Over the weekend we lost a great musician and song-writer, whose music is the soundtrack of my youth. Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens died in his sleep at home in Brisbane after setting up for a party. His love songs, wistful and suffused with longing, always spoke to the bittersweet romantic in me, and music was, as now, such a vital part of my life. Nobody else could evoke growing up in sleepy sultry Queensland, alongside canefields and in bright sunshine, like he could. Each time I met Grant, in my teens and early 20s, he would give lots of his time to sign a shy girl's CD cover and answer questions about his lyrics. The last time I saw Grant he was standing on a street corner in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley, guitar case in hand, on the way home after some post-gig drinks with me and my pals. We hung out of the car window to give him a final thank-you for the music and he performed a low bow for us, smiling from ear to ear. Then the lights changed and he walked off into the midnight.
Eulogies, here and here, some from musicians but most from fans and fellow Brisbane refugees, brought tears to my eyes when I read, in the New Jersey suburbs, he had gone. Thank-you Grant.
Video: The Go-Betweens, Bye Bye Pride. Probably their best song ever. And not only does it mention Shield Street in Cairns, where I lived between the ages of 5 and 12, but the video shows lots of Sydney in the late 1980s: the Darling Harbour development, Bondi Beach and the eastern suburbs where I have made a home. Even Melbourne is in there (the Anzac Day march), where my parents are from and I spent my early childhood.
Video: The Go-Betweens, Streets of Your Town:
Update, May 12: Grant is farewelled, and it still hurts.
What would you do if you turned around/And saw me beside you/Not in a dream but in a song?
Video: The Go-Betweens, Bachelor Kisses
1 comment:
Kimba, I thought of you immediately when I saw the bad news. I've just read the smh blog, all those memories, so many lives touched.....
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