 'Evil' Graham Lee) are strong too.

Here's a chunk of Dave Graney's weekly community radio show from late last month (recorded during a supporter drive) - about half an hour in, he prompts Clare Moore for amusing memories from the recording of the album.

Box set vol 2 up for pre-order - missed the first one but couldnt resist this one
https://www.dominomusic.com/releases/the-go-betweens/g-stands-for-go-betweens-the-go-betweens-anthology-volume-two/box-set

aka the tinypic thread

Ooh at the Go-betweens versions of songs that ended up on Danger In The Past.

Tinypic announced they were shutting down about the time I posted the final image. I considered requesting short term edit privileges or whatever, but I don't imagine that's actually a thing.

Kinda frustrating how they don't mention what versions of songs appear on the bonus discs, unless I'm missing it somewhere?

Also, all the Botany sessions are just Grant and Robert Acoustic aren't they?

Going to see Forster tomorrow in BK!

Fun fact: Lindy Morrison is suddenly a regular fixture in prime time TV ad breaks in Aus now. (Associated interview snippet HERE too.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68CnsqpQO38

woah

Looking forward to the day Stephen Pastel advertises Ralgex or incontinence pads on UK TV.

LOL

Truck, Train, Chiropractor

Bravo.

Imagine not just writing, but delivering lines as good as these:

In la Brisa de la Palma
A teenage Rasputin
Takes the sting from a gin

a) what even is the Brisa de la Palma? Brisbane, presumably? Not to mention squeezing 9 syllables into what are generally 5 or 6-syllable lines for the rest of the song.
b) a teenage Rasputin! Just put that in there.
c) the assonance of 'sting from a gin' and the insouciance of the delivery. One of those lines you wonder if it went through multiple iterations of 'sip from' or 'sling from' but you really hope arrived fully formed.

"When a woman learns to walk she's not dependent anymore"
A line from a letter May 24

A white moon appears
Like a hole in the sky
The mangroves go quiet

XXP: The 1978-1990 sleeve notes talk about an oppressively hot, tropical, Cairns (Qld) setting. The 'Shields St' elsewhere in the song is almost certainly the one in the middle of said town. There's an intriguing claim on ye olde GB messageboard that there was a Cairns establishment called Las Palmas or similar. Maybe he constructed 'Palm Breeze' from that starting point? (Spanish names are not exactly abundant otherwise in Aus, so maybe?!)

http://go-betweens.org.uk/chatroom/messages/6/51.html?1479982384