From: Graeham Goble
Subject: It’s A Long Way There – Little River Band

Hi Bob.

I read, with great interest, your blog on my song ‘It’s A Long Way There’.

I wrote it on June 2nd, 1972, almost 40 years ago! Time certainly has gone fast.

I was in my 20s and I had just left my home town of Adelaide, to pursue a music career in Melbourne. I was having a difficult time emotionally, with missing home, but I was very aware that the JOURNEY I was taking was my destiny. These were my first, tentative steps into a new and unfamiliar World. I didn’t want to leave my home town of Adelaide, but I knew it was something I had to do. I was very anxious and I missed my home enormously. For the first few months, I used to travel back to Adelaide (9 hours by car), every 3 weeks to see my family, and have home cooked food! It took a long time for me to let go.

The idea for “It’s A Long Way There” came from that 9 hour road trip I used to make. I realised much later though that there was something deeper within the words. And looking back on it now, it was a premonition of where life was taking me… I’m glad I listened!

It’s one of those records that still sounds great even today. I think that has a lot to do with the guys who played on it. We were doing 8 gigs a week those days. So when we went into the recording studio we were so well rehearsed we could just focus on the performance. We recorded it live, including the guitar solo work by Ric Formosa… just overdubbing the string section and vocals. (I remember cutting the vocals at 3 a.m.). Each take we did was a little under 9mins long, and there was no Pro Tools back then, so you had to get it right! Of course, today, with Technology, you wouldn’t try for the whole band having to get everything right at the same time, but there was a magic to the way LRB used to record… it was like the collective energy in the room was the 7th player. You can definitely hear that in the record.

That was 1975 and now, in 2013, LRB is still touring the US, but sadly with NO original members. Through a bizarre legal situation, the original members have lost the rights to our ‘Little River Band’ name and Trademark. But even though we’ve lost the right to call ourselves Little River Band, it’s good to know our songs still live on!

Thanks again Bob.

Sincerely,

Graeham Goble
Founding member of Little River Band
www.graehamgoble.com