ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #032

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#032– The Go-Betweens – ‘Cattle and Cane’ (Rough Trade Records ’83)

Dear friends,

yes, yes, yes – the moment you’ve all been waiting for has finally come: for a change, I have a band for you with at least a bit of recognition value! Plus one of the finest singles of the last 40 years, to be sure.

The Go-Betweens it is, folks – I mean, come on, who does not adore them, right?! Formed in 1977 in Brisbane, Queensland – and I don’t mention this as a filler of what might or might not turn out to be boring nonsense again anyway, no, in fact their origins are of some importance for this specific song, you’ll wait and see.

Now, a lot of fans and specialists regard ‘Cattle And Cane’ as The Go-Betweens’ finest moment. And they do so because of the track’s highly uncommon time signature and because of its lyrics. I am a complete fuckwit when it comes to being able to read music, so for the more educated of you: “the time signature (also known as meter, metre, and measure signature) is a convention in Western music notation to specify how many of a particular note value are contained in each measure (bar). The time signature is a notational device representing the meter, an auditory feature of the music.”

So there you are, but even if I had understood one single word of the above, I would still disagree: ‘Cattle And Cane’ is certainly not their best song, in fact if ‘Draining The Pool For You’ had been released on 7”, I would perhaps have chosen it instead. But I would surely have chosen the band’s second single, 1979’s ‘People Say’ – the problem is that it’s one of the two famous Able Label – singles, the cheapest copy on discogs is for € 999.99. On the plus side, it’s only € 7,- for postage (from Portugal)…. so just let me contemplate a bit longer, will you? But for now, ‘People Say’ is not yet included in the wooden box along with the other 110 singles.

But, instead, ‘Cattle And Cane’ is – written in 1982 in London, because this is where the band retreated to in this year, in Nick Cave’s apartment, in fact, and on his acoustic guitar. But it was recorded in Eastbourne of all places – again this is of some importance, at least for those of you who know Eastbourne … which is not exactly the UK’s most, hmmm, delightful spot, let’s put it this way.

Which brings us to the lyrics, in which Grant McLennan tells us an autobiographical story of a train journey he once did, heading home as a schoolboy. Now, being stuck in the UK, cold and grey, plus finally ending up in bloody Eastbourne, McLennan was full of severe homesickness, constantly thinking about the past and his life, his friends and his family back in Queensland. And that, basically, is the background of ‘Cattle And Cane’, so very well transmogrified into four of the finest verses ever written.

To quote The Canberra Times: “the three verses by McLennan cover three phases of his life to date in a series of images – the primary schoolboy scrambling through cane fields, the adolescent in boarding school losing his late father’s watch in the showers, the young man at university discovering a bigger brighter world – and then the fourth phase of his life: Robert Forster, playing himself.”

mp3:  The Go-Betweens – Cattle and Cane

Listening to it, we actually feel like we’re on that train together with Grant, don’t we?

Take care, all the best, and …. enjoy,

Dirk