The Citizen On Mars

Once in a while, stories like this comes out and it brings such a nice sense of wonderment. Ever heard about the band The Go-Betweens? As an avid music lover, I must have perhaps came across with their music maybe once or twice in the past but that was all there was to it and I couldn’t even remember how the songs sounded, much less their titles.

Some days ago, the band’s lead singer Grant McLennan died of a heart attack at the early age of 48 and mind you, it had caused a major stir in the international music scene as suddenly music critics all over the world are telling stories about McLennan like he was John Lennon or Jimi Hendrix. And it was pleasantly surprising that The Go-Betweens is a celebrities’ celebrity as personalities like Bono of the legendary Irish super group U2 and bands like REM, Coldplay and Everything But The Girl citing McLennan and The Go-Betweens as major inspiration and influence. Now it makes me regret that I didn’t dig them so much in the past and I don’t even have any album of them in my collection. If a legendary musicman like Bono loves The Go-Betweens, then they must be real good. In fact, the U2 frontman considered The Go-Betweens early 80’s single “Cattle and Cane” as an all-time favorite. Perhaps, I might have heard about them is some compilation work before like the famous new-wave compilation series “Lost and Found” . In fact, if it were not for this occassion (McLennan’s death), I would have continued believing that The Go-Betweens was fronted by a female vocalist, like Blondie or The Go-Gos.

So I broke some downloading ethiqutte last night and sampled some of Grant McLennan’s works and then found real affirmation that indeed their music is completely sublime and profound. So lush in guitar and rich in background aggrandizement that I couldn’t help but utter to myslef that they are just as good as The Smiths. In fact, McLennan’s voice is sweeter than Morrissey and reminds me so much of Midnight Oil’s gregarious frontman Peter Garret.

What should astound first time listener of The Go-Betweens is the fact that this Australian band hadn’t really made enough cash throughout their musical career and hadn’t quite had the success other legendary bands had. But truly, music critics and prolific musicians like U2 and REM affirms their legendary status in the music world. And now, I must include myself as one of those who must affirm their greatness.