Why is Robert Pollard the most underrated songwritter ever?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZOGPMb3I8w

a question about bob pollard: has he collaborated musically/creatively with any women who are not kim deal?
just wondering, and it's kinda hard to search for and he has worked with a lot of different people. i am just wondering if any of them (aside from her) are women.
i can't think of any but i thought maybe someone here who had listened to more of his solo catalogue might have a better idea.

He did a track with someone called Stephanie Sayers on the "Waved Out" album. His 10,000 album catalogue is an enormous sausage fest basically.

xp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkqK9FYPxWE

had to look up her name but the music here is by Stephanie Sayers -- who judging from the below was also involved with that never made Soderbergh/Pollard Cleopatra movie musical.

Me: Okay, I have to ask you about "CLEO", a musical you are writing the music for. You are doing more then that though, right?

Stephanie: Actually, that's Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices) writing all the songs. I just took them back down to basics and recorded acoustic and vocal. Then we went into the studio and recorded the basic tracks. Something like 26 songs in three weeks.

Me: Is it a musical about Cleopatra?

Stephanie: I think so.

Me: When is it coming out, Steph, or did it come out already?

Stephanie: I don't know if it is.

Me: It's being directed by Steven Soderbergh. Did you get to meet Steven? How was that?

Stephanie: I think he's retiring now. We met at Musso and Frank's in Hollywood. I gave him a copy of "Odessey" and "Oracle" by the Zombies and some David Bowie tracks. I was very enamoured with the clarity and separation of the instrumentation on those records, also the transparency of the mixing. I thought conceptually it would be a good marker for the project and also for Pollard's writing.

Is she a solo artist only?

He has also gone on record as saying there will never be a woman in Guided by Voices. "No girls allowed in the club house" or some shit like that.

He is such a dick sometimes.

When did he say that?

here you go http://ink19.com/2001/04/magazine/interviews/guided-by-voices-9

No chicks in the tree house! That’s what I told Kim Deal. We were touring with The Breeders, and Kim asked me, right after Last Splash, “Why don’t you let me play bass?” And I thought for sure she was just fucking with me, so I said no. And I probably would have let her, but then I told her that we have a policy that there are no females allowed in Guided By Voices. It’s like when you’re a kid and you have your tree house and there’s no girls allowed in it. Then she did an interview in some GIRL magazine and she called me over and she goes, “Explain your philosophy to her!” And I said, “No chicks in the fuckin’ tree house, OK?”

Doesn't make a lick of sense.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/Pollardrelaxation.jpg

Pollard is an A-1 dick, no doubt (he's flipped-off his audience more than Mr. Rotten), but his song-writing should not be a point of contention. That he hasn't collaborated with the finer sex should be prefaced with instances where other (male) songwriters have (worked with women) to some prolific extent.

Nick Cave (PJ)
F Mac (McVie, Nicks)
Barry Gibb (Babara)
VU (Nico, Moe)
Stephen Merchant (?)

...still not real abundance...

...in rock/pop, anyways...

...plenty of instances with country, jazz, blues, etc, with FAR more crossed-gender efforts, no?

But, yes, he hasn't work with females... did Rush, ZZ Top, Scott Walker, Gerry Rafferty, etc.....?

men writing songs for women is super-common in rock/pop

(which is not really what La Lechera was asking about but you brought it up...)

I took her point to be more that a guy whose led a successful indie rock band for decades with tons of line-up changes - ie who's worked with an inordinately large range of collaborators/backing musicians - has never involved a single woman (apart from Kim Deal), is pretty weird.

A good point of comparison is Mark E. Smith & the Fall.

ie a similarly prolific frontman with a constantly shifting lineup, who has not coincidentally worked with a bunch of women

tbh I was wondering if LL was thinking of phoning Bob up to see if he needed a new drummer.

haha

Only 2 women have been in The Fall? More?

wtf are you nuts: Lucy Rimmer, Brix Smith, Una Baines, Marcia Schofield, Julie Nagle, Karen Leatham, Elena Palou etc etc

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/timeline/76827472459c49a5671ae856e3ac397a.png

Smith has consistently had women in the band his entire career

how many of them was smith not in a relationship with

a question about bob pollard: has he collaborated musically/creatively with any women who are not kim deal?

Why yes: Kelly Deal

sadlol

Most of them afaict mookie. Brix and elena were exceptions. Not that it matters, seems irrelevant to me.

