| Author | Message | ||
     Bob Mail Member Username: Bob Post Number: 27 Registered: 03-2006 |
Ok then have been set a challange from a mate to put this up on the board. Our discussion was along the lines of the Go-betweens being essentially a romantics kind of band eg worldview , subject matter etc. So the question is what is their most heartbreaking song the one thats turns all before it to jelly so to speak :-) | ||
| Hardin Smith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 397 Registered: 03-2006 |
Not everybody loves the album, or song, but the one that would fit the bill in my little world is "Quiet Heart". | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 330 Registered: 04-2005 |
Shall I admit to being a sentimental wimp by answering? Why not. For me, it's "Dive for Your Memory"--maybe because I was going through a breakup the first time I heard it. | ||
| Hardin Smith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 398 Registered: 03-2006 |
One of the many cool things about the GBs is that their stuff registers heartbreak, and much human emotion in general, without ever teetering over into goopy sentimentality... The protagonist of "Dive" is not wimpy at all - he's actually quite manfully keeping a lid on his emotions, I think...I like how it veers from tender lines to the mildly accusatory and argumentative: "we stood that chance"...it's all too human, isn't it? Wanting to get that last word in after a breakup... Same with "Quiet Heart" - if it wasn't so skillfully done, it could be a totally syrupy love song. But there's too much hard-won, worldly wisdom in it, with lines like "No matter how far you've come, you've always got further to go". I never hear that without thinking: "you got that right, Grant". And when he sings, "Our dream won't die", it works and is utterly moving, though the line, in a different context, could've been cornball...context is everything. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 336 Registered: 05-2005 |
Dive for Your Memory and Quiet Heart. Both meaning the same ex-girlfriend for me. These songs used to rip my heart out. Now they just make me think of a wonderful person whom I'm still in touch with. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 379 Registered: 03-2005 |
For me, heartbreak is more Grant's territory. I agree with the choice of "Quiet Heart." But I'd also nominate "You Won't Find it Again" and if we can wander off the reservation to the solo albums, I'd nominate "Dark Side of Town." | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 399 Registered: 05-2005 |
Musically, the Barbican CD version of Bye Bye Pride, tears at my musical heart strings, throws them into the road for a dumptruck to run over them, and then we're better again, its the opening of the song that sets if off, much better than the studio now in my opinion. Lyrically, I suppose its always been Grant's lyrics that have turned me to jelly, but as for a songs it would have to be Apology Accepted, The Devil's Eye and Finding You/The Statue. | ||
| Bob Mail Member Username: Bob Post Number: 28 Registered: 03-2006 |
Good choices. I myself would go for Quite Heart nowadays. When I was younger I must admit that Bachelor Kisses was one that used to stop me in my tracks. It still is a brilliant song but the years have made me gravitate towards 16LL and QH in particular. | ||
| Hardin Smith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 400 Registered: 03-2006 |
Damn - those are really great choices...those Go-Betweens: they have no shortage of heart-string tuggers... Spence, glad to see someone besides me likes "The Statue" - great great tune. The mood of it is great and I think it represents what could be a great new musical direction for them...don't know what's going on in the lyrics, but it sure seems sad. Definitely an estranged couple... And Randy, embarrassingly enough, "Dark Side" was one of my incessantly played, "soundtrack to a breakup" songs...glad to hear other people do that. Listening to it in the right (actually, wrong) kind of late night mood, with a little too much "self-medicating" going on, a guy could get pretty weepy and self-pitying..."drunk dialing" is likely to result... "You Won't Find it Again" is great, too, but is almost, to me, too sad - it seems to tap into an almost existential bleakness...it reminds me of Richard Thompson's "Never Again", lyrically... | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 86 Registered: 01-2005 |
I'll go with "I'm Allright", since nobody has mentioned it. Although "Dive" and "Quiet Heart" are equally as good. If you want to fill out your 1988 heartbreak ridge trifecta, then it's the G-B's 16LL, Til Tuesday's "Everything's Different Now" and Everything But The Girl's "Idlewild". All three are great heartbreakers. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 405 Registered: 05-2005 |
