Guided By Voices - Weed King

[radioinmyhead62]

I declare this the best song ever about Marijuana!

[MrHanzoJinn]

Best Band Ever - BBE

[basebureaucrat]

Freedom cake, quick to bake. Totally awesome.

[transparentape]

Is that the Weed King with the Turkey Hands?



[WhoAr3You]

Are these psychedelic songs?

[room1106]

they closed the show in philly 11/6 with this....absolutely wonderful...

[zazeify]

@room1106 same at Oberlin in Ohio! Inspired choice to close a show, and quite a surprise.

[lucksondube]

is it true that he wrote this when he was a kid? either way i'm sure you all know what i am talking about when i say I am GBV's number one fan.

[raggajones12]

sounds like bob was listening to syd barrett the day he wrote this. and i say cool.

[MrRickmaniac]

maybe it's a pet word his wife uses to describe his yard duties which result in a llawn full of weeds....then again it could be about the town in NoCal....then i could be just something I smoked

[68friendhead]

G-B-V!!! G-B-V!!!

[deathclock9]

that's my teacher!!!

[room1106]

wwowww...never heard this song before...really cool...

[jeffery23m]

No way is Bob anything but cool. Drunk and exhausted, he sang "My son cool" for me backstage, cuz the band didn't play it and I told him I loved it. He didn't know me from shit. That guy gave all he had. And then some.

[sydbarrett5]

@jeffery23m That's awesome

[kaporma]

@jeffery23m bob did the same for me backstage. sang 'short on posters' with me after i told him that it was my favorite. we had our arms around one another, singing loudly. he forgot some of the words, so i helped him, and we were laughing. then he sang a made-up birthday song to my bf (his bday is the day after bob's). one of the best nights of my life.

[chriscounty]

cool



[420surfkiva]

this song is cool. can't believe it took me so long to hear it.

[zazeify]

on may songs early on, Bob would run the instruments-track fast and sing to it (like Lennon did on Strawberry Fields) so that it would wound lower, slower and strange. He did this on Weed King.

[zodiacflower]

great song. i posted my version of this video a year or so ago, it sucks b/c i did it for video class and only had 2 days two edit. i should have made it a video respose but didn't think of it at the time...

[GBVGBVGBVGBV]

Do you all realize that you are posting comments on 'God'? The Legend. The Genius. Weed King, amazing song!

[marius478]

Great video of an awesome song by one of the greatest indie bands ever.I so love Guided by Voices. :)

[undreadSP]

freedomcake quick to bake

trim the tree collectively

breath the air from the fair

[PamK36]

Dead chicken puppets? WTF?

Good song anyway.

[pitstik]

Just read the Guided By Voices book "A Brief History" and in it Bob says that this song is about.....well...weed. Like, the kind you smoke, Man.

[danilozamai]

I've just read the lyric and I think it's about Bible, its characters and catholic religion... Draw your own conclusions!

[MrOldSlacker]

The Beatles should have done this with John Lennon singing.

[abenadalill]

One of the best rock songs ever!!

[radiozero93]

miss 'em very much....

[hippojuice23]

me too!- reminds me of my twenties!

[RulerOFmany]

One of my favorites! what are they talking about in this song anyways

[TheFoxBen]

My favorite GBV song.

[pnkrk244]

It's a great one, though I have a problem picking one song by these guys. When there's also Jane of the Waking Universe, Underwater explosion, and 15 more that get lost in the stream of consciousness flow of their recorded stuff. Example:

"I am the minister and the imposter, you say I'm on my own, but I am not alone you are the militant trying to bring me home." The song made me cry and I don't know it's name.

[TheFoxBen]

This song is "Acorns & Orioles" from their album "Under the Bushes, Under the Stars", great song too ! And yes, it's hard to pick a favorite, it changes everytime.

[huhorst]

Best Album Ever!

[hippojuice23]

I cant tell you anything you don't already know....

[pnkrk244]

This song rules the planet trim the tree collectively breathe the air on the fair and watch the light shine down dancing round our lady's face as we learn the sound we can't keep this violent pace though we know that haste makes waste and I'm giving you a ring for the dreams of the weed king we all sing awesome

[rodtorkelson]

it's by far the best Complete song I've heard

[inguerbibr]

1:28

Most amazing animation ever.

[Murrline]

omg (L)

[daveed94]

This song is definitely in my GBV top 5.

[ACrackInTheWall2006]

This is a great song and video but the Some Drinkin Implied movie this comes from is god awful.

[DonnieDanko5284]

+1 for knowing Some Drinkin Implied is garbage. Lol.

[gilhouse]

maybe cause it was made by Bob's drunk Dayton buddies?

[iamlameduck]

LONG LIVE ROCKATHON

[whalerofthestars]

Indeed!

[theyoungflyer]

freedom cake

quick to bake

GBV!!!!!!!!!!

[steplo01]

awesome, I'm finding more old GBV on here all the time, keep uploading the videos ...

[flakturm99]

Fuck yes.

[meowzamusic]

For the dreams of the weed king we all DRINK

[JasonReeher]

My friend George tells a story about a New Bombs Turk show in Columbus in like '95. Someone said Pollard was there, and George goes "where," and then George says he sees a bunch of curly hair and "a beer bottle just go verticle" and he says "Pollard's right there isn't he." Classic.

[MattGeiger]

This is one of Pollards best songs CLASSIC!!!

[TwinTara]

fucking fabulous!

[RootDown18]

Wow...I love the 70's feel this song radiates....

[spurtfather]

now this is a fucking song.

[RandomKoolzip]

Goddamn right.

