The Go-Betweens - Legacy

Legacy

The focal point of The Go-Betweens was the song writing skills of Forster and McLennan, described by The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau as "the greatest songwriting partnership working today." Each developed a distinctive but complementary style: Forster's songs were angular and angst-ridden, making much use of irony and unusual lyrical imagery, while McLennan's were generally softer and more sensitive, his lyrics often based on character study and reported speech. Without ever securing an Australian or UK Top 50 chart single—a fact which mystified their supporters in the press, to the point where this "scandalous" lack of popular success became a cliché when writing about the band. However, there were a few very minor chart successes for the band, starting with "Spring Rain", which sneaked in to the lower rungs of the Australian charts in 1986 and became the band's first ever Top 100 chart hit. The following year, "Right Here" similarly rode low on the UK Top 100 Charts. Then in 1988, "Streets of Your Town", the first single from 1988's 16 Lovers Lane, reached the Top 100 in both Australia and UK.

In May 2001 "Cattle and Cane", written by McLennan and Forster, was selected by Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. McLennan described writing the lyrics:

I wrote (the song) to please my mother. She hasn't heard it yet because my mother and stepfather live (on a cattle station) and they can't get 240 volts electricity there, so I have to sing it over the phone to her I don't like the word nostalgic; to me, it's a sloppy yearning for the past, and I'm not trying to do that in that song. I'm just trying to put three vignettes of a person, who's a lot like myself, growing up in Queensland, and just juxtaposing that against how I am now. —Grant McLennan, 1983

Their song, "Streets of Your Town", was used by Prime Television and GWN in their station identification from 2001 to 2003. Elements from the same song were sampled in the 2003 single "Just The Way You Are" by the Italian dance group Milky.

In the 4th Season of American TV Series 24 a company is named McLennan-Forster—the producer of the series and author, Evan Katz, wanted to express his veneration of the Go-Betweens by this company name.

On the eve of the first anniversary of McLennan's death, Triple J & JTV broadcast a tribute concert to The Go-Betweens, recorded in 2006 at Brisbane venue, the Tivoli Theatre. Inspired by this tribute concert, and featuring many of the same artists, a tribute album to The Go-Betweens, Write Your Adventures Down, was released in June 2007 in Australia by The Red Label.

In 2008, 16 Lovers Lane was highlighted on Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) TV's The Great Australian Albums series as a classic example of 1980s rock music. The documentary was later released on DVD.

On 29 September 2009, Brisbane City Council announced that a four-lane traffic bridge, previously known as Hale Street Link, would be renamed as Go Between Bridge in the band's honour, following a popularity poll.

The Go-Betweens are referenced in the Teenage Fanclub song "When I Still Have Thee" (2010), the Belle and Sebastian song "Shoot the Sexual Athlete" (2001), and the song "Don't Want to Be Grant McLennan" (1991) by fellow Australians Smudge.

Nada Surf covered their song "Love Goes On!" on their covers album If I Had a Hi-Fi (2010).

Robert Forster continues to perform and also contribute articles to The Monthly magazine.