Lush strings, rich three-part vocal harmonies, blending acoustic guitars and an almost non-stop lead guitar, all stretched out to nearly nine minutes. That’s a hell of a way of a band to introduce themselves on the radio, but the then-infant Little River Band did just that to break into the American market with “It’s a Long Way There.”
Formed just a year earlier, this Australian troupe was founded by musicians who were already musical stars in their native country, but struck out in the U.K. Now, they set their sights on the USA.
Their self-titled album came out in Australia in November 1975, and then reached America the following year. Helped along by promotional tours, its long leadoff track started appearing on rock radio. The radio edit version chopped more than half of the song off, but was good enough to give the Little River Band their first American hit, getting into the Top 30.
That touched off a string of 13 top 40 hits in the U.S., like “Happy Anniversary,” “Reminiscing” and “Lady,” but their first one rollicked and rocked more than the songs they’re better known for – and the melody was one of the best Graeham Goble ever wrote.
Having listened to a lot of album rock radio at the time, it’s the unabridged version I think of, and it doesn’t even feel that long to me. In spite of Ric Formosa’s endless guitar soloing, the vocal synthesis of Glenn Shorrock, Beeb Birtles and Goble makes this song go.
Graeham Goble wrote “It’s a Long Way There” as the first of several Little River Band songs describing his first-hand accounts of a life on the road. The band sought to follow the Eagles’ country-rock formula for success, but more often than not ended up sounding more like Crosby Stills and Nash. You could even argue that Shorrock’s soulful lead voice approximated Stills, while Birtles sung the “Nash” parts and Gobles was the band’s David Crosby, harmony-wise.
It wasn’t the match of Crosby Stills and Nash at their best, but darn close enough. In fact, “It’s a Long Way There” might be the best CSN song that CSN never did.
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