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

This was great fun. Thanks so much Nag Nag Nag

xp

Buffalo Springfield

... three songwriters.

I guess Enochroot and I were the two Spring Rain #1ers. It was the first GB song I ever heard (on MTV), and it's always been my favorite. I didn't expect it to outpoll Cattle and Cain, but I'm glad it beat out the McLennan love ditties, which I like but didn't vote for.

Now I'm eager to see if my dark horse #16, Don't Call Me Gone, had any other support.

Not many bands had an intentional, perfect 50/50 split on almost every album, right?

Too Low: The song I was surprised missed the ballot was 'Karen' - it borrows a few elements from Patti Smith's 'Dancing Barefoot', but it's some of Forster's most iconic lyrics - Helps me find Chandler Helps me find James Joyce She always makes the right choice."

Too high: 'Right Here' has some of my favourite McLennan lines - "You say that you're undone by his kiss", the bit about 33 but looking 45 - and I love the violin, but the rhythm feels stilted and awkward. Not surprised to read it was from the same session as 'Cut It Out'. I had it on my ballot, but #10 seems awfully high. I was surprised 'Finding You' was so high too - it's pretty, but feels a little bit like a hit written to order or something. Not as much personality as most of their best stuff.

Great poll, thanks for running it!

The only reason I left Karen off was having so many other early tracks on my ballot: Hammer, People Say, Your Turn, Lee Remick. Kind of a dumb criterion. I love how the song expresses, with wry self-deprecating humor, the way a young man over-romanticizes rather ordinary situations, but takes the intense passion quite seriously.

Def think ‘Spring Rain’ way too high; pleasant and catchy enough but would pick a million Forster tunes from the period over it (it’s not even the best Forster single off LB. imo). Something oddly perfunctory about it, like McLennan was asked to write a single to order by the record company or something.

