By: Guided By Voices
Appears on: Under The Bushes Under The Stars
For the main guitar riff in “Ghosts Of A Different Dream,” Robert Pollard uses a simple, two-note figure that keeps repeating while the bass changes the chords beneath it. The guitar notes are played on the seventh fret of the fourth string and the ninth fret of the third string, using the “power chord” shape as Pollard so often does. In fact, this same shape is used for the main guitar riff in “Navigating Flood Regions” as well (with notes on the fourth fret of the fourth string and the sixth fret of the third string), and that is the song for which Pollard sang “Ogre’s trumpet-umpet! Ogre’s trumpet-umpet!” to demonstrate the riff’s rhythm to the band (as was revealed in Matthew Cutter’s biography of Pollard, “Closer You Are“). And “Ghosts Of A Different Dream” includes the lyric “in spite of the ogre’s trumpet blaring,” so it all comes full circle. (Interestingly enough, the live album titled Ogre’s Trumpet contains neither of these two songs.)
