You may recall our very cool interview with Phantom Tollbooth’s Gerard Smith on the making of Beard of Lightning, the highly unusual post-hoc collaboration between a defunct underground band and Guided By Voices mastermind Robert Pollard. At the time, we reached out to some other figures in the making of this album, and now, a few months later, Townsman Kpdexter has uncovered the following tale, as told by Off Records head Chris Slusarenko, buried in his Inbox. A mere months after Chris took the time to provide his take on this fantastic voyage, Rock Town Hall presents this exclusive! Take it away, Chris!
In the mid-80s the late great Homestead Records label (home of Death Of Samantha, Great Plains, Sebadoh) put out one of the greatest 7″s of all time–“Valley of the Gwangi”, by Phantom Tollbooth. Hard to find at the time and with a strange black and white drawing for a cover it blew my mind but probably not many others. The music sounded like three gentlemen fighting musically between each other, jumping from prog to rock to jazz, and then emotionally twisting you back to a hook you didn’t know was there at all. I was in music geek heaven (or in college rock heaven as it used to be called). Two more albums followed as well as an ep after the fact. Then like most bands they broke up.
In the mid-90s I meet Robert Pollard for my first time after a Guided By Voices show. Doug Gillard and Ron House were also backstage and we started talking about Homestead, since they both used to be on that label. I mentioned Phantom Tollbooth and Bob starts singing “Nobody knows what we’re saying” from Phantom Tollbooth’s last album Power Toy. I tell him they are one of my favorite bands and then the night progresses into a mess of us singing bits of their songs back and forth. At one point he mutters, “I wish I had sang for Phantom Tollbooth. We would have ruled the world.”
In the early-00s I put together a compliation that both Phantom Tollbooth guitar player Dave Rick (also of Bongwater) and Bob Pollard performed on. Dave does a song about “Dr. Mom” with Ann Magnuson. Bob and GBV do two suites about the “Strident Wet Nurse”. I’m in heaven. I start self-releasing records on my label, Off Records. I set it up so that it’s only for bands and projects that don’t really exist–or more simply, just albums I want to hear badly. Tollbooth is a comin’. Bob decides that the album should be him writing new lyrics and vocal melodies for Power Toy plus the song “Valley of the Gwangi” from the first 45. The new album title was one that Bob had been kicking around for a while–Beard Of Lightning.
The thing I can’t stress enough is that all 3 members of Phantom Tollbooth were jazzed about the project. A band that had no real vocalist by default–singing was not PT’s strong suit. So imagine you’ve had an album sitting around for well over 10 years that no one has heard and one of the greatist lyricists and vocalists of our time says he wants to sing on your old record. You’d either be stupid enough to be insulted or honored. We all shake hands and take the high road.
The album was originally recorded by Spot (Minutemen, Black Flag, Husher Du, Meat Puppets) in Texas so we have to get the original 24-track master tapes in Texas and have someone strip the vocals off the original. The more difficult task is getting the tapes for “Valley”. They were originally recorded on 8-track (a very thin reel-to-reel tape), and the tapes are so old and moldy that they have to be baked in a convection oven. A very scary process but it works out. So all the music is replayed without vocal track so that Bob can practice without the old vocals.
At this point Bob almost thought of backing out. Not only did he say it was one of the most challenging pieces of music to attack but he also wanted to do it justice. But things were in motion, so it had to happen.
So later at Cro-Mag studios Bob, myself, Jimmy Pollard, the Heed, and Tony Conley sit around while Bob does one of the most amazing vocal performances he’s ever done. We have Bob sing the vocal track onto unmixed version of the tape and he nails take after take. He’s got sheets and sheets of lyrics–arguably the most lyrics he’s ever written for an album. He switches from Beefheart squawks to pure vocal gold with such ease that I remember Jimmy shaking his head over and over in disbelief. And remember this music is hard to write for. It’s not pop music or even rock music…it’s was their own passionate breed of music. Not for everyone, but hearing Bob sing at the time I really thought they could have taken over the world. By the way, that sound at the end of the record was the reference cassette tape Bob made for himself being played out.
The vocals were done. It was sick and it rocked hard. And the kicker is that the only lyric and melody line that Bob left from the original was the “nobody knows what we’re saying” line.
After that, Bob, Rich Turiel, and myself meet up in NYC to have all these various tracks from different eras, different formats, and different studios mixed. The mixing was tricky but it went pretty painlessly considering all the materials. I remember wondering if this had ever been done before.
I ask Gerard Cosloy from Matador to write liner notes for the album. He released the first PT stuff on Homestead, so it only seems appropriate. He says sure, and I print up 2000 stickers that say “Phantom Tollbooth erase the vocals from their 1988 album Power Toy allowing mega-fan Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices) to create new lyrics, melodies and vocal tracks. Perversely recreating history Phantom Tollbooth rocks again! Liner notes by Gerard Cosloy.” Except that Gerard doesn’t end up doing it–he’s not so hot on the new version. So if anyone wants to bid on some unused stickers…
The good news is that the members of Phantom Tollbooth love it. All three agree that it was a perfect meeting of minds and the final outcome is genius. Jon Coats (the drummer) even said it was how he always imagined they could’ve been. Larger than life with a front man to meet the challenge–you bet. They even reform and open for Guided By Voices on our last tour in NYC. The album is released and confuses some–creates mega-fans for others. We did make a bet that there would some reviewers who would say “Why? Why would a band let someone re-interpret their record?” Our attitude was “Why not!” and I’m glad we listened to ourselves. “Nobody knows what we’re saying.”
– Chris Slusarenko
