| Author | Message | ||
     Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 25 Registered: 05-2005 |
Alright, as you may know their is much talk amongst Beatles fans about their 1970s Everest CD. 1970s! you say. The Beatles didn't record together after Abbey Road! Well, their fans have constructed and debated the "what could have been the next group" album consisting of tracks from the first solo records. I propose that everyone do the same on this thread. What would be the ten song CD that would make up the two halves of the Go-betweens? The two albums to choose from are Watershed and Danger in the Past. Also to be considered AND before anyone posts their Everest tracklisting, we need to know which songs that were written during the period after 16 Lover's Lane and prior to those first solo releases. These songs are fair game for inclusion and must be considered. Can someone with this knowledge, Mr. Nichols perhaps or anyone who has the freakchild demos (I do not and would very much like a copy from a kind soul), provide a tracklisting of songs that cover this period so that the rest of us will know the tracks we may include in our Everest list? I'm making an assumption that most of them at least the quality tunes have turned up on later albums so most of us will have heard them and can include them if we like. Again, please no postings until we have all the complete picture of tracks Robert and Grant wrote. Spend some time once we have the list and work out the sequence of tracks as well. It's much more interesting to read to well thought out posts rather than those just tracklisting compiled in haste. This should be a lively discussion!! Good Luck! | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 111 Registered: 10-2004 |
Um, I think all we'd have to do here is point to the Botany St. (aka Freakchild) demo sessions. | ||
| Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 26 Registered: 05-2005 |
Jeff, what is the tracklisting for Freakchild? And what is the true story behind the sessions and songs? How close was it to being recorded as a proper album by the go-betweens? | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 112 Registered: 10-2004 |
Matthias, I'm not an expert on all things Freakchild/Botany St., but I'll tell you as much as I can. Bootlegs of the Freakchild demos have been circulating for years, and while there are a few variations on the tracking order, the following (found from some random go-betweens bootleg listing website) lists the songs as they appear on the particular bootleg copy I wound up with. CD.1 1. Danger In The Past 2. Easy Comes Easy Go 3. Broadway Bride 4. I Love You Still 5. What You Call Change 6. Open Invitation 7. Dream About Tomorrow 8. I've Been Looking For Somebody (cut) 9. Haunted House 10. Sally's Revolution 11. Just Get That Straight 12. Running The Risk Of Loosing You 13. It Had To Be Me 14. Signs Of Life 15. Nowhere By Any Other Name 16. The Man Who Dies In Rapture 17. House Of Snakes 18. Danger In The Past 19. The River People 20. I've Been Looking For Somebody CD.2 21. Drop 22. Making It Right For Her 23. Just Get That Straight 24. She's So Strange 25. I Know What Its Like Without You 26. Stones For You 27. When Word Gets Around What's interesting about this particular version is that it includes several Grant songs that definitely weren't intended to be part of Freakchild, and which were recorded post-breakup. These songs, many of which wound up as a-sides and b-sides released shortly after going solo, make up the bulk of disc 2. They're also really good songs, especially 'Stones for You,' 'Making it Right for Her,' and 'She's so Strange,' so I certainly don't mind their presence on the bootleg, even if they don't belong there. The first disc of this bootleg consists of what I believe were the actual contenders for the Freakchild album. They're all acoustic, just Robert and Grant, casually knocking out these tunes without any backing. I don't think the band got any further than the demo stage with Freakchild. They broke up before they even started to make the actual album, but I don't know how close they were to starting it before breaking up. Not sure if studio time was booked or anything like that, though probably not. I'm sure this info is in David Nichols' biography, I just can't conjure up these details from memory. I do remember Forster being quoted as saying he wanted the album to be very "live" and "organic," like the sound of a band playing in a big room, in contrast to the glossy, more studio processed sound of 16LL. Maybe he was entertaining the notion of recording at Hansa in Germany at this point (where I believe he recorded Danger in the Past), but again, I can't quite remember. At any rate, you can see how many of these songs wound up on Grant and Robert's repsective solo albums. I mean, you've got just about half of both DITP and Watershed right there, for starters. I also recall reading in Nichols' book someone saying that a few of these songs were actually rejected demos from 16LL sessions. Anyhow, going back to your first post, I suppose you could put together a compilation of the songs that made it onto their solo albums in completed form, but I'm convinced that those versions sound VERY different to how they would've sounded had they been recorded as the Go-Betweens. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 113 Registered: 10-2004 |
oh, and i forgot to mention - there are a few wonderful gems on the freakchild demos that were never re-recorded or released in any official form. which is kind of sad, really, though it makes the bootleg worth obtaining. | ||
| Member Username: null Post Number: null Registered: null |
post removed at the request of the poster (admin) | ||
| Roger Griffin Member Username: Roger Post Number: 24 Registered: 11-2004 |
