For many of us, it’s been one of those kinds of year, hasn’t it? Covid, heatwaves, inflation, a war in Europe…it all can get you down a little. But, let’s keep the chin up, and remember “life goes on”. Which brings us to this month’s Forgotten Gem, “Litany”, parenthetically called “Life Goes On” by Guadalcanal Diary.
Guadalcanal Diary were an under-rated little four-piece band lumped in with the “Athens Scene” of the ’80s. Which was not absolutely correct…but isn’t far off. Technically they were based in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, but they tended to play a lot of shows in, and hang out with a lot of musicians from Athens, Georgia, about 100 miles to the east during their run in the ’80s. They shared a little of the jangle sound of R.E.M. (whom they sometimes hung out with) and at times a bit of the quirky humor of the B-52s. Formed in 1981 by guitarist and singer Murray Attaway and guitarist/keyboardist Jeff Walls who’d played together in a few other bands at the tail-end of the ’70s, they added in drummer John Poe and Walls’ girlfriend (later wife) Rhett Crowe – whose brother was in the then-rising Athens band Pylon – on bass. They put out a well-reviewed indie EP in ’83 then signed to Elektra Records. Although they got decent airplay on college radio across the land and at times on MTV, the albums weren’t big-sellers.
“Litany” was the lead single off their third Elektra album, 1987‘s 2X4. They went to producer Don Dixon for help with it, a good choice in the South during that decade. He’d co-produced the first two R.E.M. albums . It was a bit cleaner and more robust sound than the preceding record. This one for example features a big, ’80s beat from Poe, who played, as the record liner notes put it “drums and more drums”, as well as a tastefully restrained guitar solo. Not to mention a catchy chorus and jangle very reminiscent of their more successful friends who were at the time riding high with Document. As with most of their songs, Attaway wrote it; the only song on the original edition of 2X4 not by him was a cover of the Beatles “And Your Bird Can Sing.”
The single sounded timely, upbeat and hook-y, but didn’t do much unfortunately. Elektra didn’t seem to push it (oddly they put it out as a 12” vinyl single…with the same version of the song on both sides!) and despite a good reception at college stations and the odd pioneering Alt Rock station like CFNY in Toronto, it failed to chart.
They had a wee bit of chart success with their next album, Flip Flop and the single “Always Saturday” which made it onto Billboard‘s Alternative Rock chart, but with Crowe being a new mom and all of them tiring of the stereotypical driving from gig to gig across the land in an old van, they called it quits around the end of the decade. Rowe and Attaway have both suggested to A Sound Day that if they had persevered a few more years, they might possibly have had a chance to take advantage of the changing tastes of the ’90s and do better, but neither seem to regret the experience of being in an underground band in the ’80s… or of calling it quits when they did. After all…”Life Goes On.”