Guided by Voices
“Motor Away” b/w “Color of My Blade”
1995, Matador Records
“Motor Away” is the song for all of the people who doubted Robert Pollard’s rock ‘n’ roll pursuits over the past ten years. All of the family members and co-workers who said that he was wasting his time. All of the people who thought that he should give up. All of the townies who felt that he was just dreamin’.
This song is for them and its message is simple.
Its message is “Kiss my ass, I was right, I did it.”
“Motor Away” is the defining anthem of Guided by Voices circa 1995. It’s presented as a driving song, but the road is just a metaphor–it always is–for the new places where life takes you. Also, for escape. And triumph. You have survived something and now you are moving on.
It’s simple, but also huge and sweeping. Pollard has kept it in the live set for twenty-five years running because it always kills. The beer flies, the singalongs start, the crowd goes nuts. It’s a personal song, but you can also interpret it any way that you see fit. Everyone who jumps around to it does so for their own reason. They are escaping from whatever they’re escaping from. One “Motor Away” keeps the demons away.
In retrospect, another striking thing about this song is that it came out smack in the middle of that 90s “Alternative Rock” trend in which the new breed of rock stars wouldn’t shut up about how much they hated being rock stars. Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, in particular, screamed like a baby in a crib about how awful life was as a singer in a popular band. You’d think that Epic Records mugged him in an alley against his will rather than signed him to a record contract and gave his band the sort of promotion and freedom that other bands would kill to get. And other bands copied that. Next thing you know, mainstream rock is full of miserable fucks. Or at least people who are pretending to be miserable for commercial purposes.
Now, here comes Guided by Voices, about ten years older than most of those bands and happy to be here and LOVING that they have this new audience. On “Motor Away”, they sound like they’re cracking open beers and giving high-fives to you just for listening. They are a complete contrast to the frowny faces that were all over mainstream radio rock.
It’s just another reason to love this brilliant song.
All of that said, I’m not crazy about the version that’s on this 7″. Yes, even I, Freddy Fanboy himself, can be critical every now and then.
Similar to what the band did with “I Am a Scientist” for the I Am a Scientist EP, they went into a real recording studio and made hi-fi versions of a few of the could-be hits on Alien Lanes. The songs aren’t too beefed-up, though. They still sound fairly rinky-dink and banged out on the quick. Maybe the band didn’t want to spend much money. Or maybe they wanted to maintain some of the low-budget charm of the album versions. Or maybe none of this was their idea and they were going through the motions. I don’t know.
All I do know is that I’ll never choose this more amped-up “Motor Away” over the basement-recorded album version. It’s still a great song, but the album take is ecstatic in a way that this one can’t match.
The best reason to own this 7″ is for the B-side, “Color of My Blade”, a delicious rocker that’s toasty warm and just right all over. I have no idea what Pollard is going on about in the lyrics, but I’ve always loved the line “Perfection is killing the freaks”. Sounds like a life lesson to me. The song was recorded by “Fluss” (aka Steve Albini) and then further “tampered with” on a 4-track recorder and with a back-sleeve shout-out to Kim Deal for assistance with the arrangement. Hello, 90s.
Re: frowny faces:
This is what I’ve always loved about Urge Overkill, and why I would kill to have been more than a twinkle in my father’s eye when both bands were on the same tour in ’95. Of course, Urge had less muse and more of a shtick, that created interpretation of irony and rumors of a lack of sincerity, but their Saturation is one of the most triumphant albums of the decade.
Urge Overkill were good. I have another series on this site called “Things I Will Keep”, about random favorite records of mine, and something from them is definitely a contender for it. Thanks for the comments!