16 Lovers Lane by The Go-Betweens.

In one of my recent reviews, I mentioned The Go Between by L.P. Hartley. My niece Katherine read it and told me that one of her favourite bands was called The Go-Betweens. Then my Danish friend Bent Sorensen joined in and said that he liked The Go-Betweens as well. I am always open to new ideas, so I thought I would buy myself an album. I chose their sixth release called 16 Lovers Lane because I read that it was their most successful work and in a book of the 100 greatest Australian recordings it was named 12^th best Aussie album of all time. It was recorded in Sydney in 1988 after the band had returned from five years in London. They were Grant McClennan vocals and guitar, Robert Forster vocals, guitar and harmonica, Amanda Brown violin, oboe, guitar and vocals, John Willsteed bass, organ and piano. Lindy Morrison drums. You may be interested to hear that Tracey Thorne of the band Everything But The Girl has just publish a highly acclaimed book about her long friendship with Lindy Morrison. 

At the time of this album being recorded Grant had just started a relationship with Amanda and Robert had just broken up with Lindy. That might explain the subject matter of the songs. There are no songs about the great issues of the day. All the songs here are about the highs and lows of romance. All the songs are written by Grant or Robert and I think it is quite easy to spot who wrote which song. Grant wrote the first two songs which are Love Goes On! and Quiet Heart. I read in the Thanks section of the sleeve notes, they thanked The Byrds. I can hear that influence in the guitar sound and the harmonies. Lindy’s relentless drum rhythm on Quiet Heart also reminded me slightly of early U2 songs. I also love the sound of Robert’s harmonica which obviously brought Bob Dylan to mind.

Love Is A Sign and You Can’t Say No Forever were both written by Robert, and you can see the different style of song writing. There are no chorus’s, and the lyrics are more enigmatic and poetic. ‘London no longer exists’ is sung quite vitriolically which makes you think that they were pleased to get back to the sunshine of Australia after the cold grey skies of England. The Devil’s Eye is a short song written by Grant who also composed The Street Of Your Town. On first listen I found this the most immediately accessible song, but now I like all of them. With Amanda’s backing vocals and having instruments like the oboe, another band of the 80s came into my mind which was The Dream Academy who had a hit with Life In A Northern Town. On the surface this catchy Go-Betweens song sounds quite mellow, but the lyrics mention butchers’ knives and battered wives which give it an underlying sinister feel.

Clouds is possibly the most poetic of all the songs here and contains quite mysterious lyrics. Robert seems to be the deeper of the two songwriters, while Grant seems to have more of an ear for a catchy melody. Was There Anything I Could Do? is for me easier to understand. It seems to be about a free-spirited woman who the singer has trouble dealing with. When I saw the title of, I’m Allright I thought it was a typo error. I am always spelling all right as alright which is bad grammar, but Allright is wrong as well isn’t it? Anyway, that is how they spelled it several times in the lyrics. It is a good song anyway. Dive For Your Memory brings the album to a close. An acoustic guitar intro and then Lou Reed style semi spoken lyrics. I love it. I read on Wikipedia that Grant Mclennan sadly died in 2006 at the young age of 48 which meant the end of The Go-Betweens, but I am sure their reputation will continue to grow. Thank you very much Katherine and Bent for introducing me to the most enjoyable sound of The Go-Betweens.