Someone tell me why I do the things that I don’t wanna do
When you’re around me I’m somebody else
They must rank up there with the greatest opening lines of all time. But it’s not St. Paul singing them, it’s St. Bob (no, not that St. Bob). We’re talking here about Robert Pollard, lead singer and main songwriter of Dayton’s lo-fi heroes, Guided By Voices. Their story is well known: Pollard spent the 80s as a fourth-grade school teacher by day and an alarmingly prolific indie-rock guru by night, before finding cult success in the early 90s with GBV’s Bee Thousand. GBV’s albums typically contain around 20 songs, many of which are under 1:30 in length, ranging in audio fidelity from answering-machine to voicemail level. But the overwhelming quantity doesn’t necessarily equate to inverse quality. When Pollard is on, no one brews a more potent mix of power chords, surreal poetry and faux British accents.
Much of GBV’s charm has to do with digging through the mess to discover the (many) miniature masterpieces. That, and filling in the missing (or inaudible) parts with your imagination. As pretentious as it sounds – and GBV are the opposite of pretentious – they take “listening for what’s not there” to a whole new level. And their sprawl is endearing; there’s something beautiful about the coarseness, something liberating about the immediacy and lack of self-consciousness. These guys really let it all hang out.
“Teenage FBI” is the product of a brief flirtation with a major label just before the turn of the century. Cars frontman Ric Ocasek coaxed them into high fidelity for Do the Collapse, a record which many of the true believers promptly (and naturally) disowned. A decade down the line, I think we can safely say that it’s a pretty terrific record, full of top-notch songwriting and inventive arrangements, with not nearly as much (soulless) sheen as it was accused of at the time. They would best it on their next release, Isolation Drills, but that’s neither here nor there. It should be noted that the version of “Teenage FBI” that has passed into indie-rock canon is not the Ocasek-version (with the keyboards) – it’s the original, shorter take from the Wish In One Hand… EP (1997).
You may be familiar with the song via its use in the two greatest teenage sleuth TV shows of the past decade, “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Veronica Mars.” It also makes a suitably salty salute to what we’ve been writing about the last few days, namely, the multiple personality aspect of the human condition:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODK0MXIXkk0&w=600]
Someone tell me why
I do the things
That I don’t wanna do
When you’re around me… I’m somebody else
Someone tell me why I act like a fool
When things don’t go my way
When you’re around me… I’m somebody else
There is good reason I guess
Having it once gone too far
When you clean out the hive
Does it make you wanna cry?
Are you still being followed by the teenage FBI?
Someone tell me why
Someone tell me why I do the things
That I don’t wanna do
When you’re around me
I’m somebody else
Someone tell me why
This post is dedicated to Caleb Maskell. Oh, God Bless You!
COMMENTS
9 responses to “Are You Still Being Followed by the Teenage FBI? When Guided By Voices Soundtracked Romans 7”
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Thanks Dave! This is really sweet, and right on the money. If anyone should know about ruinous indirection it is Bob Pollard. Or me. Or anyone, actually. Except maybe John Stott.
It seems fitting to raise a flag here for “Liquid Indian,” the most underrated track on Do The Collapse. It has nothing to do with the gospel but it does have one of the best GBV choruses ever…the peak of shafts the Ric Ocasek effect was meant to do.
But alas, no more such sweetness forthcoming from that partnership. Apparently he forbade them to drink in the studio…it was a shortlived working relationship!
Hmm. I have been punk’d by auto-correct. “Peak of shafts” is meant to read “peak of what” obviously. Sigh.
So exciting to see GBV on the ‘Bird! I was actually thinking about how this song would make for an appropriate post here just last month, so this kinda blows me away. Do you know “Dusted” off the Fast Japanese Spin Cycle EP? Another one of Pollard’s best! And how about those lyrics?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwUgou8yaRQ
Comes a sign of wasted times
I will wait no more
Ever trudging through the aimless
Forest we explore
In our boots and money chains
Misfitting cloaks we can’t contain
Hidden hates of urgency
Declaring our emergency
And up the tallest window world
The distance was not clear
Unoccupied with brutish thoughts
We had no cause to fear
A lesson so severe
Hotter than the fire we build
Darker than the truth
Ignorance reflected in
The windows of our youth
Push me now beyond the bounds
Of healing hands and thorny crowns
And all the sadness it implies
I’ve tasted with my own two eyes
And as the catlle rack was cleaned
The floor was brightly stained
And larger though we grew in size
Not a thing was gained
But fate has so ordained
That is an incredible song. And I definitely had not heard it before. Thanks so much for sharing, Tay. And if you ever felt like putting together a list of GBV gems, esp of the mbird-friendly variety, I for one would be all ears…