Detail of An Episode from the Story of Layla u-Majnun, c. 1550
A couple weeks ago, I was writing about my recent foray into the early records of Australian college-rock legends the Go-Betweens. My thesis was that, of the two songwriters in the Go-Betweens, Grant McLennan's early songs were clearly better than those of Robert Forster. That may have been true of their second album Before Hollywood, but Spring Hill Fair came out just a year later and is dominated by Forster's songs. The exception, of course, is "Bachelor Kisses", McLennan's big single for the album - it's one of the best things that the Go-Betweens released, a wistful and beautiful ode to young love that's been stuck in my head for weeks. But the rest of McLennan's numbers fall a little short, while Forster's songs are consistently excellent, from the clunky T.Rex stomp of "The Old Way Out" to the bittersweet "Part Company".
The two-disc reissue of Spring Hill Fair has some extra goodies for McLennan fans like me, though - "Second-Hand Furniture" is a nice story-song from an '89 Peel Session, and "Emperor's Courtesan" was a great song from their demo tape to Rough Trade that never got released, but my favorite may be "Newton Told Me", the b-side of the "Part Company" single.
"Newton Told Me" by the Go-Betweens
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