Guided By Voices - Hold On Hope Video Smorgasbord

Alas, Hold On Hope. Some say it was Guided By Voices' best chance to crack the Billboard Top 100 and hit the big time (whatever that means), others say Robert Pollard should have trusted his instinct and never let it see the light of day (in spite of Cars' frontman and Do The Collapse producer and Ric Ocasek's insistence). It is a lovely song, but is it too lovely (or too creamy, as Bob might say)? Too Everybody Hurts? I say nay. Only the hardest heart would not find beauty in this song. A live staple from 1999-2000 (including a performance on Conan O'Brien), Hold On Hope still remains the GBV song most known by the general public, as evidenced by this video collection. First up though, is a performance on Australian TV (unconfirmed, but its the most likely source) by the Geebs themselves. This may be the best produced and artfully shot TV performance in the band's history. Love the Jimmy Mac drum cam, especially. Check it...



Here is a clip from the show Scrubs (can't be bothered with most network TV myself, tend to dwell in the lower depths of the cable dial) featuring Hold On Hope. This is likely one of the reasons the song is fairly well known. I also recall the song appearing on the Scrubs 2002 soundtrack...



And now we enter the realm of YouTube weirdness (and confirmation of the song's popularity). How about clips from the film RENT set to Hold On Hope? Not good enough? What about Scrubs brethren Grey's Anatomy (another show I've never seen a second of) a la Hold On Hope? Or maybe your tastes run to Japanese anime? Not quite weird enough for you? How about Hold On Hope set to lyrically inappropriate images of poverty and other unrelated world events?









There was an amazing South Park clip on YouTube with Kenny singing Hold On Hope, but unfortunately it seems to have been removed. Brutal!