Grant McLennan - RIP

Yeah, just noticed that myself!

And man, some of the great stories there:

i first met Grant in Los Angeles on their first trip out here in 85...instantly charmed, we became fast friends, along with Robert and the rest of the group.
He told me he was dying to try REAL mexican food for the first time, so he and Lindy hopped in my car and we headed for the best i could find. of course we had to stop for beer first and although i mentioned a certain law against opening and driving, we cracked a few and headed to santa monica.
at the table, he spied some EXTEMELY HOT peppers that they set out for the daring. i warned him against eating any. he ignored my warning and bit into one whole pepper, chewed for a while, and the sweat started pouring off his face...he went RED!!...smiled, guzzled some beer and then DID IT AGAIN...3 more times!! "we dont have anything like that down in australia" he said...!

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Grant worked in my record shop in the late 1970's in Toowong, He came in late one night after closing with a flagon of wine in his hand and said to me that he and Robert were thinking of recording two songs for a single. I said "Gee, do you you think that will work?"

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I recall late one night in 1981 Grant standing at the bar of the Queensland Institute of Technology (now QUT) Campus Club, one of the many live venues in Brisbane at that very lively time. My band had just played a not very memorable gig, but Grant strained to offer a compliment "I liked that Wire song (Outdoor Miner) you played". A more recent memory is of driving down Moray Street in New Farm and seeing Grant walking along the footpath. I slowed the car and offered him a ride. Grant jumped in and before I could establish where he was going we got to talking about the Bob Dylan concert that I'd seen a few nights before down on the beach at Ballina. Grant hadn't seen the show but he wanted to know what I thought. I recall him expressing disappointment that Dylan had stopped singing or even trying to sing. I remember saying "yes, you're right, but it didn't really trouble me because he looked just so into playing with his band". Grant then said "Could you see if he was shaking his leg, that's the real indicator you know ?" Before I could answer (and indeed I had seen the famous Dylan leg-shake), Grant indicated that we had travelled as far as he was going, thanked me for the lift, and was on his way again. Bon voyage.

Appalling. Never got to see them live, but I've been pressing their records upon everyone I know for years now...

They're playing Cattle and Cane on 6Music as I write this post...

RIP

Pitchfork:

McLennan was often considered to be the more pop-oriented half of the Go-Betweens' songwriting team, but his work is also often tinged with sadness and melancholy, most notably "Cattle and Cane", a haunting rumination on aging and memory, and "Dusty in Here", written for his late father.

McLennan also excelled at marrying breezy melodies to world-weary, evocative words, crafting cerebral tracks that exuded a delicate warmth and depth of humanity rare in three-minute pop songs. The best examples of which are "Bye Bye Pride", "Bachelor Kisses", "Right Here", and "Streets of Your Town". Among other compositions for which McLennan will be most fondly remembered are the Go-Betweens' "That Way", "The Wrong Road", "Dive for Your Memory", "Love Is a Sign", and "Finding You", and solo tracks "Put You Down" and "Simone & Perry".

Those recalling the impact of D. Boon's death in relation to this one are ringing true. The big difference for me is that when D. Boon died I felt quite alone. Few of my friends cared much, so I isolated myself with stacks of vinyl. This time, thanks to ILM, the Go-Betweens' message board, the assortment of links cited above, I feel part of a community. A community that mourns and curses, and makes McLennan's passing something significant and painful and worth sharing with each other.

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.

Well said, Taylor.
To which Anthology are you referring? "1978-1990?"

Yes, the double-disk "1978-1990." Items like this make me smile:

"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.

Who is D.Boon? Presumably I ought to check out..

D. Boon was the guitarist and lead singer for the Minutemen. They were excellent.

D. Boon was such a unique talent. No one was like him, and no one ever will be like him. Grant was somehow more special, though. What he did, many people did, but few did it quite as well as he did (if that makes sense). This hits hard and hurts.

I've also always loved the liner notes to '78-'90, some of my favorite notes ever.

Hammer the Hammer
Too 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 Kisses
We 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 Road
We 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 Cane
Written 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 Here
This is a song about my father who died when I was four. -GM

Second-Hand Furniture
I 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 Gone
I'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

Really sad news. They meant a lot to me. RIP.

A collection of videos here:

http://karimamir.blogspot.com/2006/05/rip-grant-mclennan-youtube-tribute.html

Is there any info on cause of death? This is really really sad news....

Growing up in Perth in the 1980s had it's advantages.

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

A report here yielded this bit of information, which i hadn't known:

"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."

Gosh. I hope, at least, they were all able to put any longstanding stuff that had affected them on a personal level to bed at last.

a tribute from a blogger: I turn to hold you, you're gone... fingers let go, I'm gone...

xpost- yeah, my sense was that time helped. In the last couple years Lindy and Amanda (as well as Vickers) have posted to the GBs message board, which suggests some civility. I still wish they'd involved Lindy after they reformed (she was willing).