Every vote recorded

GO-BETWEENS TRACKS
                                                                Pts  Votes    #1s 
 1  Cattle and Cane                   Before Holl (1983)        816     28      7
 2  Spring Rain	                      Liberty Belle (1986)      610     26      2
 3  Bachelor Kisses                   Spring Hill Fair (1984)   577     24      2
 4  Bye Bye Pride                     Tallulah (1987)           571     23      3
 5  Streets of Your Town              16 Lovers Lane (1988)     526     26      0
 6  Part Company                      Spring Hill Fair (1984)   461     20      3
 7  Head Full of Steam                Liberty Belle (1986)      458     22      1
 8  Love Goes On                      16 Lovers Lane (1988)     450     21      2
 9  Right Here                        Tallulah (1987)           382     18      0
10  Twin Layers of Lightning          Liberty Belle (1986)      336     17      2
11  Draining the Pool for You         Spring Hill Fair (1984)   332     18      0
12  Dive for Your Memory              16 Lovers Lane (1988)     332     18      1
13  That Way                          Before Holl (1983)        284     19      0
14  Finding You                       Oceans Apart (2005)       276     16      1
15  Quiet Heart                       16 Lovers Lane (1988)     275     16      0
16  The Wrong Road                    Liberty Belle (1986)      268     14      0
17  The House That Jack Kerouac Built Tallulah (1987)           255     13      0
18  Man O'Sand to Girl O'Sea          Spring Hill Fair (1984)   247     15      0
19  I Just Get Caught Out             Tallulah (1987)           239     15      0
20  You Tell Me                       Tallulah (1987)           231     14      0
21  People Say                        People Say (1979)         228     12      0
22  Clouds                            16 Lovers Lane (1988)     226     11      0
23  The Clock                         Friends of R (2000)       214     12      0
24  Love Is a Sign                    16 Lovers Lane (1988)     211     14      0
25  Dusty in Here                     Before Holl (1983)        211     11      0
26  Darlinghurst Nights               Oceans Apart (2005)       209     13      0
27  To Reach Me                       Liberty Belle (1986)      206     11      0 
28  Apology Accepted                  Liberty Belle (1986)      205     11      2
29  Rock and Roll Friend              Was There... (1988)       203     13      0
30  The Clarke Sisters                Tallulah (1987)           198     13      0
31  I'm All Right                     16 Lovers Lane (1988)     191     10      0
32  As Long As That                   Before Holl (1983)        185     11      0
33  Unkind and Unwise                 Sprill Hill Fair (1984)   179      9      0
34  Was There Anything I Could Do?    16 Lovers Lane (1988)     170     10      1
35  Lee Remick                        Lee Remick (1978)         168     11      0
36  He Lives My Life                  Friends of R (2000)       155      9      0
37  You Can't Say No Forever          16 Lovers Lane (1988)     152     10      0
38  Going Blind	                      Friends of R (2000)       149      8      0
39  Two Steps Step Out                Before Holl (1983)        148     10      0 
40  Surfing Magazines                 Friends of R (2000)       148      9      0
41  A Bad Debt Follows You            Before Holl (1983)        140      9      0
42  Here Comes a City                 Oceans Apart (2005)       139     10      0
43  Caroline and I                    Bright Yellow, (2003)     134      7      0
44  Boundary Rider                    Oceans Apart (2005)       133      9      0
45  The Ghost and the Black Hat	      Liberty Belle (1986)      130      8      0
46  Five Words                        Spring Hill Fair (1984)   123      9      0
47  Bow Down                          Liberty Belle (1986)      123      8      0
48  Born to a Family                  Oceans Apart (2005)       122      9      0 
49  Hammer the Hammer                 Hammer the H (1982)       121      8      0
50  On My Block                       Before Holl (1983)        109      7      0 
51  Too Much of One Thing             Bright Yellow, (2003)     104      6      0
52  Before Hollywood                  Before Holl (1983)        103      9      0
53  Spirit of a Vampyre               Tallulah (1987)           101      5      0
54  Magic in Here                     Friends of R (2000)       100      8      0
55= This Girl, Black Girl             Man O Sand... (1983)       96	 7      0
55= You've Never Lived                Spring Hill Fair (1984)    96	 7      0
57  In the Core of the Flame          Liberty Belle (1986)       96	 6      0
58  By Chance                         Before Holl (1983)         92	 5      0
59  The Sound of Rain	              Archival - 1978->          86	 5      0
60  The Statue                        Oceans Apart (2005)        83      5      0
61  Spirit                            Friends of R (2000)        80      6      0
62  You Won't Find It Again           Archival - D - 1986->      72      4      0
63  Don't Let Him Come Back           People Say (1979)          69      5      0
64  Palm Sunday (On Board...)         Liberty Belle (1986)       69      4      0
65  Hope Then Strife                  Tallulah (1987)            65      5      0
66  Secondhand Furniture              Peel Session (1984)        60      5      0 
67  Karen                             Lee Remick (1978)          58      5      0
68= When People Are Dead              Right Here (1987)          56      4      0
69= Casanova's Last Words             Streets... (1988)          56      4      0
70  Make Her Day                      Bright Yellow, (2003)      52      3      0
71  Emperor's Courtesan               Archival - C - 1982->      52      2      0
72  German Farmhouse                  Friends of R (2000)        51      5      0
73  Old Mexico                        Bright Yellow, (2003)      49      4      0
74  Ask	                              Before Holl (1983)         47      3      0
75  Slow Slow Music                   Sprill Hill Fair (1984)    42      5      0
76  Your Turn, My Turn                Send Me A Lu (1982)        41      3      0
77  I Need Two Heads                  I Need Two (1980)          40      4      0
78  Someone Else's Wife               Tallulah (1987)            38      3      0
79  Newton Told Me                    Part Company (1984)        37      3      0
80  The Locust Girls                  Going Blind (2000)         31      3      0
81  The City of Lights                Finding You (2005)         30      1      0
82  The Mountains Near Dellray        Oceans Apart (2005)        29      2      0
84  Mrs Morgan                        Bright Yellow, (2003)      28      3      0
83  Eight Pictures                    Send Me A Lu (1982)        28      2      0
85  Lavender                          Oceans Apart (2005)        27      3      0
86  No Reason to Cry                  Oceans Apart (2005)        27      2      0
87  The Devil's Eye                   !6 Lovers Lane (1988)      26      2      0
88  Crystal Shacks                    Finding You (2005)         26      1      0
89  River of Money                    Sprill Hill Fair (1984)    23      2      0
90  Heart and Home                    Friends of R (2000)        23      1      0
91= It Could Be Anyone                Send Me A Lu (1982)        20      2      0
92= This Night's for You              Oceans Apart (2005)        20      2      0
93  One Thing Can Hold Us             Send Me A Lu (1982)        18      2      0
94  Poison in the Walls               Bright Yellow, (2003)      17      2      0
95  Don't Call Me Gone                Right Here (1987)          16      1      0
96  Something for Myself              Bright Yellow, (2003)      15      1      0
97  Just a King in Mirrors            Part Company (1984)        10      1      0
98  The Old Way Out                   Sprill Hill Fair (1984)     9      2      0
99  Careless                          Send Me A Lu (1982)         9      1      0
00  Woman Across the Way              Going Blind (2000)          8      1      0
01  Orpheus Beach                     Friends of R (2000)         6      1      0
02  Rare Breed                        Bachelor K (1984)           5      1      0
03  In Her Diary                      Bright Yellow, (2003)       4      1      0
04= Hold Your Horses                  Send Me A Lu (1982)         3      1      0
05= Mexican Postcard                  Was There... (1988)         3      1      0
06  Summer's Melting My Mind          Archival - A - 1978->       2      1      0

Leaving these [non-outtakes] receiving no votes:

Stop Before You Say It
World Weary
People Know
The Girls Have Moved
Midnight to Neon
All About Strength
Ride
Arrow in a Bow
Heaven Says
The Power That I Now Have
The Life at Hand
Little Joe
Cut It Out
A Little Romance
Time in the Desert
Doo Wop in 'A'
Wait Until June
When She Sang About Angels
Haven't I Been a Fool (Live)
Crooked Lines
Unfinished Business
Instant Replay
Taxi Taxee
Girl Lying on a Beach
Erotic Sunshine
Stone
Sleeping Giant

Doo-wop in "A" (Bam Boom) was robbed.

plan to spend part of this evening going through the last part of the countdown.

thank you for doing this Nag! Nag! Nag!

So 'Karen' was just one place outside my arbitrary dividing line and only a handful of us acknowledged the existence of SMAL, tracks-wise.

Spotify list (in first post) now complete. The 66 Go-Betweens tracks are overwhelmingly available, happily. Solo tracks somewhat less so.

that is a hell of a points jump for C&C but in the end… yes, that is right, it goes out on its own and for all we chatter and back & forth and rank things, it just sits there and is magnetic and mysterious and perfect to me.

Alone, but so at home.

This has been a lot of fun. I've never participated in or even much followed any of this type of poll before. Going in, I thought of myself as a somewhat knowledgeable devotee, however with my first stabs at filling out a ballot, I realized that I didn't know shit. I've been playing their music occasionally but often not listening very closely, and barely paying attention to the song titles. That's not the case anymore. Reading all the great insights posted here has made me want to keep playing this music over and over. It has really enriched my appreciation.

So thanks, Nag and everyone who took part.

Now, I feel like going out in the street and buttonholing random strangers to proselytize for this 13-year defunct Australian band that I feel everyone should know about.

polls like this always give me a greater appreciation of the music.

Yes - thank you Nag, it's been such a pleasure. I think my love for them has been patchy and isolated and gappy - like I've never been in conversations about them, never really known what other people make of them. I mean I came to them 25 years ago expecting/wanting soaring melodies and bittersweet pop, but… I got addicted to some spiky Forster flavour, the funny-sharp writerly songs that catch you in some way that nothing else does. Their best sides. So it's been a joy wandering through the records with ilx.

Fantastic poll. Many thanks to Mr. Nag for running it. I can say with certainty it will live forever in the Orpheus Beach of my heart.

