Let's Burn This Land

A cassette compilation of The Go-Betweens, recorded 31st August 1990.

No diary extracts today, but sticking with my Australian reminisces, specifically The Go-Betweens mixtape that I recorded in readiness for my year-long adventure Down Under.

At the time, I was a relatively new fan. I'd heard odds and sods, but the only record that I owned was the 1978-1990 compilation, bought in the spring of that year. A simple but eye-catching front cover, a gatefold sleeve with photos of the band, a double vinyl album capturing 28 singles, B-sides, album cuts, radio sessions and demos, all for £5.99.

It quickly became one of my most treasured albums, although with the bittersweet knowledge that The Go-Betweens were already in the past tense as a band.

 

Although I eventually got all of the studio albums, the 'lost debut album released in 1999 and various radio sessions and live DVDs, all of that was long after I returned to the UK.

 

This 14-song selection was recorded and reordered from the 1978-1990 vinyl compilation, the only cassette compilation of an Australian band going into my Antipodean adventure. This C90 side (Talking Heads on the other) was one that got me through some long, long coach journeys around the continent, and also soundtracked some unforgettable moments in jaw-droppingly beautiful places.

A quick glance may induce outrage at what I didn't pick from the vinyl. No Cattle And Cane? Or Spring Rain? Or The Wrong Road? I also left off When People Are Dead, which deeply resonated with me when I first played the album. 

 

What can I say? I had a strict rule of one band per cassette side and I would have struggled to leave off any of my final choices. I mean, how had songs like The Sound Of Rain and You Won't Find It Again remained unreleased until the 1978-1990 compilation?

All in all, these are the songs that become inseparable in memory from my time in Australia, a snapshot of The Go-Betweens between 1978 and 1988. My go-to Go-Betweens, if you will.

I'm going to round off the week with another Australian artist tomorrow morning. To manage expectations, it won't be a Jimmy Barnes and/or Cold Chisel selection. But who will it be?

 

1) Karen (Single Version) (1978)

2) The House That Jack Kerouac Built (Album Version) (1987)

3) Man o' Sand To Girl o' Sea (Single Version) (1983)

4) Secondhand Furniture (John Peel Session) (1984)

5) People Say (Single Version) (1979)

6) The Sound Of Rain (previously unreleased) (1978)

7) Love Is A Sign (Album Version) (1988)

8) Streets Of Your Town (Album Version) (1988)

9) Draining The Pool For You (Album Version) (1984)

10) I Need Two Heads (Single Version) (1980)

11) World Weary (1981)

12) This Girl, Black Girl (Single Version) (1983)

13) Mexican Postcard (1988)

14) You Won't Find It Again (Acoustic Démo) (1988)

 

1978: Lee Remick EP: 1

1979: People Say EP: 5

1980: I Need Two Heads EP: 10

1981: Your Turn, My Turn EP: 11

1983: Man o' Sand To Girl o' Sea EP: 3, 12

1984: Spring Hill Fair: 9

1987: Tallulah: 2

1988: 16 Lovers Lane: 7, 8

1988: Was There Anything I Could Do? EP: 13 

1989: The Peel Sessions EP: 4

1990: 1978-1990: 6, 14

Let's Burn This Land (46:09) (KF) (Mega)

I posted a previous Dubhed selection of The Go-Betweens in October 2021 (still no Cattle And Cane!), which you can find here.

A month earlier, I compiled a side each of Robert Forster and Grant MacLennan's solo work, drawn from the 2007 2CD collection called Intermission, available here.