The Go-Betweens ?sing Lee Remick (+Karen)
  A$   859
  $   569

 


A$ 859 Sold For
Nov 22, 2019 Sold Date
Nov 12, 2019 Start Date
A$   400 Start price
16   Number Of Bids
  Australia Country Of Seller
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Description

The Go-Betweens ?sing Lee Remick (+Karen)

Label: Able Label ?– AB001 Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single
Country: Australia Released: Sep 1978 Genre: Rock, Pop Style: Indie Pop

Tracklist

A Lee Remick Written-By – R. Forster* 2:28 B Karen Written-By – R. Forster* 4:04
In the late 1970s Grant McLennan, who was working part-time at the Toowong Music Centre, a small independent record store, suggested to the owner, Damien Nelson, that they establish a record label. With funding from Nelson, McLennan and Forster they established the Able Label. The first release on the new label was the Go-Betweens' "Lee Remick". The song was recorded at Window Studios on 16 May 1978 with Dennis Cantwell, the drummer of fellow Brisbane band, The Numbers. In David Nichols' seminal book on the Go-Betweens, Forster recalls that the selection of the studio was fortunate "We got it out of the phone book. It was twenty-four track, it had good microphones. We did it in three hours. It would have been only the twentieth time we'd played those songs ever."

The single however was not released until September as Nelson, Forster and McLennan, who were essentially ignorant about the vinyl-pressing process, had ordered a thousand labels for the record, with each one having to be moistened and individually applied to the record by hand. Nelson stating "We got 700 of these singles back, then we got the labels for the A-side and the B-side. And we just sat around the table sticking them on." By the time the single was released the group had appointed the band's first full-time drummer, Temucin Mustafa, who is listed on the sleeve as a member of the band even though he didn't play on the recordings. The single's sleeve depicts Forster and McLennan alongside portraits of Bob Dylan, Che Guevara and Lee Remick.

In a subsequent interview Forster recalls "It was one of the first songs I wrote. I wanted to write a love song. But I wasn't in love with anyone, so I just projected it towards that screen image. I didn't know anyone I felt strongly enough about to write a love song for."He also stated "I didn't have a girlfriend or any sort of romantic side to my life ... I wanted to write a love song. But who was I in love with? No-one. I had to find someone and I found Lee Remick".

The B-side to the single, "Karen", was written as a tribute to the University of Queensland library staff. Forster states "'Karen' is a song I wrote while I was there [University of Queensland]. I spent a lot of time in the libraries and the librarians had this stillness about them I found very attractive." and "They reminded me a little of nuns in a convent. There was kindness in the library, then you walk out of the library into the harsh real world."


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