Grant McLennan - In Memoriam

"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee"

It's inevitable that with each passing year, legends of rock'n'roll will die. This year we lost the quicksilver genius, Arthur Lee, and the madcap recluse, Syd Barrett, the most famous rock stars for whom the bell tolled.

What such inevitability can't prepare us for is the swift, cruel and untimely tolling of the bell for someone whose music came out when we were growing up, that period which still feels preciously close because of its weight of influence on our contemporary thoughts and feelings.

Grant McLennan, whose unparalleled creativity with The Go-Betweens from 1978-90, and then 1998-2006, soundtracked those years. It's still with a numbing disbelief that I think of Grant McLennan as dead. This song, Easy Come Easy Go, is taken from The Go-Betweens' final gig in their first incarnation, at Selina's, Coogee Bay Hotel, Sydney, Australia, on December 1, 1989. I post it here in memoriam to one of the all-time greats:

Easy Come Easy Go - The Go-Betweens