Guided by Voices
The Pipe Dreams of Instant Prince Whippet
2002, The Fading Captain Series
Were the nineteen songs of Universal Truths and Cycles not enough for you? Do you want more universal truths? Might you be interested in further cycles?
If so, Merry Christmas because this ten-song set of B-sides and castaways shortly followed the album. The band recorded a pile of songs while trying to figure out what the hell Universal Truths and Cycles was supposed to be. Going by this collection, they ruthlessly left off some punchy pop that didn’t fit on the LP’s sprawling trip.
Robert Pollard loves his contrasts and this record is less of a whirlwind than the album. It’s more blunt. It just rocks.
Even the title is a contrast.
Universal Truths and Cycles sounds big and important.
The Pipe Dreams of Instant Prince Whippet conjures up a guy who’s having too much fun with cans of whipped cream. He has big thoughts himself though, and they’ll get even bigger with his next hit of nitrous oxide.
Let’s talk about these songs.
“Visit This Place” is a fun one with guitars that land like anvils and an expert psych-pop melody, but I guess that Universal Truths and Cycles had enough of that kinda thing already so it became a B-side and eventually the kick-off track on this collection. Visit this place. It’s an invitation.
More rock follows with”Swooping Energies”, one of those memorable rave-ups that a great band throws away sometimes. Its strut is a little too “dumb” to be proud of, I guess, no matter how infectious it may be, but, man, does it kick. It was performed live for a brief spell back in 2000 and then kept hidden until this record.
On third base, “Keep It Coming” brings that nice, comfy John Shough-produced sound and one of those melodies that Pollard seems to pull out of a magic bag somewhere. Its chorus plays like a mission statement for his furious rate of output. Don’t stop, don’t think, don’t question, just “keep it coming”. If being an artist is your job now, what the hell else do you do with your day?
I’m loose in the joints by this time and don’t mind the maximum dirge of “Action Speaks Volumes”. It piles on the repetition, but does so with that 70s classic rock muscle that defined Guided by Voices at this time.
A short one closes out the first half. “Stronger Lizards” (this record’s other exclusive track) builds up to its climax in less than a minute and then that’s it. Song’s over. “Drastic religion in peril/ Stronger lizards regurgitate”. Pollard sings that like he knows exactly what it means.
Side two opens with the title track and it’s one of those oddballs that Guided by Voices fans dig. “The Pipe Dreams of Instant Prince Whippet” is perfect 1968 Brit-psych marmalade made sublimely imperfect in the way that it compacts everything into a cool minute and a half. It lays down the set-up and then offers a turn and a twist and then it’s time to finish up and move on. You peek in on Prince Whippet for a quick moment. You don’t need to spend the whole day with him.
It’s a song that reminds me that a lot of 60s retro music from this time doesn’t age well to my ears. I haven’t kept a single Elephant 6 record I’ve ever bought, but Pollard’s way with that sound stays with me. Because his songs are weird. They’re songs that only he would write and that only he would shape in this way. Pollard doesn’t merely imitate; rather, he’s truly influenced by the late 1960s. His Syd Barrett and Pretty Things records have been on his shelf for a long time. Pollard understands the soul of psychedelic rock and that it’s supposed to be strange and free and ridiculous, like it was written without any rules to follow–and yet can still sting like a bee.
The next song, “Request Pharmaceuticals” is all tension and uneasy release. It’s a little punk and a little classic rock put together to form an explosive device. Pull the red wire to defuse it. Or maybe it’s the green one. I forget.
“For Liberty” is quick and quiet and a mere bridge that takes us to the last two MONSTER songs.
“Dig Through My Window” is sweeping, pull-your-head-of-the-oven classic pop. It’s ready to fill stadiums with its optimism. It took an awfully sharp razor to slice sweet stuff like off of the album. “The challenge only lifts you up to set you free” is my favorite line.
Then “Beg for a Wheelbarrow” contrasts it with pessimism, but it’s such a powerful post-punk rocker that its raw electricity can still light you up. It’s a song about being broke and in debt and how the hell did you get there? What are you running away from (or toward)? It’s the most jarring song here (that acapella break!) and Pollard doesn’t typically end his records on a dark note, but this might have been too fiery of a climax to go anywhere else.
When this record came out in September 2002, there were a couple of mousey complaints from those who dutifully bought all of the singles (four Fading Captain 7″s that I’ve covered here and two European CD singles) and then didn’t like that they got sold all of those B-sides again with two extra tracks thrown in only a few months later.
Me though, I couldn’t afford the deluge of GBV singles at the time so I was happy to see those songs that I missed all gathered together in one place.
Then there are the collectors, who want everything and they could not be less offended by some repackaged B-sides with all-new sleeve art and a 12″ white vinyl pressing. They want this record. They need this record. They will snipe you in the last two seconds on Ebay for this record.
I see this as a lesson in how sometimes the thing that bothers you now and has you all heated up on a rock band’s message board isn’t going to mean anything down the road.
I’d call that a universal truth.
It might even be a cycle, too.
Yes!