Guided By Voices

Thank God, they just played "Radar Love," which meant he could stave off wheelsleep with retreat into the Big Band Fantasy, the elaborate alternate universe he'd been constructing for himself since he was about eleven. It had evolved greatly over the years, but twenty years later, it still existed in his head (when he was a kid, he'd written it all down, but it was found and caused acute embarrassment for months). He was in a band. The band was called Zeeland, after his hometown, like Chicago or Boston. The other members were his childhood friends, none of whom he'd spoken to in over twenty years. He'd aged them all 22 years, to put the release of their first album in 1971, making them all 19 or 20 at the time. Certain songs he liked, especially one hit wonders, were shoehorned into the band's recorded history, like "96 Tears," "Vehicle," "Jackie Blue," and "Radar Love". He had himself join after the first album, which was solid but rockish and plodding, and explode all over their second with his fecund songwriting genius. He couldn't play anything with strings, but he could fake it on just about anything else, and he was a wizard on the keys. They broke up in 1977, to pursue business and personal interests, got back together from '82 to '85, and then came together again in '02. There were eight members, seven of whom sang and all of whom wrote, almost more of a writing collective than a band. They were the most successful American band in history. Oh, and during their second hiatus, he joined the Beatles, but that's another story. Their record label was Apple, the Beatles' label; Zeeland took it over after the Beatles failed with it, moved it to Michigan, and made it the biggest indie label around. Did I mention that Apple computers were made by this same company? So, everyone is really really rich and famous and successful and oh my God I'm driving in a dented car through the rain back to my trailer kill me now.

He exited, paid the toll, stopped for gas and two Red Bulls, and pressed on, trying to ignore his shaking hands.