Grant McLennan of the Go-Betweens died last night. He was only 48 years old. Here are three of his songs.
"Cattle and Cane" has always been one of my favorite songs. While the rhythms are almost bizarre, there's also a very clever intricacy and variation going on, and the band make things work. The lyrics are, apparently, autobiographical.
"The Statue" is from what will now be, I suppose, the final album of new Go-Betweens material, last year's wonderful Oceans Apart, which I think is the first post-reunion album to sound like a band album rather than a collaboration among two songwriters and backing musicians.
And here is one of my favorite McLennan solo tracks, "Malibu 69" from In Your Bright Ray.
**
At nearly the same time, and at the opposite verge of life, my sister Jill gave birth to her and husband Scott's second son yesterday, at the numerically consonant time of 5:56 am 5/5/06. Here's a picture of the newly born Devin Norman Wooldridge with his mom and older brother Reid, taken by my other sister Julie. (I also like that the brothers' names share the same vowels and in the same order.)
2 comments:
I only just learned about GM's death this morning, but I was touched by how many times "Cattle and Cane" came up in conversation with coworkers and fellow Go-betweens fans. I hadn't heard that song in years, and bought it just to hear again (dang, coulda saved 99 cents had I come here first).
And congrats on the new nephew--what a sweet-looking family!
I was never a big Go-Betweens fan -- not sure why, you'd think it would be my kind of thing -- but I did listen to all these tracks and LOVE "Malibu 69." What a fabulous song.
Post a Comment