Back to Saturn X
you'll read it here often, but one of the surest signs of Robert Pollard's songwriting genius is the number of good to great songs he left unreleased for various reasons at the height of his critical success.
"Back to Saturn X" is just such a song. The track -- recorded in 1990 with Pollard's brother, Jim, Mitch Mitchell and Kevin Fennell -- did not appear until the 2003 Hardcore UFOs box set on Matador. There it found a home on Delicious Pie and Thank You for Calling, subtitled "Previously Unreleased Songs and Recordings."
It's a chugging little rocker that would have fit nicely on Propeller, but for whatever reason it stayed on the shelf for more than a decade. It's fairly standard until the chorus kicks in, with Pollard emphatically proclaiming "You're never too old for Ethyl" again and again. Strange as it may seem, I don't think the song would be all that out of place on Nirvana's first record, either, as "Back to Saturn X," though a bit more restrained, has the vintage feel of much of the best of Bleach. I can hear Kurt Cobain intoning "So many things to do, so many sights to see. A perfect place for you, but I'm not sure 'bout me" over a series of crunching power chords.
The term "Saturn X" is one that Pollard clearly favors. It pops up here, as well as on the short curiosity "Back to Saturn X Radio Report" on Propeller. "Back to Saturn X" was also slated to be the title of an aborted LP during Guided by Voices' tenure on Scat Records. A handful of tracks on the first Suitcase box set are credited to that never-released LP.
As the song -- a long one at 4:52 -- chugs to a close, the band tries in vain to find some sort of musical resolution, but things dissolve instead into cacophony over which they chant "hey, hey, hey, hey." That seems to be too much for Pollard, who ends the track with some boisterous laughter that itself proves hard to resolve. He forces it for several seconds, as if offering fake laughter for an unfunny joke, until letting out a satisfied "wheee." Not satisfied enough, of course, to let the track see release until this near career-capping odds and sods collection.
"Back to Saturn X" is just such a song. The track -- recorded in 1990 with Pollard's brother, Jim, Mitch Mitchell and Kevin Fennell -- did not appear until the 2003 Hardcore UFOs box set on Matador. There it found a home on Delicious Pie and Thank You for Calling, subtitled "Previously Unreleased Songs and Recordings."
It's a chugging little rocker that would have fit nicely on Propeller, but for whatever reason it stayed on the shelf for more than a decade. It's fairly standard until the chorus kicks in, with Pollard emphatically proclaiming "You're never too old for Ethyl" again and again. Strange as it may seem, I don't think the song would be all that out of place on Nirvana's first record, either, as "Back to Saturn X," though a bit more restrained, has the vintage feel of much of the best of Bleach. I can hear Kurt Cobain intoning "So many things to do, so many sights to see. A perfect place for you, but I'm not sure 'bout me" over a series of crunching power chords.
The term "Saturn X" is one that Pollard clearly favors. It pops up here, as well as on the short curiosity "Back to Saturn X Radio Report" on Propeller. "Back to Saturn X" was also slated to be the title of an aborted LP during Guided by Voices' tenure on Scat Records. A handful of tracks on the first Suitcase box set are credited to that never-released LP.
As the song -- a long one at 4:52 -- chugs to a close, the band tries in vain to find some sort of musical resolution, but things dissolve instead into cacophony over which they chant "hey, hey, hey, hey." That seems to be too much for Pollard, who ends the track with some boisterous laughter that itself proves hard to resolve. He forces it for several seconds, as if offering fake laughter for an unfunny joke, until letting out a satisfied "wheee." Not satisfied enough, of course, to let the track see release until this near career-capping odds and sods collection.
Labels: Hardcore UFOs: Delicious Pie and Thank You for Calling
posted by John Kenyon at 6:37 AM
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