The Go-Betweens is the quintessential Australian indie-rock band who produced the quintessential Australian indie-rock sound. This is not your pro-typical rock band hence ‘indie’, but they went out on a limb to change the landscape of music and while they never became a big commercial success, they changed how other Australian singer-songwriters approached music. Today’s song comes from their 1984 album Spring Hill Fair.
The album was named after an annual fair in Spring Hill, Queensland, suburb of Brisbane Grammar School. Robert Forster and Grant McLennan (the lead singers) met at the University of Queensland where both were taking a theatre arts course. In November 1979, the duo left Australia, with a plan to shop their songs from record company to record company simply by visiting their offices and playing them.
McLennan stated years later “We all lived there (Brisbane) and the main reason was that in September, October of every year in Brisbane, there is, in Spring Hill, a fair, and as the album came out around then we thought it would be nice to have a parochial mention in a title because we hadn’t done that for a long time.“
Remembered your name
Evidently, you’ve forgotten mine
You know a lot of people
I know, a mind dulled by work and wine
I got hired but I got tired of draining the pool for you
I got tired but not so blue
To see the cracks in you
I got hired against my wish
With better prospects, after this
This song reminds me of when I was in my early 20’s meandering through Melbourne’s inner urban suburbs having just arrived there and taking in the sights. I was looking for some kind of action /adventure, but I really admired the feel of Melbourne. Even it’s general architecture and home facades were more European than I was accustomed to in Sydney and elsewhere. Melbourne was a cosmopolis with respect to art, culture, sports and music. I was enthralled to say the least.
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
I have to admit that I’ve never been to Australia other than once to change planes from LA-Melbourne-Wellington. And of course the sad thing is I now never shall be able to get there! (I grew up in NZ in a little school area way in the middle of nowhere called Spring Hill!)
What a coincidence about Spring Hill! That’s too bad you won’t get to see my Island home. Thanks for commenting Bruce. I hope this message finds you well.
6 covid cases in my village yesterday! It’s here! It’s arrived! I need 6 month’s worth of food and wine!
Haha. OMG 6.cases! The world is going to end. They are making my children have to vaccinate. It’s a Government mandate. Do you believe that? Didn’t take long for the Authoritarians to seize power using COVID as an excuse. My kids are probably (statistically) 1000 times more likely of suffering serious harm on the drive in / back bsck to get the Vaccine than they are from COVID illness. Enjoy the food and wine!
It’s gotta end in revolution. It’s just gotta.
Revolution from whom? Them? The 30 percent in opposition or the 20% hipnotized who are in control of everything?
I like this band…they have some exellent power pop songs. Australia through the seventies and eighties had a lot of great bands.
This song really grew on me. It’s an acquired taste. So is the band. I’m glad we both like them.
I have one in my draft folder that I have to finish.
Draft Folder! Aren’t you the astute one lol I have been getting on a roll recent days with writing here. I’m a week ahead on the schedule. It’s been fun.
Yes for me to have one…one a day…I stay ahead…right now I’m like 12 posts ahead…I was 30 at one time.
Nice being so far ahead. I think my best is 2 weeks ahead. 30 is crazy lol
I’m glad I did though Matt…that is when the Exchange server went down at work…and it was a couple of weeks before I made another lol.
How did you go with receiving the data from the old servers? I’m trying to get ahead too as I have more time on my hands.
I had to buy a program to get data out of 5 databases…they were around 3 TB’s large…it took forever. Now I have everyone on Office 365…in the cloud…so now it is Microsoft’s problem lol
Nice one. Data is the new capital of the world. Just a few selective companies are owning all our data. I was watching a discussion about this yesterday.