The Go-Betweens: Arguably Australia's greatest pop band
AMG writes:
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The Go-Betweens were perhaps the quintessential cult band of the '80s: they came from an exotic locale (Brisbane, Australia), moved to a major recording center (in their case, London) in a sustained bid to make a career out of music, released album after album of music seemingly tailor-made for the radio in spite of their having little use for contemporary Top 40 musical/lyrical formulas, and earned considerable critical praise and a small but fervent international fan base.
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I have to confess that I missed most of the Go-Betweens greatest moments in the early and mid Eighties while I was covering reggae music as a journalist and spending large amounts of time in Jamaica. Despite my focus on reggae music, I managed to purchase their masterpiece of pop classicism
16 Lovers Lane when it was released in 1988. 11 years later, I purchased their anthology
Bella Vista Terrace which was a good representative sampling of their six pre-Beggar's Banquet albums recorded between 1981 & 1988. Those six Go-Between albums are frequently out of issue in the United States.
Even with with the purchase of those two albums, I remained largely ignorant of the full scope of the Go-Between's talents. Nearly every album they recorded over their 15 year association was a jewel. They made every song on every album count and recorded very few sub-par album filler tracks.
Each Go-Betweens album was a cycle of songs threaded together by a common thematic link. We used to call them "concept albums", back in the days when the album format was elevated as a new musical art form.
Following the punk revolution of 1976, concept albums fell out of grace. A new guard of music critics belittled concept albums as pretentious artifacts from the Mesozoic Age of Rock, recorded by self indulgent arena bands. Ironically, two of the greatest albums of the punk era,
Never Mind the Bullocks: Here's the Sex Pistols &
London Calling by the Clash, were both concept albums heralding the new world order of the punk rock insurgency.
Last fall I came across a flawless set of six of those early groundbreaking Go-Between albums in the vinyl bin of a local flea market & have spent most of this winter getting acquainted with the wonders of the Go-Betweens' musical legacy. The six albums were priced at $6 apiece, but the dealer sold me the entire set of six for $25, blissfully unaware of the each one of those mint condition Go-Betweens albums had a value of $25 apiece in the vinyl music collecting marketplace. Forgive me for boasting about the musical treasures I've found hidden in plain sight at flea markets.
As a point of reference, the Go-Betweens' primary songwriters Robert Forster & Grant McLennon were influenced by the sparse minimalist pop music of the Velvet Underground, the lyrical and enigmatic love songs of Leonard Cohen, as well the music of some of their contemporary music peers in the UK post punk scene of the early Eighties like the Cure, the Smiths, & Echo & the Bunnymen.
The Go-Betweens officially disbanded in 1989, but reunited in the post-millennium decade to record three additional well received albums. Here is the discography of the Go-Betweens' nine studio albums from 1981 until 2005. I've also added the AMG's rating of each album based on their 5 star ranking system. Additionally I've added my own favorite recommended songs from each of the eight Go-Between albums I've purchased and listened to over the winter.
1981- Send Me a Lullybye (rated 2.5 stars out of 5 stars)
Recommended Songs: None, I've been unable to find a copy of this album.
1983- Before Hollywood (rated 4.5 stars out of 5)
Recommended Songs: Dusty in Here; Cattle and Cane; That Way.
1984- Spring Hill Fair (rated 4 stars out 5)
Recommended Songs: Bachelor Kisses; Part Company; Draining the Pool for You.
1986- Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express (rated 4.5 stars out of 5)
Recommended Songs: Spring Rain; Head Full of Steam, Apology Accepted.
1987- Tallulah (rated 3.5 stars out of 5)
Recommended Songs: Right Here; The House that Jack Kerouac Built; Bye Bye Pride.
1988- 16 Lover's Lane (rated 5 stars out 5)
Recommended Songs: Love Goes On!; Quiet Heart; Streets of Your Town.
2000- The Friends of Rachel Worth (rated 3.5 stars out of 5)
Recommended Songs: Spirit ; Going Blind; He Lives My Life.
2003- Bright Yellow Bright Orange (rated 4 stars out of 5)
Recommended Songs: Caroline and I; Crooked Lines; Old Mexico.
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2005- Oceans Apart (rated 4 stars out of 5)
Recommended Songs:
Here Comes a City;
The Statue;
Lavender;
No Reason to Cry.