Song · The Go-Betweens
“Cattle and Cane” by The Go-Betweens
From the album Before Hollywood (1983)
“Cattle and Cane” by The Go-Betweens appears on 6 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 1989 and 2023. It was first released in 1983 on the album Before Hollywood. Its best result is #11 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of All-Time (1989). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,950 alternative song of all time.
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"Cattle and Cane" led the Go-Betweens into their second album, Before Hollywood, coming out on Rough Trade in the UK in February 1983, and it's as quietly devastating as indie pop gets. Grant McLennan wrote the words for his mother, a memory piece about a boy coming home to a farm in Queensland, and he picked out the music on Nick Cave's acoustic guitar while crashing at Cave's London flat.
Robert Forster co-wrote it and adds guitar and a murmured spoken part, McLennan sings and plays bass, and Lindy Morrison's drums stumble and sway beautifully, with her voice in the backing too. John Brand produced and engineered. It climbed to 4 on the UK indie chart but went nowhere on the Australian charts; in 2001 APRA named it among the Top 30 Australian songs of all time.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 11 | Triple J | Triple J Hottest 100 of All-Time (1989) | 100 |
| 1990 | 27 | Triple J | Triple J Hottest 100 of All-Time (1990) | 100 |
| 1991 | 96 | Triple J | Triple J Hottest 100 of All-Time (1991) | 100 |
| 2002 | 1207 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 1547 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2023 | 352 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s | 850 |
Also listed as: Cattel And Cane; Cattle And Cane.
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