Equus: Guided by Voices - Quality of Armor (27 March 1993)

Buy this at Discogs 

The vinyl version of Guided by Voices Propeller LP was consistently causing problems for Peel. This was the second night running that he had played a track from the album and once again he called the track by the wrong title. In fairness to him, he did mention that he wasn’t sure whether he was giving the correct title due to the number of titles in the tracklisting not lining up with the number of tracks on the record. Whereas the previous night’s Weedking was announced by him as the album opener, Mesh Gear Fox, this play of Quality of Armor was introduced as Metal Mothers.  I wish it had been that one, because I think Metal Mothers is the best track on the album. However, it isn’t too much of a disappointment to be including Quality of Armor here.

In contrast to the monolithic hard rock of Weedking, on Quality of Armor Guided by Voices sound like they’re channelling the ambiance of The Beach Boys with the righteousness of The Clash. Alongside this are the qualities that distinguish the best Guided by Voices material:

1) The way they can make the everyday seem psychedelic, while making the psychedelic seem everyday.

2) Their propensity to world build and draw the listener to the places where these songs take place. The narratives they spin are so well realised that we, the listener, feel that we know the people that GBV sing of. The “you” they address in Quality of Armor is not us the listener, but somehow we are made to feel that we know everything about the people they are singing to. This is quite an achievement given that almost none of the lyrics on Propeller could be considered as naturalistic.

I’m not convinced that the drive my car opening is about actual road tripping, rather I suspect that a different kind of trip may be the inspiration for the song. In the play out from around 1:51 onwards, the references to travelling Beyond the secret bogus world show that the journey they’re on might be one into  the depths of the subconscious rather than to the local beach or makeout point.  Whatever they’re taking appears to be something to inspire introspection and debate rather than a wish to party.  In contrast to the brightness of the music, the tone of the lyrics is argumentative and serious, especially in the second verse:

The worst offence is intelligence.

The best defence is belligererence.

How we stalemate our predicament.

Governed by tissue and by filament.

Clearly, it’s not a group of party animals on this trip. The personality dynamics are so well constructed here that I can clearly picture the thick black spectacle frames and slanted 1970s haircut of the Velma-alike who is …finding God in the dictionary/Taking photographs in the cemetery. But unlike those taking the ride in Sonic Youth’s Pacific Coast Highway, there seems less danger about making it home safely. We may be at risk of dying of exposure to drug-induced earnestness more than anything else, though.

Video courtesy of Brocklanders.

All lyrics are copyright of Robert Pollard.