Songfacts®:

• Robert Pollard was a fourth grade teacher in Dayton, Ohio, when he formed Guided By Voices in 1983. Ten years later, he was still a fourth grade teacher, but in 1994 he was finally able to quit that job and devote himself to music full time.
  
  Pollard's time in the classroom inspired the song "Teenage FBI." According to the book Guided by Voices: A Brief History, he got caught picking his nose in class and his students let him have it. These young interrogators left an impression on him and led to the song, which he made more universal in theme, asking the question, "Someone tell me why I do the things that I don't want to do when you're around me?"
• "Teenage FBI" was released as a single from Guided By Voices' 1999 album Do The Collapse, produced by Ric Ocasek of The Cars. This was a lane change for the band, which relied on an unadorned sound with little production value. Ocasek gave them some pop appeal with a glossy sheen. Expectations were high for a hit, but it didn't happen - both the song and album stiffed.
  
  "I couldn't see why we didn't have a hit," Pollard told Harp in 2005. "Apparently it takes more than having a good song and a big-name producer. It takes payola!"
• Guided By Voices released the first version of this song in 1997 on their EP Wish In One Hand. This version is stripped-down, without the synthesizers or guitar solo. When they released their "best of" compilation in 2003, this early version of the song was the one they included.
• Guided By Voices was on their second lineup when they recorded this song. Group leader Robert Pollard disbanded the original group in 1997 and regrouped later that year with new members. They lasted until 2004, when he again broke up the group. When he rebooted GBV in 2010, it was with the original lineup.