Zeppelin Over Dayton: Guided By Voices Album By Album

05 PROPELLER

Even though it’s not necessarily their best record (although it’s almost that, too), in terms of how it changed Pollard’s life, Propeller is where the GBV story begins.

What’s ironic is that it was actually meant to be the story’s end. Bob’s ‘final statement’ is the thing that launched his career.

Going into 1992, GBV had existed for almost a decade. They’d recorded four full-length albums and an EP, but nothing was happening. They were barely even a band. There was no consistent lineup, and two of the guys, Kevin Fennell and Mitch Mitchell, had joined a local hardcore group. Meanwhile, Pollard’s family thought he was selfish—if not just plain nuts—for pouring money and time into what they thought was just a hobby. It had gotten to the point where he agreed with them. ‘There were people who told me I should focus more of my efforts on teaching. That I shouldn’t be using money on music when I should be spending it on my family, so I finally thought I was going to have to become—as some people put it—“responsible.”’ Not only was Pollard in debt from the previous records, but so were his friend Pete Jamison and his brother.

‘I realized that we didn’t have enough money and couldn’t keep financing these records,’ Pollard later said. ‘We were done. It was settled.’ Not content to let the group go out with a whimper, Bob resolved to make one more album. It would contain his best songs and be recorded again in a professional studio.

The LP would be called Propeller because it was going to ‘propel’ the band to stardom. It was meant to be an ironic (if not outright sarcastic) title. No one involved with the group—Bob included—thought it would amount to much. And, at first, it didn’t.

When the album was done, everyone associated with the band took their copies, and Bob kept on teaching. That was the end of Guided By Voices.