Before POLLywood - The Go-Betweens - Artist Poll #98 - VOTING THREAD

in general, i know that mclennan is a bit more theatrical, forster a bit flatter and talk-y. it usually takes me a bunch of listens to figure out who is who though.

especially since they have lots of moments where they switch roles (e.g. dive for your memory for forster, cattle and cane for mclennan)

Distinguishing the Cars singers is at least a little bit challenging, if you don't know who is doing what.

Seeing as I started paying attention when they'd fairly recently disbanded, things like "Easy Come, Easy Go" and the chorus of "Every Hour God Sends" (which seemed like actual hits if one listened to JJJ at all) served as handy reference points for McLennan-ness. Not sure I knew they even had a second singer until I realised "Spring Rain" was also by the Go-Betweens!

I used to think I Just Get Caught Out was Grant. But he is quite Grant-like on it, isn't he?

^ I can hear that!

I think I'm mainly slow to realise it's McLennan circa SMAL where one mostly expects Forster to be singing. (Even on a McLennan composition, in the case if "Your Turn, My Turn".) And on several slightly shouty early '80s outtakes with a call and response type of thing.

Had no idea Your Turn, My Turn was a Grant song with a Robert vocal! I had trouble telling them apart at the start, but it's quite clear now. Grant's melodic and warm even when he's talking, Robert is thin and desperate.

Speaking of which, I've been listening to the single version of Man O'Sand To Girl O'Sea a lot. What a performance. You can hear the sweat dripping off him.

Having only heard 16 LL and Liberty Belle, I have no clue who sings what, but I also haven't really tried to discern. "Quiet Heart" and "Streets of Your Town" are McLennan, right? Had a similar problem with the Cars for a while, but now the difference between Ocasek and Orr is clear as day

Is it a breach of etiquette to open polls to people who are not yet ILXors? I kinda feel like mentioning it on the long-standing GB forum.

i actually did do this for the Boo Radleys poll. i got one whole person from the bravecapatin board to actually submit a ballot but the thread did get some responses:

http://www.bravecaptain.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3203&sid=0b0cc72c838823bad2fcabbaf69eb7ef

*note i was actually a regular on that board so i didn't feel like i was breaking etiquette on that board when i posted the thread. i also heard Martin Carr took interest in the poll but don't know for sure...

Aaah, okay, cool.

Incidentally, I'm not going to demand strict adherence to the original end-of-the-month deadline. There are already two big poll rollouts in progress on ILX, so it seems unwise to schedule yet another until well into next week. May as well let that additional day or two be extra voting time if anyone needs it.

two? i only know of the Ambient one. i wish Toumas used the coordination thread for that poll, because only one of these should be going on at a time. maybe i'm just too old school.

There's a 2018-in-cinema one on ILE too. I'm vaguely following both, so I'm a bit distracted myself!

Wait, people have trouble telling their voices apart!??

Exactly what I thought, I don't think they sound very similar at all.

Of course, once they get into their stride, their lyrics are very different too.

This is one of the early '80s shouty tracka where I thought I remembered their voices blurring together somewhat. But I was wrong. Yelping McLennan still doesn't sound much like the Forster echoing him. :)

https://gofile.io/?c=RqRHpe

Timbres are different, though I suppose there's not much difference I terms of pitch - they could comfortably sing each other's songs.

... also phrasing and emphasis, Forster's is much more quirky and distinctive.

Their vocals are definitely a bit tricky to tell apart on the stuff that came before Before Hollywood, when they both did a similar post-punky yelp.

"Quiet Heart" and "Streets of Your Town" are McLennan, right?

Yep. Most of their best known '80s singles were McLennan, I guess. Notable exceptions being "Spring Rain", "Head Full of Steam" and "Part Company". Being a Forster person -- if I did have to choose -- I now feel the need to point out that this is not the same thing as "their best '80s songs".

Speaking of which, people have seen The Best Promo Video Ever right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HufrsUMIBA

Fun facts: 75 different tracks have received votes so far. The number voters at this stage is still pretty modest, such that three moderately weighted votes is enough to get a track into the top 30. Later voters can still make a huge difference to the outcome this time.

Yeah, i always thought that the Head Full of Steam video goes a long way towards explaining why they never broke out to a bigger audience.

Anyway, entry submitted.
Highest ranking song which I discovered because of this poll = "The Clock"

Highest ranking song which I discovered because of this poll = "The Clock"

― enochroot

The Clock is one of my favourites. One of the best choruses of all time.

gonna submit a ballot, just torturing myself with the ordering.

do you accept mixed ballots?

I suppose a mixed ballot would be okay. With the balance from 517 distributed evenly in the second section.

What's the deadline? Go-Betweens are my favorite band but I've been slammed at work and non-work. Trying to do a solo records ballot too but it's taking some time to brush up.

Any time through to the first half next week would be good. I'm happy to wait a bit if it means a bigger pool of voters.

I'm going to get mine in soon. Been listening quite a bit

Meanwhile I'll lobby for things that haven't been mentioned. :)

The aborted Beserkley single with whathisname from the Apartments adding guitar:

https://youtu.be/0NjbFFSqiV0

Okay, the ambient rollout is likely to finish on Tuesday. Not keen on a rollout here until at least Wednesday [GMT+10] in that case. Feel free to tinker with ballots until then and I'll check how people are going when I wake on Wed morning.

Really appreciate you extending the deadline. I made my 30 Go-Betweens songs into a playlist and listened to it a few times this week. I'm happy with my picks (for now). The harder part is the solo material. I prefer Robert's solo stuff on the whole, but I just played In Your Bright Ray and there were at least five songs that could make my list.

I voted for multiple Ray tracks myself, which seemed improbable a little while ago. And, without giving much away, I certainly haven't been alone.

BUMP! Final days. Everything must go, etc, etc.

Any love for this one? It eventually became a 16LL-era b-side but this 1985 BBC recording is largely responsible for its place on my ballot. McLennan is a bit shoutier here and it's more obviously Morrison playing rather than a drum machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im_rZY8jbSw

^ Janice Long session was actually recorded 9/4/86, he says, pre-empting the fact-checkers.

I would totes pay money for a proper, comprehensive, all-in-the-one-place ...at the BBC-type release. (Consider: http://go-betweens.net/gb/gbbbc.htm )

Ballot sent. Ranked but I didn't add the numbers myself as I remember Gukbe once saying it made doing the spreadsheet more fiddly.

(can send again with the 1-30 numbers if you have a different data entry technique)

No, that's fab! Cheers!

I’ll fire in a ballot too - will just do GB’s as I don’t feel I’ve listened to the solo stuff enough for a meaningful contribution.

should be able to get a ballot in by weds!

I love "Casanova's..."!

You should definitely vote then! :)

(You clearly should anyway. The solo sub-poll needs your grasp of that material, at the very least. Hehe.)

Almost made my poll, only removed relatively late on in the process.

Just re-listening to Forster's Inferno from earlier this year. I wasn't that keen on the single, but the rest of it is really lovely. I'll definitely be voting for a couple of tracks in the solo works poll.

I'll Look After You in particular is a really beautiful track.

Submitted!

will do so in an hour

Voted!

Thanks for the emails overnight [Melb time], by the way. Total number of votes is starting to look rather good now. I'll collate and acknowledge receipt in the next few hours.

Incidentally, if any emails over the last few weeks were met with an eerie silence then something may have gone wrong.

I also should reiterate that, with the ambient rollout still choogling along, there's plenty of time left if you're still deliberating.