Guided by Voices Top 100 Songs

     When I first heard of Guided by Voices, I asked a friend what he knew about them. No really, I didn't have a computer or internet back then so I asked a friend. He warned me that I'd go broke and crazy if I got into them. He was right , of course, as it's well documented that Robert Pollard is the most prolific songwriter alive. I'm glad that I gave them a chance because GbV is my favorite non-Beatles band (more about that in a future post). Pollard has literally written over 1000 songs and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire lexicon of rock music. And Tobin Sprout is an awesome songwriter in his own right. My Top 100 list was written before their recent reunion albums so I haven't included any of those songs, nor does it include any solo or side project songs. Maybe those can be future lists. This list is really the only guidance I can give to my kids when the time comes to sort through all my GbV records and cds. The beauty of GbV is that Matador Records put out a box set called Hardcore UFOs which included a best of cd entitled Human Amusements at Hourly Rates and over half the songs on the "best of" aren't even on my list of 100. One last piece of advice is give every song at least until the chorus before you judge it. Finally, this list is not in order of best to worst because I can't do that with these songs. It's just a list of 100 amazing songs. Let the disagreements begin!

1) Gold Star for Robot Boy                                     51) Finest Joke is Upon Us
2) My Son Cool                                                       52) Bulldog Skin
3) Chasing Heather Crazy                                       53) Choking Tara
4) Your Name is Wild                                             54) Things I Will Keep
5) Tractor Rape Chain                                             55) Surgical Focus
6) Not Behind the Fighter Jet                                  56) Strumpet Eye
7) Quality of Armor                                                 57) Skills Like This
8) Scissors                                                                58) Twilight Campfighter
9) Game of Pricks                                                    59) Glad Girls
10) Atom Eyes                                                         60) Brides Have Hit Glass
11) Teenage FBI                                                      61) Everywhere With Helicopter
12) Fair Touching                                                    62) My Kind of Soldier
13) Navigating Flood Regions                                 63) Best of Jill Hives
14) Metal Mothers                                                   64) Secret Star
15) Exit Flagger                                                       65) I'll Replace You W/ Machines
16) 14 Cheerleader Coldfront                                  66) Useless Inventions
17) Hardcore UFOs                                                  67) Everybody Thinks I'm a Raincloud
18) Buzzards and Dreadful Crows                           68) Girls of Wild Strawberries
19) Queen of Cans and Jars                                      69) Closets of Henry
20) I am a Scientist                                                   70) Tour Guide at the Winston Churchill
21) Postal Blowfish                                                   71) Huffman Prarie Flying Field
22) It's Like Soul Man                                               72) Dayton, Ohio 19 Something and 5
23) Why Did You Land?                                           73) My Thoughts are a Gas
24) Echos Myron                                                       74) Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox
25) Shocker in Gloomtown                                       75) Captain's Dead
26) Watch Me Jumpstart                                           76) Color of My Blade
27) They're Not Witches                                           77) June Salutes You
28) As We Go Up We Go Down                              78) My Impression Now
29) Big Chief's Chinese Restaurant                          79) Unleashed! The Large Hearted Boy
30) Closer You Are                                                   80) Wished I Was a Giant
31) Auditorium/Motor Away                                    81) Interest Position
32) My Valuable Hunting Knife                               82) Tropical Robots
33) Striped White Jets                                               83) Smothered in Hugs
34) Blimps Go 90                                                      84) Man Called Aerodynamics
35) Little Whirl                                                         85) Rhine Jive Click
36) Alright                                                                86) Underground Initiations
37) Mincer Ray                                                         87) Gleemer
38) Cut-Out Witch                                                    88) 100 Colors
39) Burning Flag Birthday Suit                                89) Sot
40) Official Ironman Rally Song                              90) Jar of Cardinals
41) To Remake the Young Flyer                              91) Big Boring Wedding
42) Bright Paper Werewolves                                  92) Sheetkickers
43) Underwater Explosions                                      93) Optional Bases Opposed
44) Don't Stop Now                                                  94) Cheyenne
45) Drag Days                                                           95) Eureka Signs
46) Redmen and Their Wives                                   96) Sad If I Lost It
47) Dodging Invisible Rays                                      97) Jane of the Waking Universe
48) Delayed Reaction Brats                                      98) Office of Hearts
49) He's the Uncle                                                    99) Mix Up the Satellite
50) Finks                                                                  100) On the Tundra

    

Welcome to Sound Mind Blog

Hi. My name is Tom Paine and this blog is my first foray onto the interwebs. The Sound Mind Blog is basically about two things ... MUSIC and DEATH. Specifically, my music collection and my unavoidable future death. When we die our loved ones are left the task of going through all our stuff and doing something with it. Some of it they want, some gets thrown away and some gets sold at a garage sale. Within the past year I have been given two peoples old record collections because nobody wanted them and they knew I collect records. This got me thinking about what will happen to my music collection when I die. I'm only 47 years old, but if die tomorrow my wife and kids will have well over 1,000 cds, records and cassettes to deal with. At this point you may be thinking to yourself "why do I care about this guys music collection"? Let me try to answer that question.

     In this blog I will write about the music in my collection that means the most to me and the groups and performers that I love to listen to. So if you're a music nerd like me you might be interested in my opinions and argee or disagree with them. Also, I plan on compiling many music lists which are like Kryptonite to music nerds. One of my lists was inspired by Rolling Stone's list of the Top 100 Beatles songs. I was trying to think what other band could have a list of their Top 100 and there was only one answer... Guided by Voices.So I made a list of their Top 100 songs.

     Many of you probably have larger collections than I do and will be facing this same problem. I don't know about you, but if my wife sells my copy of Rush's first album on the Moon Records label that they only made 3500 copies of at a garage sale for 25 cents I'll have to come back and haunt her. Anyway this blog will be part music opinion, part biography and all music geeky. So, I look forward to any feedback this blog might generate and until next time... Peace.