Your Own Private Sun

The Go-Betweens : People Say

[Purchase]

I missed this anniversary. In September of 1979 The Go-Betweens released 750 copies of their second single, "People Say" b/w "Don't Let Him Come Back".  In his highly enjoyable memoir Grant + I , Robert Forster writes that he sat down in his Brisbane apartment with his guitar and deliberately tried to write a major work:

In a swoop came the music for "People Say", which I immediately recognized as a breakthrough melody. There was a classicism to the tune, with its switch between major and minor chords, and a repeated chorus that flew out of the verses. There was relief too--I was capable of crafting a song, another single, without relying on the hyper-raw blend of Velvets and Modern Lovers influences that had fueled my songs so far. The words I laboured on, writing some of them in university classes. If I didn't have a girlfriend I imagined one , and she was impressive:'The clouds lie on their backs/And rain on everyone/ But you always stay dry/ You've got your own private sun'

"Don't Let Him Come Back" is the first recorded co-write of Forster and Grant McLennan. He convinced Grant they should form a band together before his friend had learned to play any instruments. McLennan would teach himself to play bass then guitar and would go on to write some of the band's most memorable songs including "Cattle And Cane", "Right Here" and "Streets Of Your Town".

NME took note of The Go-Betweens in December of 1979 calling them Brisbane's Mouseketeers. "They're like early Jonathan Richman and Lawrence Welk and Patti Smith and The Monkees. Their music is more than pop, it's completly disposable. Or is it?