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Who were The Go-Betweens trying to channel when they went into the studio to record this? “Man O’ Sand to Girl O’ Sea” sounds nothing like The Go-Betweens of Before Hollywood, released only 8 months prior, in fact it sounds nothing like The Go-Betweens at all.

This bashful quintet (previously a trio, this song is the first recording to feature Robert Vickers on bass), normally introspective and restrained, shows rare garage rock flight, sounding like a cross between the Strangeloves and the Seeds, dispensing with their acoustic drifts and angular shackles, instead furiously peeling out in a overdriven declaration of love. While this isn’t quite the seismic shift of Dylan going electric, it’s a dazzling step up that would’ve surprised fans still enraptured by the previous single, the majestic “Cattle and Cane”.

As soon as needle hits record, it’s instantly apparent we’re deep in Robert Forster territory. It has his off-kilter stamp all over it. The title implies a relationship between two things that by natural order go together, but for reasons unexplained aren’t; his “Man O’ Sand” pleading for the return of his “Girl O’ Sea”. After the introductory screech of guitars, Forster dispenses with all formality cutting to the chase with a stern “I want you back”, and then sticking his chest out further, braggingly announces “I was so sure of our love, I wrote a song about us breaking up”. He ventures forth the title of this imaginary song (unfortunately never penned for real) as “The Traffic Lights on the Street of Love”, uttering it’s parenthetical punch-line “have just turned red…..turned red”, before tearing into the monosyllable chorus matching word for word/beat for beat with Lindy Morrison’s pneumatic snare hits.

The highly acclaimed Before Hollywood was still fresh to the ears when The Go-Betweens went to record “Man O’ Sand to Girl O’ Sea” in August of 1983. The Rough Trade single version here is the song in its most primal form. It spits our fire compared to the later version re-recorded and tacked on to end of the Spring Hill Fair album of 1984, where it sits as an uneasy bookend, tamed and restrained, with Forster’s opening call sounding petulant, rather than forceful. Its place on the end of the album goes to show what an oddity the song was in The Go-Betweens’ rapidly expanding canon. It’s only toward the end of the Spring Hill Fair version does Forster venture into a further R&B/garage influence, borrowing from the Isley Brothers “Shout” with the humorously adlibbed “I feel no better! I feel no better!” toward the end.

Forster’s confident start has all but gone by the third verse, now down on his knees, reduced to whispers, pleading “don’t talk about it, don”t talk about it…pleaaase” the pure comedy of which has barely time to register before he’s back on his feet, announcing with an uncharacteristic scream of “Guitar!” as Grant McLennan launches into one of the most discordant solos in The Go-Betweens’ history. Lindy Morrison’s steadfast drumming never loses its footing, despite Forster appearing resigned to his fate with the line “so we break up, you leave my life, leave me alone.” Over the final verse he becomes even more desperate and deranged, repeatedly calling out “I want you back, I want you back,” as McLennan takes over singing the chorus and their electric guitars fight it out into a ragged fade-out finale. The Spring Hill Fair recording has the slight edge here, adding a frenetic guitar solo that lasts for well over a minute.

Few Go-Betweens tracks really came close to matching the spirit and zeal of “Man O’ Sand to Girl O’ Sea”. There are elements in “You’ve Never Lived” on Spring Hill Fair and “In the Core of a Flame” from Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express where the band go on the attack, but never to the same extent. Put simply, this is my favourite Go-Betweens single, my ultimate Go-Betweens song; better than “Cattle and Cane”, better than “Spring Rain”, better than “Part Company”, better than “Bachelor Kisses”. With the sad passing of Grant McLennan in 2006, there will never be another Go-Betweens record, and now after I’ve closed the book on this band, a song like this reminds me just how important they were, and Forster’s lingering call of “I want you back” echoing my own thoughts on how dearly I miss this band.

Go-Betweens Website