Yeah, I've read posts by Morrison, Brown, and ex-bassist Robert Vickers too. It seems like most of the acrimony was b/w McLennan and Morrison, who from the beginning developed an instant dislike, motivated (according to the David Nichols bio) by McLennan's jealousy: he resented Morrison for taking his best friend Robert away from them.

Most definitely they had a low-rent Aussie Rumours-type psychodrama goin' on.

Steve Kilbey has added a new and very moving post talking more about Grant and the first Jack Frost album. That was actually what I listened to this morning instead of anything Go-Betweens of him solo -- I think maybe the fact that it's more of a mediated effort makes it easier to listen to now, less of a sting of loss. And it is, much like Steve says, a great album -- Steve's own work, I think, constantly grows better out of his many collaborations, and I think he's right to think this one of his own best efforts based on who he was working with at the time. It's a striking and wonderful album and would be on its own without any context. But Grant had so much more, didn't he? It beggars easy description.

A strange day. I've had to concentrate on many other things, and I'm glad of that, but still...

How woudl you describe the Jack Frost album(s) in relation to the rest of Grant's work, Ned?

Needless to say, if anyone wants to YSI a copy, I'd be most grateful :)

Hmm, I'm trying to remember if I wrote the AMG reviews or not!

*checks for the first album*

Ah, there ya go. :-)

And reading through that review, I stand by every word. It's absolutely wonderful and I'm kinda pleased to realize that Kilbey feels the same way about "Providence" that I do.

Looks like I reviewed Snow Job. The AMG: allowing me to avoid repeating myself since 1998. ;-)

Fuck this is awful :( :( :(

You sold me, Ned. I just ordered a used copy of the first Jack Frost album.

I just ordered the Jack Frost album too.

The first Jack Frost is a unique record (never heard their second effort) and I envy all of you who will be istening to it for the first time.

Indeed, you'll find it very striking, surprisingly dark and powerful. Listening to it this morning, I was moved at how modern it sounded, and not simply due to subject matter (given the original Gulf War context). I think Grant was pushing himself to try and embrace a sound where Steve was trying to embrace a style, and in both cases the result was 'what if we create 'modern rock' in a way that doesn't exist yet?' It stands the test of time without consciously trying to, and that's a fine legacy to leave, one of many.

"Finding You" was the surprise summer hit in Austria last year -- went top ten.

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.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Grant and the Go-Betweens become much more popular posthumously, sort of like what happened with Nick Drake.

i really would get unreasonably miffed if cattle and cane started turning up in car ads

Yeah, don't want anyone hearing it who doesn't deserve to . . .

I'm sure you're not alone with that sentiment. I'd just love to see their music be discovered by people 10, 20 years from now. I'd be unreasonably pleased if some sensitive 16 year old was listening to Cattle and Cain in 2016.

Sad news. RIP

Just heard this news last night. Devastating. My memories of the two live shows I saw in London and Brighton are infinitely more precious now, and they were pretty precious before :(

This has totally knocked me for six. A good companion on my headphones for years. Farewell friend.

Someone texted me this news last night but I haven't been able to believe it till now. I'm stunned. Grant (and Robert) kept an awful lot of us going throughout the 80s and actually made some of us think there might be some worth in that old guitar/bass/drums shit after all. I don't know, I'm kind of speechless. Bye Bye Grant.

And I sincerely hope that a day of mourning is planned in Glasgow!

there's some very touching comments from Robert Forster in this article

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19058067-16947,00.html

Sad news. I guess this is the end of the second phase of Go-Betweens then..

geez .. that sucks. a lot.

damn.

If someone can point me to a place to post a few MP3s, I have a recording I made of the last 1/2 of the 7th House show in Pontiac (mentioned a few times on this thread) that I'll put up somewhere.

I may put a few things up on Dime this week too, if there aren't already a ton of others.

heart breaking news.

Two days later and I'm still finding it hard to believe. The odd thing is I spent much of Sat before hearing the news talking about the GBs and listening to them; I was hanging out with a friend I met a few years ago through the GBs email list. Dave, were you also at the 7th House gig?

I saw the Go-Betweens twice on what may have been their first US tour. New York City, right around New Years Eve 83/84, @ CBGB and Dunceteria, liked them enough to go back the second time and follow the rest of their career on albums that just seemed to get better and better. The one thing I really remember from those early gigs was how young and fresh-faced the bandmembers looked, esp. Robert Forster who appeared to be about 15 years old. Reading Grant McLennan's obituary 22 years later I couldn't help noticing he was two months younger than me. It's especially unsettling to lose a peer, but what a body of work he left us. Thank you and RIP.

I'd love if you posted some of that Pontiac show.... I hear that yousendit is the way to go, only change the file names to .txt to avoid the site's screening functions.

TRG - The Pontiac show was the day after the CLE show where we all met up.. I got to the 7th House late though, so I sat in the back through the show & had to drive back to Columbus afterward - so I didn't stick around.

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.