End of an era

In the "better late than never" department, I wanted to post a few words about the untimely demise of Go-Betweens singer/songwriter Grant McLennan, who died a couple of weeks ago now. As noted in an earlier post, The Go-Betweens were a fixture of my college days, and made a surprising (to me, at least) return to indie fame in the last couple of years, even winning an ARIA (the approximate equivalent of a Grammy in Australia).

Rather than say much more about the band and the unexpected death of one of the founders, I'll just point out this excellent article from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Here is a quote from that article, referring to the role of the Go-Betweens in making a name for Australian music outside our shores (they spent many years in London):

The managing director of EMI Australia and a former editor of Australian Rolling Stone, John O'Donnell, believes the Go-Betweens "were an incredibly important band for blazing that trail".

"I loved the fact that both [Grant] and Robert never apologised for being poetic. If we are guilty of the cultural cringe, those guys never were."

Here is one of my favorite tracks from an early album, Send Me a Lullaby, which typifies the early Go-Betweens sound.

Your Turn, My Turn.