Thanks so much Nag for running this. This has been such a joy to follow and I enjoyed listening through their music in preparation to vote. One of my favourite polls on here.

Incidentally were there any other voters in East Asian/Pacific timezones? Apologies if you too lost sleep while I attempted to post results a bit closer to ILX peak times. :)

love

Incidentally were there any other voters in East Asian/Pacific timezones? Apologies if you too lost sleep while I attempted to post results a bit closer to ILX peak times. :)

New Zealand

Top 20 is exactly half Grant and half Robert.

Though if you treat Finding You as a joint song then Robert has the edge but … Grant has the #1 and more of the top 10.

This is amusing. I've done the collation for two artist polls here now. This video features both on the same stage. And then they go and perform a rendition of a song by a further Best Band Ever.

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

XP: NZ! High five!`

My God, somebody slap that cunt, Murdoch.

LOL. You've not grown fonder of B&S in the past six months then!

:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=7dEgNfpKwi8

While we're on the subject (sorry Tom), there's a line in their song about the Go-Betweens, Shoot the Sexual Athlete, that says Robert "dressed like Sherlock Holmes". It's very apt but does anyone know if he ever literally did this? And, just as importantly, did Grant dress as Dr Watson?

Belated thanks to Nag! Nag! Nag! for this poll, it's been great fun. I had 'Bachelor Kisses' at #1 but I can't quibble with 'Cattle & Cane' winning, absolutely amazing song, the opening lines are some of my favourite lyrics in all music. Hadn't realised 'Bye Bye Pride' was so widely loved but on reflection it's one I really should have had on my ballot.

Nice to see Love Goes On finish so high. That should have been a single.

Also IMHO this poll had the single most obvious winner of any poll. Cattle and Cane was always going to win by a comfortable margin

here's my ballot:

Dive For Your Memory
Dusty In Here
Bye Bye Pride
As Long As That
Was There Anything I Could Do?
Draining The Pool For You
A Bad Debt Follows You
Cattle and Cane
Love Goes On!
In The Core of a Flame
Bachelor Kisses
Streets Of Your Town
You've Never Lived
Two Steps Step Out
Spring Rain
Five Words
Someone Else's Wife
Right Here
Palm Sunday (On Board With The S.S. Within)
Love Is a Sign
Head Full of Steam
Man O'Sand to Girl O'Sea
Here Comes a City
That Way
I'm Alright
Darlinghurst Nights
Clouds
The Old Way Out
Born To A Family
By Chance

Albums:
Before Hollywood
16 Lovers Lane
Spring Hill Fair
Tallullah
Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express

here comes the ballot!

I've always wondered about this, never having owned or cared for a swimming pool. Shouldn't it more accurately be Cleaning the Pool for You? I thought that draining is normally done only once or twice a year. It's the drudge work of cleaning a pool at least weekly that a pool boy would get hired for then tired of. Or is it a case where the owner repeatedly needs to have the sucker drained because their debauched pool parties involve broken champagne glasses tossed in? Maybe that's the whole point, and I'm the last to get it?

Not that this has ever bothered my enjoying and loving the song. Draining is certainly more suggestive than prosaic cleaning, and has the added songwriterly benefit of revealing cracks.

Robert Forster is just a wastrel who thinks two days of work a year is tiring.

I'd imagine in NZ you wouldn't have to drain it at all? ppl do you up here because obv water would freeze

can't speak to the colder island climes of NZ, but in Australia ppl will go years without draining a chlorinated and regularly-maintained pool

thanks and huzzahs to N!N!N! for the poll! as a casual G-Bs enjoyer it's been a great time following along, and I especially appreciate the decision to do a thorough separate solo poll.


(something that occurred to me for the first time when I noticed that no Far Out Corporation placed -- is that band the reason that Steve Kilbey cold-called Haug to join The Church sans audition? having long held that P0wderfing3r are the third-worst band in Australia, that was bemusing at the time, but it's not implausible that Kilbey impulsively phoned him on an "anyone good enough for Grant is good enough for me!" principle)

Yeah thanks for this poll, nnn. Still getting into this band myself, but 16LL and Liberty Belle are great and it seems I'm gonna wanna listen to some of the solo stuff as well

Inevitable question for sic: what are the two worst bands in Aus?

