| Author | Message | ||
     spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 621 Registered: 05-2005 |
I'd like to see some responses afore I post me own... | ||
| Cichli Suite Member Username: Cichli_suite Post Number: 142 Registered: 08-2004 |
Unfinished business | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 373 Registered: 08-2004 |
Bye Bye Pride | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 464 Registered: 04-2005 |
Finding You Runners-up: Dive for Your Memory Dusty in Here | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 465 Registered: 04-2005 |
Oh, and "Part Company"--try listening to that one immediately after a breakup. It'll get to you. | ||
| jerry hann Member Username: Jerry_h Post Number: 207 Registered: 07-2005 |
Dive for your Memory | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 597 Registered: 03-2006 |
All of them, since Grant died, but specifically "Quiet Heart". | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 692 Registered: 05-2005 |
part company bachelor kisses dusty in here cattle and cane | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 505 Registered: 03-2005 |
Unfinished Business Mountains Near Dellray This Girl, Black Girl Cattle and Cane Quiet Heart The Devil's Eye Dive for your Memory Mexican Postcard Rock and Roll Friend You Won't Find it Again Poison in the Walls Mrs. Morgan Girl Lying on a Beach The Wrong Road Finding You The Statue Right Here When People are Dead Spirit Crooked Lines Moving off the reservation: The Dark Side of Town Riddle in the Rain Simone & Perry Ice in Heaven Put You Down Horsebreaker Star In Your Bright Ray One Plus One Lamp by Lamp Black Mule Dream About Tomorrow--surely my personal theme song Justice On a Street Corner I'm sorry this is so excessive a list. It's still hard to listen at times, but the tears are often tears of joy. And a good number of songs brought tears even before Grant died. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 625 Registered: 05-2005 |
I like the way Randy does his lists!!!! So cool! Modern day tearjerkers GB's for me: The Statue, reminds me of walking on an island in the Med, probably Zanti, sun going down, looking for a bar, walking along with a pair of sandals on looking for love, its so evocative. Its sadly romantic. Old school, its Bye Bye Pride. The Barbican version. What a beginning. So poignent now after G's passing. Also, love his story, his nan and the golf thing, only Grant could pick up in such a thing. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 506 Registered: 05-2005 |
Most of Randy's list will do fine for me. Finding You really took me by surprise on Saturday night when it came on in an iTunes playlist when I was out for a walk. It made me think of what my 4-year-old daughter said when I played it the day after I came back from Grant's funeral: "I can hear The Go-Betweens singing in heaven." | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 469 Registered: 04-2005 |
"Finding You" is the one song of Grant's I couldn't bear to listen to for quite awhile after he died. Your daughter's description of it is perfect. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 610 Registered: 03-2006 |
The Statue is my 2nd favorite song from "Oceans" (first is Boundary Rider, third is Mountains Near Dellray) - it is almost unbearably poignant and sad in a very beautiful way...the statue metaphor is hard to pin down, but I think it must be meant to describe a very beaten down, benumbed character, trying to win back the affections of an estranged lover...being a "statue", in a sense, is his armor...Sorry to be so pretentious, but that song brings out the poet in me, goshdangit! | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 631 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kurt ditto re Finding You. LK, u poet you! | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 475 Registered: 04-2005 |
I'm with you, Hardin; but I'll go one better (well not in terms of describing it--you win that contest): "The Statue" has over time become my favorite track on OA, though I found the programmed drums and synths off-putting at first; now they sound perfect. And yes, I have become a posting whore--I'm jealous of all you kids over 600 posts when I haven't even hit 500. Even Padraig, who always goes for quality over quantity in his posts, has left me in the dust lately. So I'll be posting a lot of one-word responses and mindless agreements for awhile to catch up. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 615 Registered: 03-2006 |
