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

I don't think I voted for this!

^ My spreadsheet reckons you had it in the 3rd last slot on your ballot. :)

This fell off my list very late on. Despite my issues with 16 Lovers Lane, this is a lovely way to close the album.

My number one

another song I interpret as a meditation on the Forster-McLennan friendship

^ My spreadsheet reckons you had it in the 3rd last slot on your ballot. :)

Ah, a week longer and it would probably have been unmoored and drifting.

the guitar interplay on this one...as good as the go-b's get imo.

this interview/acoustic performance sealed my love for the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU-RsLRICX4

Whoops. I got distracted by that video...!

http://i65.tinypic.com/359empw.jpg

#10
Twin Layers of Lightning
from Liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express (1986)

Points: 336
Votes: 17 (2)

Youtube audio

Ah, a classic, even though I didn't have it especially high - the out of tune piano knocked it down a few places.

don't you KNOW
I'm a STARRR

Woah I forgot this hadn't placed already, can't believe it made top 10. He's doing an incredible version of it live on this tour.

Apparently "infamy or fame" was what Lindy said she most wanted in life, aged 12. I love that anecdote, and the killer closing lines.

This is another whose popularity I seriously underestimated. I heart it. There's something terribly sordid about the whole thing. [XP: maybe that piano contributes!]

My number one and the song that made me realise how special this group are.

don't you KNOW
I'm a STARRR

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

This is one of my favourite moments in music ever.

Didn't recognize the song title, but when I clicked the link, I realized that I must've had this one on my ballot (in the top 10 even, as it turns out).
love the combination of vibraphone + languid lead guitar

This one creeps up on you, doesn't it? My number 4, but could easily have been higher. In its own way, 'She walks me home...' is another great opening line.

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

#9
Right Here
from Tallulah (1987)

Points: 382
Votes: 18 (0)

Original promo video

Forster has the audacity to complain about the production on 'Right Here'! The synth gloss on Brown's violin is exactly why I return to it

Also: the cruelty of ""I know you're thirty-two but you look fifty-five"! And he loves her anyway!

Just catching up, been busy this afternoon... 'Quiet Heart' and 'Right Here' are nice enough songs but they've never really grabbed me, the choruses in both just don't quite go the distance. Very happy to see 'The Wrong Road' may the top 20 though - features another classic McLennanism in "Handsome is good, pretty is better".

Oh ew what no

Like Amanda's strings/vocals but this is clunky stuff

this is good but too high

All down to taste, I love this while "Quiet Heart" makes me retch.

'Twin Layers of Lightning' is an absolute classic as well, the band at their most Television-esque.

their big pop moments like "quiet heart" and "right here" are easily my some of my favourites, but i've never really got them as a band so that might be why

http://i65.tinypic.com/juis5c.jpg

#8
Love Goes On
from 16 Lovers Lane (1988)

Points: 450
Votes: 21 (2)

Youtube audio

the fucking bridge on this song

http://i67.tinypic.com/1jold5.jpg

#7
Head Full of Steam
from Liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express (1986)

Points: 458
Votes: 22 (1)

Original promo video

yessssss my #3

Again prefer the single version but this is gold in any form. He's so good at romantic desperation.

steaaaammmm YEAAAAHHHHH

Love Tracey Thorn's part

Yes Tracey Thorn is great on this!

Sidebar: I read she's writing a book about her friendship with Lindy, cannot wait

Tracey sounds like Crissie Hynde on this track.

today i learned tracey thorn is on this song

Head Full Of Steam is a great song that is elevated by how awesome the video is. I could watch the bit where Robert first appears on repeat forever.

No complaints with the top 10 so far. I voted for all these wonderful songs.

Some days these are my favourite Forster lyrics.

http://i67.tinypic.com/4ljbq1.jpg

#6
Part Company
from Spring Hill Fair (1984)

Points: 461
Votes: 20 (3)

Youtube audio

Top 6 must be:

Cattle and Cane
Bachelor Kisses
Part Company
Spring Rain
Bye Bye Pride
Streets of Your Town

TOO LOW.

We haven't written enough about Robert Vickers, and I like his bass part here.

took this off my ballot because that high-pitched synth gave me a headache during a nasty hangover--in retrospect, this song deserved a vote lol

the tea kettle synth, as I call it.

I like Part Company and did have it low on my list, but I've always thought it was slightly overrated. Certainly my least favourite song in the top 10.

This is true re Robert Vickers. I also mangled the image code where I attempted to give him some time in the spotlight. Not good enough, on reflection.

Part Company is my no.1, for ever.

Didn't hear it till quite a long time after I got into the band, as Spring Hill Fair was unavailable in the UK for many years. Maybe it's so locked in my affections because it presses buttons while remaining hard to pin down.

'Part Company' was my #1 and possibly always will be. High five to the two others voting correctly.

And sonically, it's just a brilliant construction, tea kettle and all.

Yep!

The tea kettle was confounding on first listen, but is definitely essential

Part Company was my number one, too, though it was a close call between this and a few others.

For what was apparently a deliberate look at the feeling of leaving someone, rather than experience, the lyrics are too good. "What will I miss? Her cruelty, her unfaithfulness/her fun her love her kiss", "that's her handWRITing" in his most Australian of takes... I hear these in my head almost daily.

And like lots of my favourite songs, it sounds like it could circle around forever, like you've opened the door on a band practising in a room for eternity.

It's the best of the Go-Betweens in a nutshell, to me, really: weird and knotty and almost ugly at first, and then over time and many listens, you find an amazing pop song.

Also, it's rumoured that was Tracey Thorn's tea kettle