Taken from "Do The Collapse" 1999
"Every street is dark
And folding out mysteriously
Where lies the chance we take to be
Always working
Reaching out for a hand that we
can't see
Everybody's got a hold on hope
It's the last thing that's holding me
Invitation to the last dance
Then it's time to leave
But that's the price we pay
when we deceive
One another/animal mother
She opens up for free
Everybody's got a hold on hope
It's the last thing that's
holding me
Look at the talkbox in mute
frustration
At the station
There hides the cowboy
His campfire flickering
on the landscape
That nothing grows on
But time still goes on
And through each life of misery
Everybody's got a hold on hope
It's the last thing that's holding me"
I love this song. I know of lot of "true-fans" dont like this period of Guided By Voices but this song is just lovely and just shows you another side to Pollards music when given a big scale production and a few strings. Its an immensley uplifting song and every chord and word just lights up the soul. This is the sort of song Oasis and the Gallagers wish they could write and its the sort of song Pollard can write whilst sat on the toilet. Quality.
Sunday 15 April 2007
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3 comments:
i think most true fans actually love Hold on Hope & Do the Collapse
Hold on Hope was always a live powerhouse, sadly out of the set by the spring of 2000 and played live only a few dozen times
shoulda been a smash
uggh. a rare push of the "skip track" button for me while the gbv is playing. opinions aside....hard to call this one "uplifting". read the lyrics....it's pure desperation.
The closest the man ever got to penning a conventional power ballad- and the tune doesn't really reach beyond the 'Bic lighter in the air' vibe.
But I would seriously argue that its one of the most important (but far from best) songs in the canon. Why? It proved that Pollard's songcraft is A-1 industrial strength, take all comers.
He could make a nice comfortable living as a hack pop songwriter, writing tunes to order for the latest American Idol dweeb/dweebette.
Pollard's talent is genuinely expansive and most rare. He is not some narrow, geek circumscribed talent (although a lot of song writing to order as well as oddball songwriting can both be quite good) that revels in its obscurity.
The lyrics sunk this being a hit- way too negative.
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