It makes ya sad all over again for the demise of the GBs...it seems that they were really opening up their sound, experimenting with different intrumentations, production techniques, meters, etc... I can't think of another song in their catalog that sounds quite like the Statue...the programmed drums, synths and treated guitars (I can't recall them ever using that particular effect before - how do they achieve that, Spence? You know about stuff like that, right?) all work perfectly and move the song along beautifully...I bet their next album was going to be remarkable. We should have a prize for whoever reaches 1,000 first. Everybody on the board will owe them a beer - payable if there's ever a GBs convention. Looks like you got a lock on it, Kev! | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 478 Registered: 04-2005 |
Just one beer? Beer is the reason Kev has so many posts! | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 617 Registered: 03-2006 |
But there are, what, 40 people on this board...certainly Kev couldn't drink 40...wait, I retract that. I see your point, Kurt. We better make it 2 or 3!  | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 634 Registered: 05-2005 |
Its all about the mix I think. If the mix ain't right...The EQ'ing goes without saying. The sound on OA to me is very warm, yeah sure they hitthe peaks a few too many times in the red, but overall it works great. For me to have someone at the mixing/production controls, if I had the money (andreas are you listening!!) I'd get Jim O Rourke on board. He did things with Wilco's A Ghost is born that make it hard to understand how people can produce, that to me is the mark of a great producer. Bit like Bob Clearmountain and Roxy Music's Avalon, More than this is such an esquisite piece of production, its like how does someone do that. There are patches in OA that make me think, who has the vision her, I'd love to have been a fly on the wall in the pre and post production of that magnificent album... PS When's the convention, and where? I seriously by the way never consider the number of posts, I can't believe I have actually gassed on that much, especiall as I find it difficult to articulate what I want to say most times  | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 133 Registered: 04-2006 |
spence, i do. and mr o' rourke would be definitely a good choice. he is something like a 'genius' ( i hate to use this word, but i don't know any other to describe how good this man is, even when iam defintiely not into wilco. i liked uncle tupelo much, but never get warm with wilco.) | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 134 Registered: 04-2006 |
and because of the beer i have to do it like kurt. and so it goes: finding you | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 135 Registered: 04-2006 |
cattle and cane | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 136 Registered: 04-2006 |
the wrong road | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 137 Registered: 04-2006 |
but randy said it all..... | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 162 Registered: 01-2005 |
No one mentioned one of my favorite cuts off of 16LL and maybe the most overlooked. It also happens to be the first song I ever heard by them, which got me to buy 16LL in November of 1988. I'm Allright | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 627 Registered: 03-2006 |
That is a great one, Michael...Did RF invent a new genre with it, the "lover on probation" category? Can't think of any others... I always wondered what he had to do to "earn the nights". Was there a point system involved? | ||
| C Gull Member Username: C_gull Post Number: 34 Registered: 05-2005 |
I'm with Michael - I'm Allright - the way it builds up. Nest Quiet Heart - more when I sing it in my own head than when I listen to it. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 632 Registered: 03-2006 |
Re-listened to OA on the basis of comments above...Wow, it sounds even more phenomenal further down the line. And maybe "The Statue" is my favorite track from the record...Lyrics-wise GM was completely on fire with that one, on par with his work on "The Wrong Road"...Each line is more evocative than the last. Favorites that stick out are: "I rise and face the day, another weary sinner" (who can't relate to that) and even more striking: "The sunrise seeks you, through a maze of dragons"...don't even know what that means, but I love it! The statue metaphor is beautifully and understatedly developed, too, with the "You lost your touch" refrain, which works on at least two levels... Every other song on it, OA, sounded pretty friggin' good, too...Good to give things a rest sometimes and revisit them later... | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 646 Registered: 05-2005 |
Very true LK! Oceans Apart is a classic album, in ten years time, it willbe looked back upon as one of the best albums of all time, I am sure of it. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 3 Registered: 07-2006 |
bachelor kisses. that "hey wait" does it every time. not terribly original, but overwhelmingly moving every time. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 635 Registered: 03-2006 |
