Why is Robert Pollard the most underrated songwritter ever?

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

This is a Bob thread, I get it, but he shouldn’t be advertising GBV without his club dudes

Yes, I think he's a good foil but I don't really like his guitar playing.

It’s too exact

too orthodox

i not only read the jim greer book, but attended a book tour event, which was my first (and only) time meeting bob p

I read the Greer book, it was whatever. I'm definitely not interested in an analysis of why there are no women in the band. I would be very up for nerding out on his process (beyond Rolling Rock), song germination, takes on his peers and other musicians/artists etc.

I appreciate Gillard for his versatility. He never sounds like he's really bleeding for it like Mitch Mitchell did, but there's a lot of mid- and later-period Pollard stuff that calls for greater range