Be Thee Not Afraid Of Yon Tractor Rape Chain. As It Is Guided By Voices Of Exemplary Craft

"why is it every time i think about you/something that you have said or implied makes me doubt you/then i look into your cynical eyes and i know it/as if it never meant anything to me/parallel lines on a slow decline - tractor rape chain/better yet, let's all get wet on the tractor rape chain/speed up, slow down, go all around in the end"

so sings Guided By Voices Robert Pollard from the classic "Bee Thousand" set. A set that set the bar to the indie scene circa 1994. These

unknown school teachers, auto workers, painters from Dayton, Ohio (ahem...) had found their voice, was the world ready?

Dayton, Ohio is just the biggest, best known close town to these voices. You gotta look a little to the east, to a quaint little college community known as Yellow Springs to get an authentic feel. This town/college may be the last bastion of hippy culture left east of the Mississippi. Peace, love and all the great sights, sounds and substances that accompany that lifestyle have never left, at least, the way this community is regarded locally.

Pollards surreal lyrics and the basement chic personifiing much of the GBV catalogue are most likely psychadelic fallout. At least that's the legend. and this is the music. I like this stuff for a number of reasons, a front runner is the thought that these songs were penned 10 miles from home. One more bit of coolness regarding Yellow Springs - comedian Dave Chapel, after expressing his disdain of the high profile California/ Hollywood scene, moved back there (his original home) to stay. After numerous invites, he's never shown up at one barbecue.

footnote: a tractor rape chain, ominous as it may sound, is nothing more than a square frame of metal with logging chain attached in parallel across its width. It is pulled behind a tractor to smooth out tilled ground.