When Robert Forster and Grant McLennan first started putting out music as the Go-betweens in 1978, an interviewer asked them where their influences came from. They answered:
Forster: "It's that mid-Western telecaster ring. It's Bob Dylan talking to Francoise Hardy. It's bicycles and boys and also..."
McLennan: "Balloons."
It's that mix of the absurd, with the traditional and the deeply romantic that made the Go-betweens such a great band. At a time when most music sounded bombastic and over produced, their sound was bright, lyrical and full of space. They called it the "striped sunlight sound." You can hear the influence of classic NY bands in their songs - Television, Velvet Underground, Talking heads - but it's not hard to tell that their real love was pure 60's pop in the style of Credence, the Byrds, and even the Monkees (whom they loved). All that is great - but what really set them apart were their lyrics. Wow. They're literate without being pretentious, heart felt without being overly sentimental, vulnerable without being precious or twee. I'm not usually one to notice lyrics, but Forster and McLennan were brilliant lyricists.
The thing is, I kind of discovered them recently. I remember rock critics making a big fuss over them in the late 80's, particularly when they released the album "16 Lover's lane". I never really got it. To me, they sounded a little safe, even adult contemporary so I never really gave them a chance. I actually liked the somewhat similar band Crowded House way more because their harmonies were sweeter, their melodies a little catchier, and their Beatles pastiche sound more defined. What an idiot. The Go-betweens have a depth that Crowded House never came close to attaining. Like a lot of great bands, they have two strong and very different songwriters (In this respect they remind me not so much of the Beatles, but of Husker Du). Grant McLennan is the more traditional and perhaps more consistent songwriter. He wrote the songs I first fell in love with - "Devils Eye" and "Love Goes On!" (he's the Bob Mould). But Forster's songs have a sense of electricity, eccentricity and excitement that's sometimes missing in McLennan's songs (he's the Grant Hart). Lately I've been on more into Forster's songs. "Draining the pool" and "Part Company" are perfect pop songs as far as I'm concerned.
Forster and McLennan were great admirers of the downtown culture that was emerged in NYC in the late 70's, and closely followed every musical development in England. They also adored 60's trash culture, French new wave films, and campy American tv (they wanted a female drummer so they could be more like the Mod Squad). So they had all this love of cool culture when they were growing up, but they were stuck in Australia - in the small city of Brisbane yet. Because they were so far removed from everything, there is a beautiful filtering and synthesis of all these disparate elements of culture in their sound that's completely unique. Also, there is a deep romantic nostalgia semi-hidden in all their songs that's probably a direct result of the feelings of isolation the two songwriters felt. They were not included in the real cultural discussions were going on at the time. That kills me about their songs. These are the songs of two extremely bright, extremely isolated people who longed to be at a party that they weren't invited to.
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