Before Hollywood

Before Hollywood
Studio album by
ReleasedMay 1983
RecordedOctober 1982
StudioICC Studios, Eastbourne, England
GenreRock, alternative rock, indie rock
Length39:00
LabelRough Trade
ProducerJohn Brand
The Go-Betweens chronology
Send Me a Lullaby
(1982)
Before Hollywood
(1983)
Spring Hill Fair
(1984)
Singles from Before Hollywood
  1. "Cattle and Cane"
    Released: February 1983

Before Hollywood is the second album by Australian rock band the Go-Betweens, released in May 1983. The album reached No. 2 on the UK Independent Charts and a single, "Cattle and Cane" reached No. 4.[1] In 2001 "Cattle and Cane" was voted as one of the 30 all-time best Australian songs in an Australasian Performing Right Association poll of 100 music industry personalities.[2]

The album, recorded in the UK, was the first to have a 50-50 split of songs written by Robert Forster and Grant McLennan. In a 1996 radio interview McLennan nominated Before Hollywood as one of his two definitive Go-Betweens albums, describing it as a "nice combination of our skewered and classic songwriting, but with a heavy underground feeling".[3][4]

An expanded version was released in 2002 featuring a second disc of eight bonus tracks and a music video for "Cattle and Cane."

  1. ^ Lazell, Barry (1997). Indie Hits 1980–1989. Cherry Red Books. ISBN 0-9517206-9-4. Archived from the original on 7 July 2010.
  2. ^ APRA AMCOS Top 30 songs
  3. ^ Kingsmill, Richard (2002). The J Files Compendium. Sydney: ABC Books. p. 113. ISBN 0-7333-1066-4.
  4. ^ In a Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun interview in 2000 McLennan named Before Hollywood as his favourite Go-Betweens album. See "Ready, set, Go-Between" by Graeme Hammond, Sunday Herald Sun, 17 September 2000.