The acoustic stories version of BK is great, too...great acoustic interplay...that Grant is not in great voice diminishes its power not one bit... I am in agreeance, Spence...not really a bad song on it...The one duff track on it for me used to be "This Night's For You", but no more: it's grown on me. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 163 Registered: 01-2005 |
Hardin, regarding: "earn the nights". Was there a point system involved? Hmm, maybe in the womans mind there was and Robert's subject could never quiet gather enough points to get beyond seeing her for lunch. All he had was the daytime with her and the task of trying to convince himself that he was "allright" with that despite still trying to get beyond that stage. That very well be the G-B's only true unrequited/"lover on probation" love song. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 636 Registered: 03-2006 |
Yeah Michael, I always felt sorry for the poor bastard in that song. I don't think that turned out well for him. Half-measures just never work, and people either forgive you all the way, or not at all...I know because this situation happened to a "friend".... Also, I think the guy in the song is an unreliable narrator...he doesn't really sound like he's allright at all... | ||
| Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 114 Registered: 05-2005 |
Posted by Keith on Sunday, August 27, 2006 - 02:58 pm: All of them, since Grant died, but specifically "Quiet Heart". Keith, you're spot on in your first post above. I've been learning to play Bye Bye Pride, Quiet Heart, Right Here on guitar and playing and singing them have really made me feel connected to the lyrics and that has in turn pulled at my heartstrings. Such beauty and no more to come. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 640 Registered: 03-2006 |
In a parade of unparalleled excellence and beautiful, emotional songs, that one, QH, really stands out, Matthias... I'll bet you're a better guitarist, so I bet you're having better luck pulling off those songs on guitar...in my hands, they seem to cry out for the full-blooded band treatment...all of my attempts to hire the string section from Liberty Belle so far have come short ... | ||
| Duncan Hurwood Member Username: Duncan_h Post Number: 50 Registered: 05-2005 |
For me: Coming up for air though it's not strictly a Gobs song. I find quite a few of the 16LL songs moving for personal reasons, but I'm not sure it's the song itself, or my memories. | ||
| Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 118 Registered: 05-2005 |
Keith, I've actually been arranging QH and LGO with a violinist and my friend Nick who plays harmonica and sings on the two tracks. I play guitar on both and sing harmonies. Our intention is to play them in a coffeehouse in Oct or Nov. I'll let you know how it goes and if we get a nice version down, I'll share. But I gotta tell you, just practicing them together is really moving (regardless of our talent or lack there of) It's really given me a deep appreciation of the symbiotic relationship between Ms. Brown and GM. And Grant's ability to write not only to his strengths but her utilize her incredible talents as well. The violin is so perfect for his work and especially QH. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 644 Registered: 03-2006 |
Bet that sounds great, M...it's a deceptively understated record, 16 LL, isn't it? The arrangements seem stripped down, but it belies how intricate and complex they are, and the way they so effectively build and propel the songs... On QH: I am a lyrics guy, as I've owned up to here before. So, I ponder and overanalyze lyrics to songs I really like, way more than is probably normal or healthy. Have you ever come up with an explanation of, or heard explained, what the "small red light" is? | ||
| Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 123 Registered: 05-2005 |
Truly remarkable orchestration on that record. Dumbfounded as to why so many slag it. Good Q: I do the same thing. Good to know another freak out there. We all want to belong, don't we? hehe. I always took the two in whole. The next line is Scorpio rising. At first I thought perhaps Grant or the girl in the song was born under that astrological sign and that the red light was Mars ascending in the sky. I'd love to know. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 500 Registered: 04-2005 |
Not that many slag it, though, do they? We have one very strong objecter to the album here and I suppose it's no favorite of Ms. Morrison's either. What I find interesting about it is that it uses a fair bit of technology (drum machines, keyboards, probably more synths in there than is obvious), yet it sounds quite organic and surprisingly "unplugged." There, that's 500. Not the greatest post ever, but sometimes it's quantity that counts, not quality. Now I can get back to work and try to save my job. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 144 Registered: 04-2006 |
