The third act of the Go Betweens long journey is certainly throwing up some interesting and surprising insights and revelations. For a band that never came up with so much as a hit single or charting album during their years as an active, touring and recording band, they're certainly making their mark now, and not only on the margins of proceedings where they previously operated. But oddly towards the mainstream. Or at least the middle aged, Radio 4 listenership mainstream.
The emerging insights and revelations shed new light not only of the main players of the Go Betweens drama, essentially Robert Forster, Grant McLennan, Lindy Morrison and Amanda Brown, but also on those who latched onto them at the time and followed their journey thereafter. Bookish, sensitive types mostly. I'd say we can all learn something about ourselves from Thorn's book. It's never too late to reflect and make realisations about the person you were in your late teens and twenties. About the way that others saw you and why they saw you that way. It's a good idea to try to I'd say. The Go Betweens, more than any band I can think of, act as a useful rule measure for this process. Particularly for the likes of me who came of age myself as they were recording and releasing their landmark statements.
Devotees of the band like myself, are truly blessed these days. Since the still painful death of McLennan in 2007 we've seen unprecedent post band activity, most of it instigated by Grant's writing companion and supportive adversary Robert Forster. We've had a memoir, Grant & I, one of the best books of these kinds I've read, a couple of deeply comprehensive box sets, a documentary and wonderfully a bridge in their hometown Brisbane bearing their name. All, (apart from the latter), to greater or lesser degrees pushing the Forster perspective of things, largely fuelled I'd say not by overbearing ego, but a burning need to do McLennan and his talent justice. Probably also to foreground themselves as the main players in the band.
Now we have My Rock 'n'Roll Friend, Tracey Thorn's recently released counter-memoir, of her friendship with Lindsay Morrison, at once a co-collaborator, a musician, a muse, a foil and an antagonist within the Go Betweens pot. A woman often described as 'difficult' because of how her inherent strength of personality drew attention to some basic contradictions implicit in the way that both Forster and McLennan wished to project themselves throughout their careers. As feminists, and men who loved and respected women primarily. But ones who also wanted to be stars. And also ultimately to take the lion's share of the credit for the band's particular artistic achievement.
First and foremost it has to be said that Thorn has done a wonderful job. My Rock 'n'Roll Friend is an incredibly accomplished and realised book. It makes you think and wonder and feel gratitude for her endeavours and thoughfulness on virtually every page. It's not necessarily an easy read, particularly for anybody who has invested anything in this very special band over the years. I actually found it a rather painful experience in many ways, it touched upon many issues and memories that still genuinely hurt in some respects. But that doesn't lessen for one moment how highly I'd recommend it. Life is not only about the happy things and we're all kind of behest not to ignore and forget that basic truth.
Thorn is not afraid of the pain.She sticks to her task with incredible precision and fortitude. But what exactly is that task?To do justice to Lindy Morrison to a large degree. To re-address the balance, to set the record straight. The Go Betweens story is not merely that of Forster and McLennan, Morrison particularly deserves her due, without her they wouldn't and couldn't have existed. And by telling their tale, to shed light in some ways on a greater issue. On who gets left out of the script when the story finally gets told. And why that happens. And why it shouldn't.
This book certainly does Morrison justice. She speaks loud and proud in every chapter and comes across as a person every bit as layered and fascinating as either Forster or McLennan. She was a great musician too as Thorn makes a point of underlining. How often her endeavours brought Forster and McLennan's songs together. Made them speak in a way that they never spoke on the solo albums the two made after the bands initial split. And how when The Go Bewteens did reform in the 2000s, without her, (or Brown for that matter), they never sounded quite like they had done in the their initial incarnation.
It's definitely worth excusing Forster and McLennan for slight indiscretions along the way. They did write these fabulous songs after all. They realised their ambition. In terms of product if not in sales..All of the great artistic musical statements ever made were first instigated with the intention of being hung up on a wall after all. All of them. Is there any counter argument to that. It Starts With a Birthstone confines itself for the most part to records that conform to that objective. Art statements of various kinds. So you have Television and Marquee Moon. Patti Smith and her associates and Horses. Marvin Gaye, his crew, and What's Going On. Pretty much everything Miles Davis ever recorded. Bowie.
Of course you need Whigfield, and Simply Red. Even Rednex I suppose. But for the most part I can't be bothered with all that stuff. Because pretty much from the moment I started getting into these things, I've wanted something more from music. Something that moves me, makes me change, makes me grow. Something that's actually about the astonishing world all around me. Go Betweens have become personal titans of mine in this respect. My Rock 'n' Roll Friend is a wonderful addition to their legacy.
No comments:
Post a Comment