Excellent topic. A good pointer towards the lineup of the hypothetical 7th album is the last show at Max's Petersham in December 1989, which I was fortunate to witness. The set was the usual mix of new and old - "a sort of sampler" was how Grant put it. The new songs in the set were: Broadway Bride I've Been Looking For Somebody Easy Come Easy Go Running The Risk It Had To Be Me House Of Snakes So these were probably shortlisted as Freakchild tracks from the 20 or so demo'd. Also, my tape of the Botany St sessions includes 3 songs not in circulation: Dear Black Dream (RF) How I Wish This War Was Over (GM) Art Cinema (RF) Jeff, you are right in assuming the later versions would have been different. Compare "I've Been Looking For Somebody" from Max's to the version on Danger ITP. The GoB version has a slinky Lindy time signature shift, a nice riff and a gorgeous oboe line on the chorus. A full band studio version of that would have been sublime - akin to Twin Layers Of Lightning. And I think it easily makes the cut. Given that GoB albums usually comprised 5 each from RF and GM, I'm taking 5 each from the Botany tracks which found their way onto DITP or Watershed. So this is my theory on the tracklist (in no particular order): Starting with the 6 from the set: Broadway Bride I've Been Looking For Somebody Easy Come Easy Go Running The Risk It Had To Be Me House Of Snakes and adding Danger In The Past Just Get That Straight Stones For You What You Call Change ...it would have been a fine album. I'd love to hear any recollections from Lindy about the tracklisting if it ever was mooted. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 115 Registered: 10-2004 |
yeah, i'd love to have heard those songs played by the Go-Betweens. i imagine 'i've been looking for somebody' would've sounded amazing with lindy at the drums. | ||
| Guy Ewald Member Username: Guy_ewald Post Number: 52 Registered: 02-2005 |
I've always found "I Love You Still" a particularly moving song. There's not much to it on a musical level; no bridge, no chorus to speak of, but it really gets under my skin. | ||
| Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 29 Registered: 05-2005 |
Guy, I was just telling Jeff the same thing today. I cannot believe it never made one of Robert's solo records (or the last three go-between records for that matter.) There is such tension there and the chording builds into waves that crash over one another. Lyrically, it seems that like a song of affirmation the character has come out of a particularly bad relationship and that now he's transformed in a positivie way. Haunting. I cannot stop listening to the track. | ||
| david pestorius Member Username: David_pestorius Post Number: 16 Registered: 08-2005 |
While not strictly 'one of Robert's solo records,' in 1992, while living in Bavaria, RF produced the Baby You Know album 'Clear Water' , which included a version of 'I Love You Still', with his wife Karin Bäumler (who was a member of the BYK), on lead vocals. (RF also plays 12 string guitar and hammond organ on the album). | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 31 Registered: 05-2005 |
Does anyone on this list know if the track 'Outlaw' on Clearwater album by Baby You Know was written by Robert Forster. In the footnotes to the first edition of David Nichols book, a track listing for Lindy Morrison's copy of the Botany sessions lists a track called 'Outlaw #1'. So, does anyone know if there is there any connection between the two tracks. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 116 Registered: 10-2004 |
RF playing 12-string guitar! awesome. i've often wondered why the go-betweens never incorporated any 12-string guitar into their arrangements. i can't think of a single go-betweens song with 12-string. it could only have enhanced their already shimmery, gorgeous melodic textures. | ||
| Erhard Grundl Member Username: Erhardgrundl Post Number: 2 Registered: 09-2005 |
to answer the above question: "Outlaw" from Clearwater is a Baby You Know original. Robert had no hand in that one. Nevertheless it was actually written in the "german farmhouse" outside of Regensburg. kindest regards Erhard | ||
| Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 30 Registered: 05-2005 |
Does anyone have a copy of "I Love You Still" from the Clearwater CD? Please send it to me. How sweet that this gorgeous love song is sung by his wife! Does anyone know when Robert met Karin? Was it around the time he wrote this in 1989? I got the impression that Robert was living at home in Australia with his folks after they left London. How did he end up meeting a German girl? Hey Jeff my band's version of Love Goes On uses a 12 string. Does that count? It does sounds richer lol. | ||
| lindy morrison Member Username: Lindymorrison Post Number: 95 Registered: 09-2004 |
Karin came to a concert in Germany in the late eighties. She carried a Tshirt for the boys and Grant took it although we knew she meant it for RF. She sat with a friend on a street corner in the gutter near the gig. When we drove up they were there. RF and her were doubles. He was totally besotten from the first moment he met her. An enduring memory is RF leaving the van in a town in Germany after the gig on a street corner. He was carrying a small red suitcase or port as we call it Brisbane. She was waiting on the corner and he asked us all if he should leave us to meet her because to do so would mean a disruption in the morning while we located him. I rememeber him leaving the van so confused and full of fear, because there was a sense that this was really important. AB and I were so happy that he might find someone to love him and that he loved. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 70 Registered: 03-2005 |
Acoustic 12 is all over "Danger in the Past" and welcome too, but I am a big 12 string partisan. But now that you mention it, Jeff, I can't think of a GoBs track with audible 12 either. I always assumed the electric on "The Wrong Road" was a 12 but it's just effects. Strange. And that weird six string guitar with the obnoxiously new strings on "16 Lovers Lane" can sound a bit like a crappy 12 but isn't. | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 32 Registered: 05-2005 |
Lindy wrote: "AB and I were so happy that he [RF] might find someone to love him and that he loved." Thanks for the anecdote of that critical night on which RF's life hinged. It's good that the lie that you were 'bitter and twisted' after the demise of 'you know what' is put to rest. It's a commonly peddled innuendo that tends to reflect badly on you. | ||
| M.J.L. Member Username: Mjl Post Number: 10 Registered: 09-2005 |
FSH, I don't mean to be rude here, but are you kidding? Lindy, thank you. | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 33 Registered: 05-2005 |
No I'm not kidding; not at all. fsh |