congratulations, kurt. the beer approaches... | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 650 Registered: 03-2006 |
Freakchildren R us, Matthias...Actually I don't think it's really that aberrant at all to obsess over lyrics. Music, in my scheme of things, is supposed to mean something. If it doesn't, and you're this obsessed with it, you're just a teenybopper, pawing through the pages of Tigerbeat, ripping out the pinups of David Cassidy and Rick Springfield to tape to your wall...Willie Nelson, in his great great song, "Shotgun Willie", said it best, "you can't make a record if you ain't got nothing to say"... (Btw, anyone who doesn't own that album of the same name should go out and buy it today. I mean it, man.) We've talked a lot about Dylan in these pages lately, spurred by his new release. I believe that he was the artist that changed the game, that ushered in the sensibility that (pop)music could indeed be great art - it didn't have to be all moon/June/spoon.... I think the Nichols book mentioned that Amanda was indeed a Scorpio so that explains that reference...there's still that annoying red light to decipher... I think far more dig 16 LL than don't...btw, it wasn't till I started hanging out on this board that I realized that not all GoBees fans thought it was the best thing they'd ever done...pretty shocking, though apparently most do... | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 167 Registered: 01-2005 |
I really like the version of QH on the Live on SNAP from KCRW bonus disc that came with Bellavista Terrace. Just Grant singing it so perfectly and Amanda's soulful violin with Robert and Grant playing acoustic guitars. Then Robert makes a joke afterwards saying that they are going to recall 16LL to use the version they just played instead of the studio version! | ||
| Guy Ewald Member Username: Guy_ewald Post Number: 178 Registered: 02-2005 |
I'm feel pretty emotional listening to just about anything by the group too, but I have been listening. Usually when an artist dies I have trouble enjoying their work for a period of time, but I've been drawn to The Go-Betweens as much as ever since Grant's death. The one song that caught me off guard when it came up recently was 'Suicide at Home' from the FOC album... actually a Robert and Grant solo performance from a radio broadcast; Munich, 1999. Not that Grant commit suicide or anything, but just that title and his introduction... it really hit me. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1 Registered: 09-2006 |
Agreed on "Coming Up for Air." Even before, during the GB hiatus, that one got to me. A combination of the lyric, the vocal, the arrangement, and that lovely violin. This is my very first post here, by the by... | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 549 Registered: 05-2005 |
Welcome Allen! | ||
| pd Member Username: Peter_d Post Number: 11 Registered: 05-2005 |
hi Matthias & Little Keith, my take on the "small red light" line in QH is that it is refering to the star Antares, the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpio - it's so bright that it is indeed sometimes mistaken as being the planet Mars.. Peter | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 723 Registered: 03-2006 |
Thanks much, PD...I knew there had to be some brainy sort out there who had an explanation...of course, it blows my theory that Grant left the coffeemaker on all to hell... | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 5 Registered: 09-2006 |
Thanks muchly for the welcome, Padraig! | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 3 Registered: 10-2006 |
Just the first few opening chords of the Statue are enough to set my eyes watering... tremendously evocative and beautiful sequence, a real dark, velvety foreshadowing of loss... one of the best things Grant came up with... | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 890 Registered: 05-2005 |
With you on that one Stuart, t'other day I found myself going, is this the best GB's song ever, or even the world maybe? It started...When you miss your baby, You need some heaven That’s what I heard, Unfinished business Are you gonna make it? You’re tired and bit frost Tattoos and snapshots Then lose your way Unfinished business... Are you gonna make it? | ||
| Elizabeth Robinson Member Username: Liz_the_new_listener Post Number: 23 Registered: 10-2006 |
