10 Best Go-Betweens Songs

Robert Forster and Grant McLennan met at the University of Queensland. Despite McLennan’s lack of musical experience, they formed a band, combining the tunefulness of The Monkees with the edge of The Velvet Underground. Their first album was recorded as a three-piece, with drummer Lindy Morrison. After an uncertain debut, The Go-Betweens recorded a string of terrific albums in the 1980s before breaking up in 1989. Forster and McLennan reunited without the rest of the band in 2000, releasing three more albums before McLennan’s sudden passing in 2006.

Naturally, this ten-song selection is divided equally between McLennan and Forster – apart from their debut, all of The Go-Betweens’ studio albums followed this format. The pair embarked on solo careers but were never as good apart as together – McLennan’s warm romanticism complemented Forster’s angular artiness.

With only ten songs, there’s a ton of great stuff missing. Forster’s particularly unlucky, missing out on placing singles like ‘Spring Rain’ and ‘Head Full of Steam’, beloved deep cuts like ‘You Can’t Say No Forever’ and ‘To Reach Me’, and the b-sides ‘Karen’ and ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Friend’. I also couldn’t squeeze in the band’s biggest hit, McLennan’s ‘Streets of Your Town’, or the gorgeous ‘Bachelor Kisses’.

10 Best Go-Betweens Songs

#10 – The Wrong Road

from Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express, 1985

Started out Oliver, ended up Fagin

Grant McLennan

‘The Wrong Road’ is an atypical track from The Go-Betweens. McLennan’s singing in a low register in the verse, and the strings give the song a portentous feel that’s different from their usual jangle. It has some of my favourite Go-Betweens lyrics though – “With the sound of a finished kiss/Like when a lip lifts from a lip” is poetry.

#9 – I Just Get Caught Out

from Tallulah, 1987

She wiped the hair right out of my eyes.
Tempted me through with desire.
I was trying my best at this stage.
To set myself on fire.

Robert Forster

My favourite Go-Betweens lineup – Forster, McLennan, and Morrison, along with Robert Vickers and Amanda Brown – only lasted for one album. 1987’s Tallulah is inconsistent, but that’s mainly because of McLennan’s uneven contributions like ‘Cut It Out’. My favourite Forster song on Tallulah is the urgency of ‘I Just Get Caught Out’. Barely over two minutes, it rides a great bassline from Robert Vickers and veers close to power-pop. Tallulah also boasts ‘The Clarke Sisters’, Forster’s tale of three sisters who sleep in the back of a feminist bookstore.

#8 – Unkind and Unwise

from Spring Hill Fair, 1984

The salt in the wind moves over the mudflats
Sticks to your skin and rusts up the lights,
Blows through the ferns that breathe in the dark,
I try to forget but it’s so hard.

Grant McLennan

Grant McLennan wrote a trilogy of songs referencing his childhood in Northern Queensland. They’re spread over three albums and they’re all excellent – ‘Cattle and Cane’ on Before Hollywood, ‘Unkind and Unwise’, and ‘The Ghost and the Black Hat’ from Liberty Belle. The lovely pre-chorus is the key part – “I turn to hold you but you’re gone”.

#7 – That Way

from Before Hollywood, 1983

In search of a new voice
You burnt all your lyrics
And flew to a new town

Grant McLennan

‘That Way’ was written for Peter Walsh of The Apartments, leaving Brisbane for New York. Like a lot of Before Hollywood it’s raw yet tuneful. Australian keyboardist Bernie Clarke contributes the lovely organ part that makes the song a little less austere.

#6 – Twin Layers of Lightning

from Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express, 1985

Bouncers got no brains
He said both of you are barred
I had to set him straight
Listen Jack, don’t you know, I’m a star

Robert Forster

This deep cut is archetypal Forster, walking the line between sassy and awkward. There’s a lot happening in the arrangement too – there’s a muted out-of-tune piano in the background. ‘Twin Layers of Lightning’ is not unlike the post-punk of The Cure with the robust bass propelling the song underneath the haunting guitar lines.

#5 – Darlinghurst Nights

from Oceans Apart, 2005

Joe played the cello through those
Darlinghurst Nights

Robert Forster

Of The Go-Betweens’ three reunion albums in the 21st century, 2005’s Oceans Apart is easily the strongest. It’s Forster’s turn for nostalgia on ‘Darlinghurst Nights’, intoning his thoughts in a deeper, elder statesman voice. The horns are a great arrangement choice, transforming the song into a joyful celebration by its conclusion.

#4 – Dive For Your Memory

from 16 Lovers Lane, 1988

If the cliffs were any closer
If the water wasn’t so bad
I’d dive for your memory
On the rocks and the sand

Robert Forster

The final song on the final Go-Betweens album of the 1980s, ‘Dive For Your Memory’ is an elegiac end to their stellar decade. Like a lot of Forster’s songs from the era, it’s presumably about the end of Forster’s relationship with Lindy Morrison. It’s a simple arrangement, with Amanda Brown’s oboe adding colour.

#3 – Cattle and Cane

from Before Hollywood, 1983

I recall a schoolboy coming home
through fields of cane
to a house of tin and timber

Grant McLennan

After a tentative debut album, The Go-Betweens’ artistic breakthrough came with sophomore effort Before Hollywood. The best-known song is McLennan’s ‘Cattle and Cane’. Like ‘Unkind and Unwise’ it references McLennan’s childhood in rural North Queensland, written when he was homesick in London. The verses are in an unusual 11/4 time signature, and the song was written on Nick Cave’s guitar whilst Cave was comatose after injecting heroin.

#2 – Clouds

from 16 Lovers Lane, 1988

Visions of blue
I’m angry I’m wise and you.
You’re under cloudy skies.

Robert Forster

On 16 Lovers Lane, the differences between Forster’s angular songs and McLennan’s melodicism are less pronounced. The tuneful and breezy ‘Clouds’ could easily be a McLennan song, bright but tinged with a touch of melancholy. John Willsteed only lasted one album in the band, but his bass and lead guitar provide a lusher sound than the band had enjoyed previously. Produced by Mark Wallis, 16 Lovers Lane was built up around demos of Forster and McLennan playing acoustic guitars and singing together.

#1 – Bye Bye Pride

from Tallulah, 1987

When a woman learns to walk
She’s not dependent anymore
A line from her letter
May 24

Grant McLennan

‘Bye Bye Pride’ is extremely simple, with most of the song cycling through two chords. But it’s effective, with a warm melody, typically excellent lyrics, and Amanda Brown adding colour with her oboe part. Robert Forster, who’s pursued a sideline as a music writer, states that “Grant’s majestic ‘Bye Bye Pride’, with one of the best opening lines ever, was a ten-foot wave driven by Lindy’s snare, with Amanda’s piping oboe the froth on top.”

Did I miss your favourite Go-Betweens songs? Apart from ‘Cattle and Cane’, there’s seemingly little consensus on what their best songs are – the run from Before Hollywood to 16 Lovers Lane, in particular, is stuffed with great songs.

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