Hey, does anyone know the name of the Go Betweens song that plays at 3:31 in the vid below??? This has been driving me nuts for a while now. It's a bad ass track.

As promised:

Nelson was able to point the group in one direction: that of film and video. He invited The Go-Betweens to create a TV commercial for Nelson’s record shop, the Toowong Music Centre. Nelson, an ardent Dylan fan – he even wrote to RAM in 1978, defending Dylan from a hostile critic – came up with the idea of recreating the “Subterranean Homesick Blues” sequence from D.A. Pennebaker’s 1965 Dylan documentary, Don’t Look Back. The image of Dylan, in an alley, holding up signs displaying key words from the song has been influential ever since the film was released. Brisbane cineaste and director Robin Gold, who was present at the shooting of the commercial, believes that no one involved has actually seen Don’t Look Back, and that they had only heard of he scene. Damien Nelson’s father funded the commercial, which was made in black and white (in the face of heavy opposition from technicians and television stations in what were the early days of Australian color television).

The group recorded the backing music in a studio in Indooroopilly. When they arrived for the session, Forster and McLennan assured Nelson they had the song ready. Then he remembers, “they disappeared for about five minutes. And I know now what they were doing – they were writing it. And they recorded it!”

Forster sang the song, which opened with some alarming nonsense of “Some glass camels don’t even run / Some poor witch and her revolving gun / Shifts down, runs down, in her fur gown.” But he only appeared briefly in the commercial, which featured McLennan holding up handwritten signs featuring the words WHO?/GETS/ONE/DOLLAR/OFF/ALL RECORDS AT/TOOWONG MUSIC/NOW/EVERYBODY/EVERY/BODY. The visuals and music were not synchronized, so – unlike the original ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues” clip – the music was merely a surreal backdrop to the visual quote.

NELSON: We got a film guy, Jan Murray, and he did it in an alleyway one morning. It looked fantastic. It’s a real lost classic.*

You see Robert Forster at the beginning. First shot, Robert pokes his head round the alleyway. The final shot is of Grant walking – high shot from above – over “Toowong Music,” the letters put on the ground.

McLennan’s memory of the commercial is not dissimilar, though it contains more vomiting:

McLENNAN: I was sick as a dog that day. I’d been up all night. We shot it in this alleyway next to the Black Cat, which was a little cafe then. I think McDonald’s is there now. But there was this great laneway, very much like the start of Don’t Look Back, and I had this houndstooth double-breasted kind of Dylan suit that a friend of mine used to wear in the 1960s – she got it out of mothballs. I thought I was Bob Dylan. I felt as sick as Bob Dylan on that ’66 tour. We shot it early in the morning before people went to work, and Damien’s sister, Theresa was there. Damien was there, Robert was there, I was there, Robin [Gold] was there. All I remember was getting sick and getting in the car and vomiting all the way to Bardon.

The advertisement was shown at least once, possibly twice, on late-night television in Brisbane. “My parents never saw it, thank God,” says Nelson. “I’m sure if Dad had seen it he’d have hit the roof!”

*It’s not that lost. The ad has been located by Fiona Dempster for her documentary.

The Go-Betweens, David Nichols, Verse Chorus Press, Portland USA, 2003, pp 67-69.

I can't see why they wouldn't record it as an actual song and release it, despite it being for a commercial, they have to know the song kicked ass. So why not record a full length version and release it as a single, or on an LP? It's got a TOTAL Velvet Underground influence to it, that's for sure.

Do you happen to know the title of the LP? Is it called "1978 To 1990"? That's a double LP.

http://www.go-betweens.net/discography/199078to90/199078to90.htm

so little of a slice of a song. it's a very early track. probably on ABLE records? there is a double LP comp of early Go-Bees (before they ventured to England), that you may be able to find the track on. check Amazon or Ebay for it. good luck...

DAMN IT! Hahaha. I'd love to see the page, thank you!

That's possible, which makes this search even more difficult. I emailed the group asking them, so I'll hopefully be hearing back. Plus I asked Henry Weld over at Collectorscum being as he's from Australia and is very knowledgeable with Aussie and NZ Punk Rock. If I do find out, I'll let ya know, unless someone else on here cracks it first! This has been bothering me for YEARS, I've seen the docu before I saw it on YouTube and I've been wondering since.

You're not going to like this. It's a television commercial they recorded for a record shop - The Toowong Music Centre, Nelson. It's on page 67 of the David Nichols Go-Betweens book. It was a song they appear to have made up on the spot. I'll transcribe the page if you're interested.

Ooh, interesting. It's nothing I recognise. I've had a quick scoot through the 78-79 lost album and the extras on the Send Me A Lullaby set and it's not on there. I'm wondering if it's Robert Forster (it is him, isn't it?) guest-fronting another band?

Ha, sorry! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBBedyqDRbQ

I"m gonna say Man o' Sand Girl o' Sea without seeing any video, haha.

Which video, Sean? I can't see anything. I should be able to help you once I can access the footage.