Before Hollywood (studio album) by The Go-Betweens

From Brad1770 05/02/2019 11:26

Life long Go-Betweens fan here

Whilst 'Spring Hill Fair' was my first GB's album it was 'Before Hollywood' that completely resonated with me and the rest they say is history

This album is important for a few reasons
(1) It features the classic GB's line up of Grant McLennan , Robert Forster and Lindy Morrison
(2) It was recorded in London as the band formed part of the Aussie UK invasion in the early 80's along with bands such as The Birthday Party , The Triffids , The Moodists and The Lipstick Killers
(3) This album would be the bands critical break through taking them from the suburbs of Brisbane to indi darlings
(4) The album contains the track "Cattle and Cane" that was and remains the quintessential Australian Track best described as thus

"Cattle and Cane" is an autobiographical story of McLennan as a schoolboy embarked on a journey home, evoking memories of a "house of tin and timber," the train edging him closer to the past "through fields of cattle, through fields of cane." McLennan wrote it while using Nick Cave's acoustic guitar in Cave 's London apartment in 1982, whilst Cave was comatose after injecting heroin

Songwriting credits are shared equally with McLennan contributing
"A Bad Debt Follows You"
"Two Steps Step Out"
"Dusty In Here"
"Cattle and Cane"
and
"That Way"

Robert Forster contributes
"Before Hollywood"
"Ask"
"By Chance"
"On My Block"

With shared credits on "As Long As That"

An Australian gem

The Go-Betweens’ second album, and the last the group recorded as a three piece, was their critical breakthrough, containing their signature song ‘Cattle and Cane’

From lancashirearab 04/07/2012 09:42

I love this album. It was the first Go Betweens' album I purchased. "His father's watch, he left it in the showers." Phew!

Robert Forster and Grant McLennan of the Go-Betweens were amongst the most talented songwriters of their generation and, with 'Before Hollywood', produced one of the most underrated and overlooked albums of the 1980s. The album is resplendent with an array of lyrically obscure but musically rich compositions allied to a tightly structured rhythm section that is driven along by Lindsey Morrison's eccentric drumming patterns. The inspiration of Television and particularly Talking Heads is evident throughout, but both the quality of the musicianship and the strength of the songs and the themes of nostalgia, melancholy and lonliness contained therein, ensure the albums masterpiece status. Key track: 'On My Block'.