Cheers Hardin, yep, guess you are right an estranged couple, it takes me to a hot place, most of Grant's songs do, Turin Brakes do the same, they take me to places in the US, remote places where the sun goes down and takes a long time doing so, that's probably why all their sleeves have sunsets? I wrote a track inspired by GB's and Turin Brakes and Neil Young's Harvest for my group and it really took me their which made me happy. | ||
| Hardin Smith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 402 Registered: 03-2006 |
Spence, tell me more 'bout Turin Brakes. I heard Save Me on KCRW, and liked it, so I picked up the Optimist LP, which is good...any others you recommend? Michael, "I'm Alright" is another supa dupa heartbreaka, indeed...I like the line that goes, more or less, "I tell her I'm available, she smiles" - it just makes you wince, because you can tell the byotch is just humoring him. But the song has a great, quiet dignity about it - the protagonist knows he's going to have to eat some sh_t for a while, but he's ok with it... | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 87 Registered: 01-2005 |
"I'm Allright" has a special meaning for me as well, as it's the first G-B's song that I ever heard and prompted me to buy 16LL, November 1988. I still have the cassette tape of the radio program that I heard it on. That program also introduced me to The Pixies, Throwing Muses, Wire,My Bloody Valentine, etc over the years. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 380 Registered: 03-2005 |
I got a copy of Turin Brakes' "Ether Song" a couple of years ago. I listened to it a handful of times and then forgot about it. I do not remember it to have been particularly gripping but I'll take it to work and see what it sounds like now. Spence, for remote places I'd recommend the "Born Sandy Devotional" album. That whole record seems to be about the isolation of Western Australia and you can't get much more remote than that. I hear something of that in Ed Kuepper's early solo albums too. I think the Aussies have the corner on the wide open spaces market now. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 408 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy Ether Song was a bit of a blip although the bonus cd was great. The first album Hardin Optimist is fabulous. The latest album is cool, some really lovely tunes Jackinabox. Live they are really superb. A bit like Neil Young, not the heavy Neil the lighter Neil, but the singer's voice is quite unusual, thus holds the attention for longer. Born Sandy is great, Wide Open Space was a fave of mine in '87, first heard it on th peel show. Dave Graney's album at his Stone Beach does the same, gives you the big sky /wide open feeling. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 125 Registered: 05-2005 |
I agree that Born Sandy Devotional is the archetypical Australian wide open spaces album. I've had it since it came out, but when I went to Uluru in'02 it was the first C.D. I picked for the trip. And HOW GOOD was listening to that as you are driving in the desert between Uluru and Kata Tjuta! So perfect!!!! | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 411 Registered: 05-2005 |
You guys are so lucky living in beautiful places around the world!!!!!!!! | ||
| Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 77 Registered: 05-2005 |
To me, it is "Part Company." The lyrics and the mood. "That's her handwriting, that's the way she writes." The finality and cowardice of leaving a Dear John letter. No real closure there. Recently with the reworking circa Barbicon, I've also come to like "Clouds" quite a bit. I always felt the duet with Amanda was really whiny on both parts. But I love the duet with R & G and the simple acoustic plucking G does. Anyway, that's a great heartbreak tune as well. "They once chopped my heart the way you chop a tree." | ||
| Hardin Smith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 406 Registered: 03-2006 |
According to the liner notes of the deluxe edition SHF, Roddy Frame interpolated those lines (the handwriting bit)into one of his own songs at a concert during that time period. When a songwriter of his stature gives props like that, I think it really says something... I also like the bit, Matthias, about missing "her cruelty and unfaithfulness"...Clearly, this guy's got it bad (and that ain't good)! | ||
| jerry hann Member Username: Jerry_h Post Number: 126 Registered: 07-2005 |
Birmingham is a greast city Spence I've had the pleasure of spending 2 weekends there in last year.Who needs the sun and warmth?When you've got the culture of middle and Northern Britian | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 421 Registered: 05-2005 |
Jerry, we all gotta get out more!!!!!!!!!!!! No, seriously, thanks, I like it. Its very very green, there's a misconception about Birmingham and Wolverhampton. And that is that is very grey and full of people with terrible accents. Well, people would be right on both counts! But i love it!! |