By: Guided By Voices
Appears on: It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!
On first listen, “The Bell Gets Out Of The Way” struck me as a very 1950’s style song. The chord progression and vocal melody during the verses sound similar to Sha-Na-Na’s “Those Magic Changes” from Grease in my opinion (which technically isn’t from the 1950’s but was written to sound like a typical song from that time period). I doubt this was intentional, but either way, Robert Pollard has created a beauty of a tune here, with a perfect mix of strumming and some light riffage.
