Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand: The Director's Cut

Guided by Voices – Bee Thousand: The Director’s Cut

Scat, 2004

Acquired: Gift from ex-girlfriend, New, 2005

Price: Free

All I can say is thank GOD they reworked Bee Thousand into what it is today. Actually, that sentence may lead you to believe I like this. I don’t, not really. All of the pieces are there (with a bunch of extras) but it’s so scattered. It’s an interesting document with some excellent b-sides, such as “Postal Blowfish,” “Why Did You Land,” “Do the Earth,” and an early version of “Shocker in Gloomtown.” I guess this was put together to commemorate the 10^th anniversary of Bee Thousand and it’s got a nice little essay and photos of discarded sequencings for the record. Apparently, GBV were forced to put every song from Bee Thousand on the collection (most of which are found on disc 3) which I guess they initially didn’t want to do. Thank god they did though, because this is way WAY too scattered and there are too many duds. However, Tobin Sprout’s “Scissors” just came on and I completely forgot about this song. So fucking good! SO GOOD! The story behind my owning it is a good one, because it was given to me by the girl that got me into Guided by Voices. Our whole relationship, which lasted from two weeks after Freshman year of college to the last week of freshman year of college, was mostly founded on mutual appreciation. I remember falling in love with her one night when we left some boring school-organized event to watch the movie Z. Anyway, she owned copies of Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes and made me burn them. I’d known of GBV before, had liked a handful of selected tracks, but she was the first person that got me to listen to the records all the way through. To this day, Schyler is the only ex I’ve ever had that hasn’t left me spurned and was the only one I was able to remain good friends with post-break-up, despite the fact that I haven’t seen her in like, three or four years. Anyway, I will be eternally grateful. HOT FREAKS!