It’s All One Song: Challenge #2

The challenge? To find surprising (or unsurprising) connections between five artists randomly selected from my music library. In this challenge, I’ll try to find connections between:

• The Beatles
• ABC
• Hunters & Collectors
• The Church
• The Go-Betweens

So, let’s get connected!

Connecting The Church and The Go-Betweens

The first connection is pretty straightforward.

One of Australia’s most beloved Indie pop groups was The Go-Betweens, founded by Robert Forster and Grant McLennan in Brisbane in 1977. When the original lineup of The Go-Betweens split up in 1990, Grant McLennan teamed up with a bloke named Steve Kilbey to form a group called Jack Frost. They released a self-titled debut album in 1991 and reunited in 1996 for a second album, Snow Job.

Steve Kilbey is, of course, the bass player and vocalist of The Church, the prolific Aussie psychedelic ambient rockers founded in Sydney in 1980.

So that’s our first connection: from The Go-Betweens, we can link to Jack Frost and then to The Church.

Connecting The Beatles

To build my next connection, I need to return to The Go-Betweens and their song, Cattle and Cane, written by Grant McLennan on a borrowed guitar while he was staying at a mate’s place in London in 1982 — and that mate was Nick Cave! (Nick also provided backing vocals on an unreleased Go-Betweens song from 1981 called, After the Fireworks.)

In 2002, Nick Cave recorded a duet with country music legend, Johnny Cash, on Cash’s album, American IV: The Man Comes Around. Plus Johnny Cash covered Nick Cave’s The Mercy Seat on his 2000 album American 3: Solitary Man.

Johnny Cash has collaborated with many people during his long career, including performing a duet of Girl From North Country with Bob Dylan on Dylan’s 1969 album, Nashville Skyline.

Bob Dylan was, of course, a great mate of George Harrison. They were both members of The Traveling Wilburys. Plus, they co-wrote I’d Have You Anytime, the opening track from George’s triple album All Things Must Pass. George also covered Dylan’s If Not For You on the same album.

And George obviously was in The Beatles. So that’s our next connection: from The Go-Betweens, we can connect to Nick Cave, then Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and finally, The Beatles.

Connecting ABC

For our next connection, I need to use a different Beatle — Paul McCartney — and more specifically, his 1989 album, Flowers in the Dirt.

This album had a ridiculous number of producers, including Trevor Horn. Trevor is best known for his hit single with The Buggles from 1979, Video Killed the Radio Star. He then went on to replace Jon Anderson as the lead singer of prog rock Legends Yes on their 1980 album Drama. Trevor also produced Yes’s 1983 album, 90125 (by which time, John Anderson had returned as lead singer).

Trevor was also a founding member of The Art of Noise and has produced many albums for various artists, including Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Grace Jones, and Propaganda. And he also produced ABC’s debut album, 1982’s The Lexicon of Love.

So there’s our next connection: from The Beatles, we can connect with Paul McCartney, then Trevor Horn, and finally ABC.

Connecting Hunters & Collectors

For our final connection, we must go back to Paul McCartney’s Flowers in the Dirt.

One of the other producers of Flowers in the Dirt was Mitchell Foom, probably best known for his work with Crowded House. He produced their first three albums — their self-titled debut from 1986, Temple of Low Men from 1988, and Woodface from 1991. Plus, Mitchell later became a fully-fledged member of Crowded House on 2021’s Dreamers Are Waiting.

Now, the base player of Crowded House is Nick Seymour — and Nick’s brother, Mark Seymour, was the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of Hunters & Collectors.

So that’s our final connection: from Paul McCartney, we can connect to Mitchell Froom, then Crowded House, and finally Hunters & Collectors.

And thus, we are fully connected to the Universal Music Continuum.

And remember: as Neil Young said — it’s all one song!

Check out more challenges on my YouTube Channel:

And here’s some of the music featured in this challenge: