The Go-Betweens - POX or CDR

You Tell Me
Bow Down
I'm Allright
As Long As That
Someone Else's Wife
The Statue
Unkind & Unwise
He Lives My Life
Right Here
Part Company

'He Lives My Life' is my favourite from the post-reunion albums, but I find it hard to judge them alongside the old stuff.

x-post

Darlinghurst Nights is absolutely great, innit? I mean, awesomely, put-on-repeat-a-few-times great.

Magic In Here
Caroline & I
The Clock
Finding You
Here Comes A City
Going Blind
Unfinished Business
He Lives My Life
Boundary Rider
Surfing Magazines
The Statue
Too Much Of One Thing

am i crazy or is this one of the best go betweens songs i've ever heard. definitely one of the greatest lloyd cole songs i've ever heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfTrxHzJEQ0

it's more like a grant solo track, there's no forster tension there. not bad tho

Yeah, "Lori" is more like a cover of an Al Stewart song Grant left off of Watershed or In Your Bright Ray. The implied backdrop of events the Go-Betweens were known for is lacking here. But a good song.

POX is kind of impossible with the Go-Betweens. I've come to appreciate Liberty Belle the most out of their pre-comback material, and I also like their first record a lot. "Karen" I like less than I like "Lee Remick" or for that matter "The Sound of Rain" off of '78 'til '79; the recording is shitty and Grant knows that one bass lick, but it's great nonetheless. I've also come to think I like Forster a bit more. His first 2 solo records are pretty great; I think Grant was a bit more hit-and-miss and the voice is just too weak to carry some things, and I also think Grant never quite got the super-pop he obviously loved so much. Maybe a few things here and there. Which isn't to say I don't love him. The singles they did after their comeback are cool and I've been listening to them, and Forster's "Erotic Sunshine" is just so fantastic. My theory is that heroin or whatever Grant was into sort of diminished him to the point that he just wasn't as strong as he should've been--you can see it in the video stuff. Sad.

Here's a CD, but god, I'm still leaving out plenty of stuff I love.

Lee Remick
Careless
Two Steps, Step Out
Cattle and Cane
Dusty in Here
Hammer the Hammer
Bachelor Kisses
Slow Slow Music
Draining the Pool for You
Newton Told Me
Sweet Tasting Hours
Spring Rain
Head Full of Steam
You Tell Me
I Just Get Caught Out
Spirit of a Vampyre
The Clarke Sisters
Love Is a Sign
Streets of Your Town
Thd Devil's Eye
Rock and Roll Friend
The Clock
Surfing Magazines
Erotic Sunshine
Born to a Family
No Reason to Cry
Darlinghurst Nights
This Night's for You

The 16 Lovers Lane demos are pretty great too.

I mean, that's a long CD, looking at it. I could live without "Rock and Roll Friend" or even "This Night's for You" and "Slow Slow Music."

glad you included "You Tell Me."

I said this in another thread, but McLennan got complacent. Forster never stopped stretching.

the older i get the better their stuff sounds to me. i mean, i always liked them, but now i play a go betweens record and i hear all kinds of things that i never heard before. and it all sounds deeper to me too. more soulful than i remember.

In that big orange SPIN book Eric Weisbard remarked that the Go-Bes are a band you grow old with. Man, that makes more and more sense.

heroin or whatever Grant was into
didn't know this -- he was into heroin? drugs?

They've been circumspect about it. I don't see evidence from '84 onwards of heroin use.

was playing bright yello the other day and that one really grew on me. i think i pretty much like the whole thing now. when it was released it came w/a limited bonus disc; and "the locust girls" on that is *stunning*

That one had good songs but it's my least favorite of the comeback trilogy -- the production is colorless.

^ yes. 2 things:

was just looking at these on ebay; oddly tempting: http://cgi.ebay.com/GO-BETWEENS-Badges-x20-16-Lovers-Lane-Tallulah-Set-/290454225024?cmd=ViewItem&pt=AU_MusicMemorabilia&hash=item43a06bc080#ht_902wt_982

and has anyone seen / read Robert's book? http://www.amazon.com/10-Rules-Rock-Roll/dp/1863954503/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279142698&sr=8-3

Christgau had some complimentary things to say.