[snowmad]

I have all their discography including 1986's "Devil between my toes" first LP. As you may have noticed, the voice sounds different on some of the songs, who's singing on this record???

[stonedcomedianringo]

Weed King is definitely Robert Pollard on vocals. The higher voice you hear on some songs in the Bee Thousand era is Tobin Sprout (singing his own compositions). Other than that, its Bob all the way.

[snowmad]

Take this song "trampoline" a voice much less snoring.. he was younger there, maybe had a different tone or maybe, it's some sort of voice distortion..

[stonedcomedianringo]

you are right- Bob's voice was different when he was younger. And he often used distortion or recorded the vocals in unique ways. Trampoline is still Bob tho.

[MattGeiger]

I think that the tape flange/hiss mixed with the really saturated Ssssss's on the reverb is making his voice sound the way it is, I migth be way off but I would love to capture that sound, it makes the song for me.

[fiveways]

there is also usually a old ehx stereo memory man on his voice mixed with some double/triple/god only knows tracking of his voice.

I had a only issue of musician that had the GBV studio as of 1996 or so, i doubt it was all that much different then this point. tascam, some cheap effects, a few mics, the memory man mentioned as his main vocal effect. a hiwatt head. i cant remember what else.

[dashofchutmeg]

@snowmad Funny that you say younger when he was, what, 35?

[snowmad]

@dashofchutmeg : well, he sounds like another guy, comparing first records vs lat records. I didnt say "35".

maybe singing for 15 years doesn't change your voice, it may be the samplers used on every record.

[zazeify]

@snowmad Like John Lennon on Strawberry Fields, it sounds like Bob played back the tape of the band faster than it was recorded, and recorded his vocals over that. Then when everything's played back together at the right speed, the vocals sound slow and lethargic.

Hence.........................­..........Weedking!!

[lamanjello]

lovely creativity

[kiely]

i never knew Bob to be a dick ... only meet him a dozen or so times. he was generally really fucked up until the end of GBV's road when he seemed nore sober (nicer?)

[subshrub]

what can you say it's just ANOTHER TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME song...

[poolsidenyc]

Partied with GBV in Fla in 94 along with the Grifters. All of them were cool as hell. Just like you and me.

[isawacat]

Bob took me and my friend out for Chinese food after a show at the Bowery Ballroom. One of the best nights of my life.

[KickMeAndCancel]

Lol btw look at bob's shorts at 1:01. Now THAT's how I know it's early 90's GBV!

[katk2604]

bob is singlehandedly the coolest fucking guy of any of my fave bands...he had a beer w/ me, hung out, completely unpretentious.

[KickMeAndCancel]

I dunno if it's true, but I heard that bob was kind of a dick throughout the GbV years. At least thats what it said in "Hunting Accidents" Can you expand on any of that?

[stonedcomedianringo]

I'd say he was a heck of a guy and very generous with his gift and his time. No more a dick than any other artist with a vision (which I know, from personal experience, that "friends and associates" can sometimes get in the way of...)

[KickMeAndCancel]

I think that's why I love his solo stuff so much, because its unrestricted Bob. He does what he wants. I know, from a creative standpoint, that if I want to try a progressive sound, I wont even suggest it to my peers because it sounds too esoteric or too absurd.

[gilhouse]

no fucking way that's true.

I've met him several times, always in the "green room" of whatever shitty bar he was playing at with GBV in the mid 90's until the final show in portland in 2004, either before or after his sets, and sometimes both. He was always extremely gracious and patient, even when stinking drunk and exhausted.

[gilhouse]

Once I saw him get chewed out viciously by his girlfriend when he was hammered and in between sets, and so did a bout a dozen other guys who were in the room. He just took it all and never even raised his voice or said anything negative about his gf afterwards. Which is either pussywhipped, or it supports my case.

Then I saw the "love is stronger than witchcraft" video (here on youtube), and his gf looks so f'ing cute, so I guess I'd let her publicly call me out a few times, too.

[gilhouse]

But I did see him do a rant in the middle of a song about a couple of tools in the audience who were heckling him. He stared at them during the entire 3 minute freeverse rant, of which the refrain went something like "you're a middle-aged yuppie, a middle-aged yuppie!" And "a piece of shit in Elvis' asscheeks."

[KickMeAndCancel]

wow, interesting stuff. my last post was 2 years ago, and ill be honest, i dont listen to gbv or robert pollard much anymore - kinda crazy how time flies and tastes change like that

[gilhouse]

hmmm, I wish I could say the same: I'd be spending a lot less on CD's from that old bastard.

[KickMeAndCancel]

he deserves the CD sales more than 99% of the music biz, i can say that much

[poolsidenyc]

Trim the tree, collectively.

[StrongVincent]

Bob's Urge Overkill shirt is classic, cause they fought.

[isawacat]

Freedom Cake! Quick to bake!

[HumGuitar]

Some drinking implied for sure!

[iamlameduck]

keep your head up, oi oi oi

[kjs1170]

Fantastic song . . . thanks for posting this.

[lobot666]

That's rad Bob's sporting an Urge Overkill tshirt...

[telcorp]

all hail to the WEED KING, viva guided by voices y la concha bien de la lora!!!!

[Brakawolf]

Very good rapid fire editing, but somehow it lacked something to me. But then who cares: lo-fi rock clasic; lo-fi video clip.

[Skeeterbag]

For the dreams of the Weed King, WE ALL SING!

[oncassette]

dude, thanks for uploading these

[theyoungflyer]

LONG LIVE ROCKATHON! YEAH!