Marchers in Orange

As happens with an artist as prolific as Robert Pollard, there are several occasions throughout his discography where the same song is offered on different recordings in very different forms. "Marchers in Orange" was one of the first of these, heard in very different forms on the Fast Japanese Spin Cycle EP and on the Vampire on Titus LP. The better of the two to my ears in the first because it rocks. Over churning guitars and busy drums, Pollard sings about the marchers in orange -- a daring thing do to, of course, as there's no rhyme for "orange," right? Not even for Uncle Bob -- as well as circuses for children in disguise and bones thrown to drug-sniffing dogs.

It's a futuristic, dystopian tale, though one that is abstract and somewhat hard to follow. Having just read Marc Woodworth's excellent book about Bee Thousand in the 33 1/3 series and found myself suddenly seeing all of the references to Pollard's battles against the establishment while working as an elementary school teacher found in the lyrics on that album, I can't help but wonder if "Marchers in Orange" isn't an early vent of similar frustrations. It's really only the reference to children that raises a flag, though a line about "protecting what we've come to know as ours" certainly has an us-vs.-them feel.

The other version of the song, with nearly identical lyrics, is built on an odd organ figure. It sounds like an old organ with separate keys that play whole chords, and it seems clear listening to the two versions back to back that this one could serve as a demo for the first. Here, Pollard sings over that lone organ, while on the FJSC version, the guitars mimic that organ's parts while drums and maybe a bass add accompaniment. This more minimalist version isn't bad -- it's much easier to pick out the words here -- but it lacks the drive that the lyrics seem to require.