Indeed but Una and Kay Carroll, Julia Nagle were all in relationships with him. Kay Carroll was never in the band though.

wtf are you nuts

― Οὖτις, Friday, 23 June 2017 00:16

Sorry, I completely misread an earlier post

But, yes, he hasn't work with females... did Rush.....?

― bodacious ignoramus, Thursday, June 22, 2017 3:57 PM (fifty-eight minutes ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMSFqXGZ5TQ

Difference between Pollard and everyone elese mentioned, even Mark E Smith, is that he's collaborated with about 3000 other musicians. And a woman.

mist king urth is genius. the lowest fi prog masterpiece

\m/

I took her point to be more that a guy whose led a successful indie rock band for decades with tons of line-up changes - ie who's worked with an inordinately large range of collaborators/backing musicians - has never involved a single woman (apart from Kim Deal), is pretty weird.

yeah this was basically it, and i was wondering what his problem is, but then i read that "no girls in the treehouse" shit and i remembered. i hate to say it, but what a stupid dick. if someone i knew said this, i would never talk to him again. of all the reasons i have to not like him anymore, this has parked itself at the top of the list.

tbh I was wondering if LL was thinking of phoning Bob up to see if he needed a new drummer.

― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Thursday, June 22, 2017 6:08 PM (yesterday) Bookmark
there was a time, lol

i would like to add that the interviewer in the "no chicks" interview linked above sucks too

Rush - Time Stand Still -- is singing 3 words considered a collaboration?

every time i think i can write the guy off, i remember how good some of his songs are and i feel like i'm back at square 1
this time i heard "secret star" after not-hearing it for years and i started bawling it was so good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZIi97N5sFM

oh yeah, that is a good one ...
i have the same general experience — i rarely put on GBV or related projects these days, but I'll hear a song every now and then and remember that he's got like 75-100 incredible songs. Which is a lot!
anyone know anything about this? out in August.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41UtKVDiDEL.jpg

Closer You Are is the authorized biography of Robert Pollard and Guided by Voices. Author Matthew Cutter is a longtime friend of Pollard and, with Pollard's blessing, Cutter has set out to tell the whole, true story of Guided by Voices. This will be the first book to take an in-depth look at the man behind it all, with interviews conducted by the author with Pollard's friends, family, and bandmates, along with unfettered access to Pollard himself and his extensive archives, ephemera, and artwork, which many fans will no doubt recognize from the band's numerous album covers. A series of appendices will further illuminate Pollard's solo career, side projects, and art shows.

Whoa, ok that seems like a must read!

Completely understand LL's stance: guy's tumbled way into questionable territory, and there's heaps of bad stuff, but damn he wrote some fantastic songs. They pull me back in every time.

just in time for my bday
i'll read it

Wow I am all over this!

It's funny xpost I have such big love and respect for Bob's songs, to the extent that I never just drop into the catalog. It's been a couple years now and when I go in I go WAY in. I would put the number up above that 75-100.

yeah, the book sounds pretty promising ...
and yeah, when I wrote 75-100 I thought maybe that's low.

synchronicity — just saw this pollard-curated Roches mix posted on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/1247112455/playlist/6Zf8EZVGFPVeTDyQpS5SW6

That's....unexpected.

I guess it's easy to look at the sheer volume of it all and penalize him for hitting, say, .250.... But shit man 200 really good songs is 200 really good songs!

Author Matthew Cutter is a longtime friend of Pollard

This is not good though.

Yeah not ideal but anyway I'm not reading for some kind of takedown

I am okay w hagiography if the subject is p much someone slogging it out on the margins

yeah i don't really mind, and it's not like bob is super mysterious

Posted on the/a GBV thread, but they killed it here the night before New Year's. Three hour set! And then they did it again in NYE I guess.

Is Sprout still in band?

They were indeed good at Empty Bottle! I was at that same show! No Sprout isn't in band - but that's ok Bobby Bare Jr is a nice foil for Doug Gillard and the band all around smokes. Kevin March is an excellent drummer for them!

Yeah not ideal but anyway I'm not reading for some kind of takedown

Did you read Jim Greer's book on GBV? All those tedious tales of Bob and his boring boozing buddies yukking it up down in Bob's basement? I'm not expecting a takedown but, if you're going to write a book on Pollard, a little distance would be preferable because the guy seems to have surrounded himself with boosters and cheerleaders and enablers - no women though, of course.

Ugh Doug Gillard sucks

I guess he’s the best steady Bob could get
But damn he’s got no soul man