The Go-Betweens by David nichols

Author:David nichols [nichols, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781891241901
Publisher: Verse Chorus Press

Robert Vickers and Lindy Morrison, 1985 (Bleddyn Butcher)

Chief among the critics expressing disappointment at Spring Hill Fair was Clinton Walker, now back in Australia and carving out a career for himself as a prominent music writer. Morrison believes that one reason he felt funny about this album was that one of the songs on it—Forster’s “You’ve Never Lived”—was about him.5

MORRISON: Clinton was critical of our relationship. [He] always used to say to me, “One day he’ll open Pandora’s box and he’ll be gone.” Well, I knew that. I was no idiot. I told Robert that story one day and Robert wrote that song, “You’ve Never Lived.” It’s really true, Clinton hadn’t lived then, and Robert was saying, “We’ve had a lot more experience than you could ever dream of—together.”

It would be McLennan, however, who faced the consequences of Walker’s unhappiness.

WALKER: I was disappointed with Spring Hill Fair. Not so much the songs, just the presentation. It strikes me as sort of scrappy.

McLENNAN: Fair enough. I don’t find it scrappy at all. It’s a record where we talked right from the start of a Loaded or a White Album, where there would be different songs on the record, and I stand by that. I deny the allegations of scrappiness . . . It’s the best played, best sung album we’ve done. I don’t think it’s fair to say that because Before Hollywood was cohesive the next one has to be equal to it.

“Also,” he added, almost arguing himself around to Walker’s point of view, “we had a tough time with the producer. He wants to make one record, we want to make another. Or we’re unsure.”

McLENNAN: It’s misunderstood, I think, our first misunderstood album.

WALKER: But is it not possible that in the future you might look back on it as a turkey?

McLENNAN: Oh well . . . I’m sorry—I know you’re baiting me—but that’s ridiculous, in no way is it a turkey. It’s impossible for me to have anything to do with a turkey.

WALKER: But you do concede you weren’t wholly successful?

McLENNAN: I don’t think we were completely successful, no.6

Walker, the Go-Betweens’ closest friend in rock journalism throughout the 1980s, has never missed an opportunity to denigrate Spring Hill Fair since, calling it “a major disappointment,”7 “disjointed and uneven,”8 and so on. Even two years after its release, in an excellent “on the road” story about the group, Walker was still worrying at the Spring Hill Fair “problem.” Forster explained it as “a period in the wilderness. We made a lot of bad moves.” McLennan claimed there had been pressure from the record label: “We bowed to a lot of demands we shouldn’t have.” Morrison’s answer makes the best sense:

The reason Spring Hill Fair was such a disaster was due to the relationships in the band at the time. They were fucked. There were little power struggles going on all over the place. We were a neurotic mess. It was a horrible experience, and it shows.9

An interview for Jamming at the

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