Wince wince--why's he getting to publish a collection of critical essays? No doubt being "famous" helps, though I suspect being famous in Australia helps a lot more--embattled colonial cultures go out of their way to support their own. Anyway, as a connoisseur of the form I'm here to tell you that this is a damn good collection of critical essays. I agree with Forster's judgments no more than half the time and probably less--he's fonder than I would have thought of various folkies, and, in a contrarian/revisionist trend I have no use for, champions such ignored or half-forgotten MOR heroes as Glen Campbell, Neil Diamond, and Nana Mouskouri. Only he's never in the least contrarian about it, because his method is always to appreciatively describe the work at hand. The voice is knowledgeable without being even a little full of itself, and radiates a musician's kindness to other musicians without letting failed efforts off the hook. The insights into the recording process are sharp without being inside, and the Australia-specific stuff, usually about artists I've barely heard or never heard of, is consistently fascinating. His criticism is kind of like his music. He's no hotshot--modest confidence is his m.o.

Oh -- Xgau's long interview with Forster is in this month's Believer. Good stuff.

No love for "I Need Two Heads", their Postcard single?

Also "Spring Hill Fair" seems rather underrepresented here. Every track is pretty much indispensible.

Not every track, but it is their most underrated of the original albums imho.

agreed

also the 2cd reissue of it has my fave bonus tracks

SHF is the first one I bought, so I've considerable affection for it: love the "produced" post-Talking Heads sound on "You've Never Lived" and "Slow Slow Music."

Yeah, I think SHF is amazing, and the bonus tracks from that era are probably my favorite bonus tracks. But these days I prefer Liberty Belle and Tallulah; I have no problem saying the latter is their most concentrated music and that "Clarke Sisters" is likely their greatest track ever.

They were definitely a critics' band in the sense that they were so self-editing and so careful about their effects, but they were also very warm-hearted and open to stuff...like Glen Campbell or whoever Christgau has no use for. I enjoy Gordon Lightfoot and Tom Rush, and all those folkies. But if Christgau wants to worry about it, have at it. Those Forster solo records I enjoy so much are all about folkiedom and singer-songwriters and of course, Forster's version of America--the wide open spaces and strums of canyon-sized importance.

The Evangelist really is a marvelous album: definitely an album to savor as one becomes old enough to understand the tug of spouses and adopted homeland, and the pain of missing dead friends one probably loved more than a spouse or adopted homeland. How amazing that he's writing songs this good.

In that Believer interview, Forster cautions Christgau and the audience not to expect another album for another few years.

Just listened to this interview with Forster in which he elucidates his ten rules of rock 'n' roll. From his book. I was actually somewhat disappointed--great bands never make solo records, great artists hide behind their managers. True enough. I did like the one about how great bands never do anything new after the first 20 minutes on stage and the one about show-offs who change guitars after every three songs: they're not really playing, they're just exhibiting their guitar collections. But in general, not as sharp as I would've expected--funny enough, I guess.

I also like Evangelist. Fine indeed. He's one droll man and just has it as a songwriter, in my book.

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

3 years pass. More like 30.

Never understood the reverence , so made another effort tonight.

I always loved 'Streets of your Town'. I realise that could be a typical pick for a GB newbie

The only other song I think is excellent is ' Love is a Sign'. Beauty.

Apologies to the diehards. I only have the 78 - 90 thing.

The only other thing I remember is 'i don't wanna be Grant McClennan' but I think that was by Buffalo Tom ; -)

Guess I don't understand lyrics - it's all just babble

For me it's the overall effect, good phrases and ones I don't always catch, caught up in the music. Re the rain at an outdoor show in Denmark, one of 'em says, "We'll try to do something about that," and they already are: sounds like the sun's keeping time as they lope through the dust and rust of Down Under distances, which keep getting "older and longer and higher," while the singers are older anyway, not pretending to be wiser, but been at it so long, can't help remembering some of how people places and things go, despite all the flights and a few fights, at least. Not that they're really tough guys: the epic finale is about bugging on a librarian who "stands behind the counter, and solves all the problems I encounter," in terms of finding books, anyway. On the road to that counter: "Visions of blue! Might be perverse but it's true," and "I don't blame her, people don't know what they want," and "Clouds lie on their backs and rain on everyone/You're always dry, gotcher own pirate sun...People say I'm mad to want you." Good set: a coople of fast-enough strummers, then the whole band. mp3s and lossless.
http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/113517138382/the-go-betweens-roskilde-festival-denmark-june Thanks again, Tyler.

