Grant McLennan died in his sleep at home in Brisbane in May 2006. This brought to a close an important chapter in the story of popular music. His name, and that of his songwriting partner Robert Forster, should be uttered in the same breath as Lennon and McCartney, but justice is an elusive concept in music.

Their band, The Go-Betweens, released nine albums, at least three of which are certifiable classics. Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express was the first in a trilogy of records that redefined the borders between poetry and pop music. The songwriting on this and their two subsequent albums, Tallulah and 16 Lovers Lane, is almost transcendent in its lyrical grandeur.

The sparks that fly from the collision of humour and romance in their lyrics are the source of some of the most illuminating indoor fireworks that can be experienced between a set of speakers.

The hits they so richly deserved never materialised. And yet the experiments they conducted in their creative vacuum of commercial failure spawned a body of work that has few equals.

McLennan and Forster met at film school in Brisbane in 1977. The amalgamation of powers that occurs when two artistic visions intertwine is an immeasurable force. They wrote separately but edited in tandem. The heights they scaled together were unreachable solo.

The most unlikely pairings in pop music have been the its most successful alchemists. Forster has said that he was the strategist and McLennan the dreamer, but evidence would suggest that both were well endowed in each department.

The best-laid strategic plans sometimes fail, but the power of dreams this lucid never dies.