Guided By Voices' Bee Thousand

Description

Marc Woodworth's book covers the album's long and unorthodox period of writing, recording, sequencing, and editing. It includes interviews with members of the band, manager Pete Jamison, web-master and GBV historian Rich Turiel and Robert Griffin of Scat Records. At least sixty-five songs were recorded and considered for the album and five distinct concepts were rejected before the band hit upon the records final form. One late version, very nearly released, contained only a few of Bee Thousand's definitive songs. The rest were left out and nearly ended up in the boxes of cassette out-takes cluttering up Robert Pollard's basement. The story of Guided By Voices transformation from an occasional and revolving group of complete unknowns to indie-rock heroes is very much part of the story behind the making of Bee Thousand. In addition to providing a central account of how the record was made, Woodworth devotes a substantial chapter to the album's lyrics. Robert Pollard's lyrics are described by critics, when they're described at all, as a brand of tossed-off surrealism, as if his verbal sensibility is somehow incidental to the songs themselves. Nothing could be further from the truth. Woodworth offers a sustained discussion of Pollard's work as a writer of often sublime, beautiful, and very human lyrics. The third key section of the book covers aesthetics. Woodworth considers the great appeal of the do-it-yourself nature of Bee Thousand and reflects on the larger importance of the strain of alternative rock for which this record is a touchstone.

Marc Woodworth is the author of Solo: Women Singer-Songwriters in their Own Words (Dell, 1998) and a volume of poetry, Arcade (Grove Press, 2002). He edits the international quarterly Salmagundi and teaches at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Bee Thousand makes perfect sense for Continuum's famous 331/3 series. The breakthrough album for Guided by Voices undoubtedly has an appropriate stature, as it exemplified a certain style of lo-fi, DIY aesthetic that's still influential. Moreover, Robert Pollard's elliptical lyrics and layered, yet quasi-improvisational melodies would seem to profit from a handy introduction. Everyone I know who listens to Guided by Voices was introduced to their music by some knowledgeable friend, a role which Marc Woodworth ably takes up in his short book. What's more interesting about Bee Thousand, though, is the way it both embraces and complicates the nostalgia permeating the entire 331/3 series. Simultaneously a mythologizing and d demythologizing book, Bee Thousand demonstrates yet again the power of Faulkner's claim that 'the past isn't even past.' ...Woodworth's book should help listeners of any age find joy in such oddities as "Hardcore UFOs," "a dairy creamer explicitly laid out as a fruitcake," and the "kicker of elves." More generally, anyone interested in DIY-type bands should find the bands narratives relevant. * popmatters.com * Much like the album it chronicles, Marc Woodworth's book on Guided by Voices' Bee Thousand feels lo-fi, as though it was written in a suburban Ohio garage and cobbled together from spare parts: insightful analysis of themes and lyrics, thoughtful musings on the actual experience of listening, punchy riffs on Robert Pollard's rock-hero stage presence, lengthy oral-history narratives by band members and unrelated listeners. This barely processed quality-raw, weird, rambling, direct-not only mirrors that of its subject, but also complements it by emphasizing the glorious spontaneity of the record. -- Stephen M. Deusner * Pitchfork *