Music RIP Grant McLennan; Long Live the Go-Betweens
Grant McLennan, one-half of the songwriting duo that gave the Go-Betweens their peerless brilliance, is dead. According to Pitchfork, McLennan passed away in his sleep on Saturday, with the cause of death not yet known.
I’m shocked, and terribly sad. More than any other band from the ’80s, the Go-Betweens stuck with me, with my appreciation of their music getting deeper every year. “The Smiths for grown-ups” is how I characterized the band’s music to neophytes, an imperfect description that nevertheless gave an idea of their alterna-pop smarts.
Between 1983 and 1988, the Go-Betweens released a series of records—Before Hollywood, Spring Hill Fair, Liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express, Tallulah, and 16 Lovers Lane—containing some of most intelligent, complex, and elegant art-pop ever made. In the late ’90s, they started recording again, releasing another series of albums that stand alongside their original output without qualification.
I had the great fortune to see the band perform at the Triple Door in 2005, and it’s a night I’ll never forget. I wrote a preview for the show for this paper. The title: “So Far From Done.” Most unfortunately, my pronouncement was wrong.
Condolences to Grant McLennan’s loved ones. Everyone else, go pick up a copy of Liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express and start learning about what we lost today.
I was waiting for someone at the Stranger to slog this.
As time goes on, it becomes more and more apparent that the Go-Bes were the best band of their time, and McLennan-Forster were every bit as good a songwriting team as Lennon-McCartney. Forster was the dark, ascerbic, weird one; McLennan was the sly romantic one. The whole was greater than the parts; they both made good solo records, but together magic happened, over and over again.
For me McLennan's songs were the best. "Cattle and Cane", "Bye Bye Pride", "Batchelor Kisses" -- these are towering masterpieces. Go to Youtube right now and search for them -- the video for "Cattle and Cane" is up now. The band is fucking brilliant, and the last time the "da da da da da" chorus comes in no sentient person can avoid a bursting heart.
And unlike virtually any of his peers, Grant was doing some of his very best RIGHT NOW. Oceans Apart was a great album, and they were headed for another tour in just a few days. How many other of the incessant reunions we see now have worked out so well?
I was at that Triple Door concert with tears running down my face, and those tears are back again. Goodbye, Grant, you were well loved and we are very very grateful.