Confound it, all of Oceans Apart, most of 16 LL, 'Bachelor Kisses' and 'Orpheus Beach' get me as close to tears as music gets me. Here is another review from my other favorite place to be on the Web.... The Go-Betweens Yep Roc Records, 2005 Even if listening to this CD were not affected by the knowledge that this would be the swan song of the group, I find the Go-Betweens' ninth album Oceans Apart as valedictory lyrically as it is typical of their musical output. Kept to the usual formula, the two lead singer/guitarists (Robert Forster and the late Grant McLennan) 'at the core of a flame' sing an equal number of songs each, backed by an essential bass guitarist (Glenn Thompson) and a drummer/Jill of all trades (Adele Pickvance); with tracks of other instruments filled in. As fans know, both Forster's punk-Dylan deliveries and McLennan's simple tunefulness homogenize into an unmistakeable sound. Yes, it is easy to compare the two Australians to two natives of Liverpool, except that success neither really touched them nor became their taskmaster... Forster's phrases come across as sophisticated ('Why do people/Who read Dostoyevsky/Look like..../Dostoyevsky?), evocative ('Gut-rock cappuccino/Gut-rock spaghetti') or wry ('She went to Sydney once/No more.'). The voice is older now, a bit more gravelly than when he made the proclamation that 'The old way out is now the new way in' in the mid-80's. As a result, Forster mellows, becoming more susceptible to the influence of the same mother lode of blokeish wistfulness McLennan has always managed to tap into. How else might one explain that 'Brady Bunch'-esque delight of his, 'Born to a Family'? Did I mention blokeish wistfulness? It is here in spates, in seams of imagery and resignation, in earnest and in generosity. McLennan can... could...still carry a tune, belting out a salutation ('This Night's For You'), crooning a ballad ('Boundary Rider'), and leaving one hanging on the beauty of a phrase at the end of a song ('The Statue'). Having read in a eulogy Forster wrote about his friend that for a projected tenth album McLennan had already written more songs so good that he felt he would have a problem keeping up when coming up with his own, one can only wonder now, since 'The Go-Betweens are no more.' Some editions of Oceans Apart contain a second CD with six songs from the Go-Betweens' appearance at the Barbican, London, England, in 2004 - one of the highlights of their career. Old reviews of live performances by the band describe them as inconsistent and all too human 'live', playing in smaller venues or as a supporting act throughout most of their career and not always having the best of luck. You wouldn't know that, though, from listening to this second CD. Another 'must have', quite up to snuff and then some. | ||
| jerry hann Member Username: Jerry_h Post Number: 296 Registered: 07-2005 |
Elizabeth what is this other favourite site of yours? Sorry to be so nosey,just curious | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 819 Registered: 04-2005 |
Getting Glen's and Adele's roles in the band confused is a pretty big "oops" moment, though. And comparing "Born to a Family" to the Brady Bunch is a stretch. You board members elsewhere in the world have been spared that TV abomination, I hope. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1054 Registered: 03-2006 |
That's the Pitchfork review, I believe...I remember the misquoted "gut-rock" bits (it's "gut rot")... And Grant may have looked "blokeish", but I would never have accused him of being blokeish... Why quibble, though? The reviewer apparently liked it... | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 821 Registered: 04-2005 |
I don't think it's Pitchfork, because they reviewed OA before Grant died. But you're right--yet another "gut rock" misquote. Maybe we should invent a new genre called gut rock. What would that be, exactly? | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1056 Registered: 03-2006 |
Probably not anything we'd like - Guns N Roses, maybe... | ||
| Elizabeth Robinson Member Username: Liz_the_new_listener Post Number: 24 Registered: 10-2006 |
To apologize here for my gaffes (that review was written on an amateur writing site three days after I first got the CD) and for my haste in writing without double checking details so that I got everything straight. My point was basically that all of Oceans Apart is quite moving - even the 'gut-rock', which is kind of heavy. Again I apologize for such a sloppy, amateurish show of my enthusiasm for such a fantastic group. I still have a lot of brushing up to do. | ||
| Elizabeth Robinson Member Username: Liz_the_new_listener Post Number: 25 Registered: 10-2006 |
Ooops - gut-rot. That's why RF wins prizes and I don't.... *S* Could someone find me the 'Tsarevich' of topics - what brands of guitars the Go-Betweens played? | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 830 Registered: 04-2005 |
Oops, didn't realize that was your review, Elizabeth. Sorry to be so nitpicky; I thought it was a review from some other critical source. We try not to attack our own, but we're merciless about published critics who write about the Go-Betweens! |