Songs I Love: Game of Pricks - Guided by Voices.

Two posts in one day, who would have thought?

When I first started this blog a few weeks back, I warned everyone that I could talk endlessly of my love for Guided by Voices (indeed, if you were not aware, the title of the blog is a GbV lyric). Well, this is my first Guided by Voices post well, post-warning.

You see, I am absolutely I'm obsessed with the Guided By Voices masterpeice "Game of Pricks" off the 'Alien Lanes' LP. Prior to hearing this, I never had a strong contender for my favourite song ever, but I think this one is as close as it gets.

It epitomises everything I look for in a song. Its short, jangly, instantly accessible, with clever and poetic lyrics. Furthermore, it doesn't dabble in musical wankering (also, I love songs written in major keys, they're just so happy! Yeah, thats right, fuck the minor keys)

I'll touch on the lyrics. To me, they seem to document, like all good pop songs should, male-female romantic relationships. I get the undercurrent of infidelity particularly around the last part of the chorus.

'And, I never asked for the truth, but you owe that too me'

The Game of Pricks could mean a lot of things. I believe Pollard aludes to the open romantic market, what happens to someone when they come out of a extended romantic relationship.

The song could have a lot of differing meaning for a lot of differing people. For the individual, it might mean something on one day, then take on a differeing intepretation the next. The song is fluid and dynamic.

Hrm, thats a bit of stating the obvious there, as this is not something rare in music or poetry or any other creative genre. But I guess this is the essence of loving music, isn't it?

If you haven't heard the song, check out this live performance from a few years back.