Reminds me of how Janet Weiss's drumming fit right into that last Go-Betweens album (was it the last? Think so).

best song not yet mentioned on this thread: "mrs morgan"

The Evangelist really is a marvelous album

Yes. If you are not familiar with this, you should seek it out.

The only other thing I remember is 'i don't wanna be Grant McClennan' but I think that was by Buffalo Tom ; -)

dammit why can't you FP on zing

Even better sound quality on this Grant/GW McLennan collection I'm listening to: euphoric, driving full band show on the first ten tracks (with a really good singer-guitarist he addresses as Anna; Anna who, dammit?). 15 more solo acoustic, also clear and strong, so far. Beware of the stripedsunlight blog Rob mentions here as a source: good reading matter, but all the links I tried were dead or polluted. No prob with Rob's repercussion round-up though; thanks again, Rob:
http://dbs-repercussion.blogspot.com/search/label/Grant%20McLennan

Happy to oblige, dow.

Too bad about the links at stripedsunlight. He/they shared some great stuff over the years...

where should I go after Tallulah and 16 Lovers Lane? I tend to like Quiet Heart, Right Here, Streets of Your Town....or the singer that doesn't sound like Verlaine. though he's growing on me too. tia

Before Hollywood. It's harder and treble-ier.

And now for something--not completely different, but the earliest and post-punkiest Go-Betweens I've heard, as a trio, on a good live FM tape from Sydney, in 1982. Short, sometimes curt phrases, tending to staccato and oblique strokes of pen and guitar, but some supple turns of phrase come through clearly enough already, like "His inner self left him for someone else," and "I know you, you're easy to find/Come see me," and lots more in the second half, especially starting in "our big single, that put us on the road to success," which sounds like they like the early Cure: "And with all of these things that are said/Sometimes I think I need two heads" (mention of a "child detective" in here too), followed by a semi-cryptic sex song--"This is what comes of dressing up like spies"---again, getting clear enough. especially after a penultimate scramble: "I forgot my jeans/I forgot your name."
Would like to hear some of these mixed in with their later, better-known style, especially when the transition happens in songs like that last," "Near The Chimney," but much moreso in the next one, "Undo What You Did": "Now---I can't--"
("He can't") "--say what I like, in front of, in front of---undo wot you did!/Take away the times/That I/Ev-en said...(guitar comes in to save him).
They also sound like they like Joy D. and early Wire (Tyler suggests The Birthday Party and The Fire Engines). But you can tell it's them, rattling along in an absurdist, earnest, worthy-apprentice way:
http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/54019602979/something-between-you-and-i-a-rare-glimpse-of

[misc xposts]

There's one school of thought that maintains the even-numbered LPs, of the original batch, are the most accomplished, so yeah Before Hollywood and also the Liberty Belle..., by that line of thinking. Aside from the first LP, both singers get equal number of tracks.

"Don't Want to be Grant McLennan" was by Smudge. ie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZYifV6mb84

Janet Weiss was on the third-from-last LP only, in 2000. Went back to a strictly 'strayan rhythm section after that IIRC.

I knew Jim Elkinton was one cool motherfucker, I didn't know just how cool, though.

Yeesh, ELKINGTON. The man's name is JAMES ELKINGTON and he is delightful.

^ Bless.

Spooky that this has been bumped today as I literally just finished watching the full length Right Here documentary after the DVD distributor offered massive discounts over Xmas. Way better--in terms of dealing with musical context and actual specific songs--than the 1 hour version that was streamlined for ABC (Aus) general audiences. Though oddly, the 45 minutes of outtakes seemed to be exactly the same.

Thanks for the tip! is it this?: https://www.amazon.com/Go-Betweens-Right-Here/dp/B07HSM23W4/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1547052532&sr=1-1&keywords=go+betweens+right+here Note reviewer warning us against the other version---"lacks 45 minutes of bonus footage"---also on Amazon and a bit more expensive.

That's a shame. I have the Umbrella one which claims to be "NTSC - All Region". The bonus stuff is no less interesting, IMHO.