Interesting thought re Haug. I think the FOC record is also the first time either Forster or McLennan worked with Pickvance too. I have no affection whatsoever for that record but am suddenly enjoying the idea that it, of all things, is secretly central to an entire nation's pop music industry. :)

silverchair and Something For Kate

I have no affection whatsoever for that record

as far as late-90s Brisbane supergroups go, it knocks The Boat Show into a cocked hat. and having just watched the two videos for the first time, the CGI in If You Want Release >>>> CGI in the Wu-Tang's Triumph video

While most of the Far Out Corporation album is unmemorable, I put this track pretty high on my solo / side projects ballot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04NHQhUsJEA

Another FOC song, 'Suicide at Home', is also good.

My ballot:

Cattle and Cane
That Way
Bachelor Kisses
Part Company
Bye Bye Pride
Man O'Sand to Girl O'Sea (single)
Draining the Pool for You
Right Here
Spring Rain
Clouds

Streets of Your Town
Rock and Roll Friend
Dusty in Here
On My Block
A Bad Debt Follows You
Two Steps Step Out
Head Full of Steam
I'm All Right
Apology Accepted
As Long As That

Twin Layers of Lightning
Just a King in Mirrors
Love Goes On
Love Is a Sign
The Wrong Road
The Clarke Sisters
Rare Breed
The Ghost and the Black Hat
Dive for Your Memory
Before Hollywood

Albums:
Before Hollywood
Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express
Spring Hill Fair
Tallulah
16 Lovers Lane
Send Me a Lullaby

My list:

1. Bye Bye Pride
2. Bachelor Kisses
3. Right Here
4. Cattle and Cane
5. Part Company
6. Lee Remick
7. I'm Allright
8. People Say
9. Going Blind
10. The Statue
11. Spirit
12. Streets of Your Town
13. Before Hollywood
14. Clouds
15. As Long As That
16. When People Are Dead
17. Spring Ran
18. Casanova's Last Words
19. Finding You
20. German Farmhouse
21. Dive For Your Memory
22. Slow Slow Music
23. Newton Told Me
24. The Clock
25. Darlinghurst Nights
26. Love is a Sign
27. You Tell Me
28. Two Steps Step Out
29. You've Never Lived
30. That Way

One thing I've noticed over the years is something of a change of loyalties - It was Grant's songs that initially hooked me into the Go-Betweens and were very much my favourites... but as the years have gone by Robert's capture me much more. I'm listening to Before Hollywood for the first time in years, possibly decades, and this really strikes me. I think it's that Grant's heart-on-his-sleeve style affects me less now I'm older and is more likely to come across as sentimental. Whereas Robert comes at things at more of an angle, he remains a bit more oblique...

Same for me.

My God though, Before Hollywood is so good! Much better than 16LL, good as that is...

Oh yeah, we haven't had all that much posting of ballots, etc...

Pretty sure these are my track selections wot didn't make the cut. Proud member of Team Send Me A Lullaby Is Not Worthless, clearly.

69 Casanova's Last Words
71 Emperor's Courtesan
74 Ask
79 Newton Told Me
82 The Mountains Near Dellray
83 Eight Pictures
91 It Could Be Anyone

thanks for running the poll!

my ballot, which really should've had to reach me on it:

Finding you
Going blind
The Statue
Spirit of a vampyre
Bye bye pride
Hope then strife
The wrong road
The Clarke sisters
Boundary rider
You can’t say no forever
Someone else’s wife
Streets of your town
As long as that
Darlinghurst nights
Spring rain
Born to a family
That way
Was there anything I could do
Love goes on!
I just get caught out
The House jack Kerouac brought
You tell me
German farmhouse
Twin layers of lightning
This Night’s for you
Cattle and cane

Oceans apart
tallullah
16 lovers lane
Danger in the past
Liberty belle and the black diamond express