Charles Manson: “I’m still ten-years-old in your world. In your world, I’m still a kid. I’m not gonna grow up. I’m not gonna go to college.”
Tom Snyder: “How old are you in your world?”
Charles Manson: “Uh … forever since breakfast.”
After the release of 1986’s “Life’s Rich Pageant,” R.E.M. quickly recorded a seven-song EP titled “Forever Since Breakfast,” which flew under the radar without much radio play. Michael Stipe, the band’s frontman and singer, was smoking two packs a day throughout the recording sessions, which resulted in a phlegmy-hoarseness to the vocals that ended up sounding more like a Really Good Impersonator than Michael Stipe himself; Peter Buck’s guitar playing, apart from the hyper-melodious Byrds-like arpeggios in ‘She Wants to Know,’ could best be described as ‘phoning it in’ but still good enough to complement the vocal-driven hooks (one might say the hooks themselves are guided-by-voices instead of traditional instrumentation); Mike Mills’ bass playing is just lost somewhere in the poor mixing, and Bill Berry’s drumming is unsurprisingly on-point, as usual, pulsing and keeping the beat as one does when banging something with a stick.
The title of the record, “Forever Since Breakfast,” comes from a 1981 interview between Tom Snyder, host of “The Tomorrow Show,” and Charles Manson; the latter of whom was locked up in California Medical Facility – male-only state prison – for seven counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit even more murders; and after three parole petitions were rejected: locked up, pretty much forever (since breakfast); a phrase that Charles Manson himself used in response to Snyder’s aggressive questioning of “How old are you in your world?” to Manson’s obvious psychobabble.
Tom Snyder’s interview style, best described as going-to-the-principal’s-office-when-you’re-twelve (when you didn’t even throw the first punch), often elicited the most virulent responses from his guests, and his guest, in this case – being a total caligula-type – was the perfect ratings-booster (22.2 million viewers!). The ratings needed boosting so badly that “The Tomorrow Show” executive producer, Roger Ailes, paid $10,000 in ‘consultation fees’ to ‘free-lance journalist’ Nuel Emmon (actually just Manson’s prison buddy), who ‘made it happen’; all parties agreed that Emmon was pivotal to securing the interview with the Sorceror of Helter Skelter, thereby solidifying Mr. Snyder and his entire network as certified death-dealers.
Roger Ailes later became CEO of Fox News and was ‘totally not forced to resign’ after multiple sexual assault allegations against him; perhaps paying off friends-of-murderers to secure television interviews is a decent indicator of moral values – something for Fox News to consider next time during the interview process, provided they have moral values themselves (which they don’t).
The irony here is that while paying off a murderer’s friend to secure an interview with said murderer is probably real-bad, we wouldn’t have Guided By Voices’ “Forever Since Breakfast” if the interview had never taken place. Where would Guided By Voices be today without Charles Manson’s neuromythic-rantings?
Probably the same place they are today (39-albums-in, as of 2023) just with a different title for their first record, now that I think about it.
Well, I suppose the jig is up; this article is not about an R.E.M. record, but – you guessed it – a Guided By Voices record. Robert Pollard, the 29-year-old ex-school-teacher from Dayton, Ohio and main character of Guided By Voices, was clearly obsessed with R.E.M. during the making of this record, imitating Michael Stipe’s inflection down to a tee and telling guitarist Paul Comstock to ‘sound as much like Peter Buck as possible or you’re fired’ and he was fired by the writing of the next album for – probably – ‘sounding too much like Peter Buck.’ Because, Guided By Voices won’t sound anything like ‘this’ again for another decade; ‘this’ being: cohesive, formulaic jangle-pop-rock with plainly-decipherable lyrics and semi-decent-production that sounds a lot like R.E.M. And that’s a good thing, or a bad thing, or something; depends on who you ask.
And while there’s no ‘So. Central Rain’ or ‘Radio Free Europe’ here, “Forever Since Breakfast” is still a really good, consistent R.E.M. record, with songs that come very close to the splendor of early R.E.M. If you don’t believe me, just listen to ‘The Other Place,’ a track that sounds like it was inappropriately shelved during the recording of “Murmur”; complete with Stipe-mimicry, vaguely political lyrics – “change has got to come, and I’ll be the first to admit it” – melodious Buck-like arpeggios, and a chorus that kicks you in the head – “don’t you understand anything?!”
Guided By Voices already has ‘rockathon’ on the mind because if there’s one thing “Forever Since Breakfast” does better than its inspiration, it’s rock ‘n’ roll. From the beginning, ‘Land of Danger’ bursts into your headspace with a blur of babbling weirdness that shifts suddenly into a chorus of shouts perfect for cross-generational-jumping-up-and-down (that means: music even your flower-power-parents can rock out to). ‘Sometimes I Cry,’ another rockathon, continues to showcase Robert Pollard’s knack for writing immediately accessible hooks right-out-the-gate, cramming so much melody into three minutes that it’s somehow impossible to appreciate on the first listen. Along with ‘Let’s Ride,’ ‘She Wants To Know,’ and ‘The Other Place’ (the latter being my most-repeated), we already have an album that is far more consistent than the next five Guided By Voices albums combined.
And why is that? On “Forever Since Breakfast,” Robert Pollard showcases his superb songwriting ability, with a knack for composing radio-friendly hits; crafting an excellent pop-rock record full of hooks and intricate melodies, a ‘proof of concept,’ but immediately drops this approach with the release of his next full album, “Devil Between My Toes.” Moving into a friend’s 8-track DYI-studio and creating far less accessible music with very dodgy production where the rock-pop only shines through between fuzz-and-drunk, dubbed affectionately by fans as ‘lo-fi.’ Almost like Robert Pollard wanted to prove himself, “look what I can do.” And then, once he did it, moved on to his true passion: Whatever The Fuck He Wanted.
“Oh yeah, we’ve always wanted to go into a big studio. Our first record, Forever Since Breakfast, was [made] in a big studio. We’ve always had no success whatsoever in a big studio. The four-track stuff we started doing in the late eighties or early Nineties sounded to me much better than the big studio stuff. We had more control of it and we did things more spontaneously. We’d go into a big studio and work with these unsympathetic engineers and it just didn’t work.”
– Robert Pollard, Mo Ryan Interview 1996
As always, the truth is simpler than the myth, or is it the other-way-round? “Forever Since Breakfast” wasn’t successful, and Dayton, Ohio’s Guided By Voices consistently faced derision in their local scene as an R.E.M. poser band with little-to-no-fanfare; the album didn’t sell well, putting Robert Pollard’s expectations in check, but he also didn’t have full control of his ambition. The big studio, rented by the hour, didn’t care about his vision or understand his work, and consequently, he couldn’t accomplish everything he wanted. Robert Pollard invested the effort-of-kings, crafting seven catchy pop-rock songs, yet wasn’t appreciated and grew jaded of the big studio experience, leading him to Stop Worrying and Just Do Whatever the Fuck He Wanted instead.
“Forever Since Breakfast” is an impressive 23-minute rockathon that might be a little too R.E.M.-inspired in some places, but it’s worth listening to if you’re interested in the history of the band or just pop music in general. “Forever Since Breakfast” is the ultimate ‘proof of concept’ album for a band in its formative years. Guided By Voices won’t sound this cohesive, focused, and rich until their 1994 hit “Bee Thousand,” with only bits and pieces of this shining through on their next six albums.
“Forever Since Breakfast” is the best R.E.M. record that’s not an R.E.M. record. And that’s fine.
on pop music 