ABCs of My Vinyl Collection (Letter G, Part 9)

This is where it all began for me with the Go-Betweens. I was 16 when 'Liberty Belle And The Black Diamond Express' came out. I heard "Spring Rain". That was it. I ran to this otherwise terrible national-chain shop to pick it up. They didn't have it... but wait... there was a copy on cassette. As you can see above, I must have been champing at the bit because I bought it on the inferior format. Obviously, that wasn't good enough because I got it on vinyl later that year. I fell for the Aussies hard, and picked up what I could. Remember, this was 1986. Even though they were on Beggars Banquet, the band was a hard get among the cornfields of Illinois.

For example, in '87, I remember finding 'Tallulah' in the import bin of the record store in the nearest college town. For some inexplicable reason it was the German release on Rebel Rec. That more or less sums up the hodgepodge that is the Go-Betweens on my shelf. Used 12" singles, cassettes, imports from strange lands and, sadly, more CDs than vinyl. If you put all of the formats together, I can claim to have all of their long players, but I was still so tempted to get that 'G Stands For Go-Betweens' box Domino put out in 2015. It wasn't because of all the extras either. I liked the idea of all that Go-Betweens in one smart set. I suppose I liked the idea of buying something new from the Go-Betweens too. I had it in my hands, but I couldn't pull the trigger. Regret? Yes, a little, but seeing all of these records spread across the floor just now is a smile as I think about all of those trips to the shops as a lad.

For today's selections, I'm going to stick with my first love, the 'Liberty Belle' era. I have the two singles from that album on 12", and the flip sides are far from the usual B-side fare. At time of release, the best part was these were non-album tracks. These days, "The Wrong Road" is probably my favorite song on 'Liberty Belle', and this early version shows it was special from the beginning. It's nice to hear Tracey Thorn sing with Robert on "Head Full of Steam" too. I had no idea Robert and Lindy had been such good friends with Ben and Tracey back then until I read Tracey's book.

Spring Rain
The Life At Hand
Little Joe

Head Full of Steam (Remix)
Don't Let Him Come Back
The Wrong Road (Early Version)

Tomorrow is Record Store Day, and I'm actually going this year. One record I really want, however, is being sold only in the UK. If any of my friends from across the pond plan to stop into a shop tomorrow and need an American only release, I would love to make a deal. This is the 7" I'm seeking:

The Hit Parade - Happy World

Drop me a line at lineartrackinglives@gmail.com if you would like to work something out. I'll do my best to pick up your wants. That is all.