Wilco: Album by Album

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Parachute Woman, May 11, 2020.

  1. frightwigwam

    frightwigwam Talented Amateur

    Location:
    Oregon
    And of course Jim O'Rourke worked with them, too!
     
    rancher and gjp163 like this.
  2. gjp163

    gjp163 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wamberal Beach
    100%. I’m not sure how old Jim is but I listened to Neu! in the post punk years as Kraftwerk, Ultravox, Psychedelic Furs, Gary Numan etc we’re citing them. Radiohead were ‘influenced by them with OK Computer which is also before the Astralwerks release.
     
    Rockford & Roll likes this.
  3. frightwigwam

    frightwigwam Talented Amateur

    Location:
    Oregon
    Most Americans would've been at a disadvantage, even if they had heard of Neu!, because the catalogue was issued only once in the US, before 2001, on a tiny label. But Jim was from Chicago, and went to college in the city in the late '80s. If he never saw the original US releases, he still might found or ordered import records, or the European boot CD's that came out in '94. Or, he might have had the chance to go shopping while touring overseas, too.
     
    gjp163 likes this.
  4. slop101

    slop101 Guitar Geek

    Location:
    So. Cal.
    He's around 50 - he didn't really start working in music until the early '90s, or so.
     
    gjp163 likes this.
  5. gjp163

    gjp163 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wamberal Beach
    Yes I was into the college scene and being in Oz went to the import stores. Chicago would have been similar to Sydney at that time. Jim is around my age.

    I wanted to thank those up thread who suggested this was put into the thread as it’s an important link to MA > YHF. This thread has been amazing PW. Now, I have to dive deeper into Loose Fur. And man I love the cover of the album, it’s a classic.

    Cheers
     
  6. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    [​IMG]

    Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

    There is a lot to be said about Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. A part of me wants to simply link to the Wikipedia page, which breaks down the complicated backstory on this record in a digestible manner. However, I have made it my personal goal not to copy/paste from Wiki in this thread and to try to write my own album introductions in my own words. So here are the basics in bullet form:

    • Jeff collaborated on the Loose Fur project with Jim O’Rourke and Glenn Kotche, though it was not released at the time.
    • Wilco went back into the studio to record the songs for their next album, but Jeff Tweedy was frustrated by the sound the group was getting and the fact that it simply didn’t match with what he was envisioning in his head. Ken Coomer took the brunt of his frustration. Jeff didn’t feel that Coomer had the flexibility to capture the heavily percussive sound he wanted. Coomer was fired in January 2001 and replaced with Glenn Kotche. The rest of the band accepted the change pretty much as soon as they heard what Glenn brought to the tracks.
    • Leroy Bach also became a full-fledged member of Wilco on this album.
    • Jay Bennett was serving as engineer and he and Jeff were beginning to clash quite a bit in the studio. The deterioration of their working relationship is documented in all of its brutal glory in the Sam Jones documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. Jim O’Rourke was brought in to mix the album and Jay Bennett was let go from the band after they had completed the album.
    • A lot of complicated business malarkey impacted the release of the album. AOL and Time Warner merged resulting in Reprise president Howie Klein getting fired (Klein had been a supporter of Wilco). The new guys in charge didn’t like the album and they rejected it for release. Wilco left Reprise but retained the rights to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot for free.
    • The album was initially released digitally to the band’s website on September 18, 2001 (in an effort to prevent bootlegging). They toured the material before the album was released properly.
    • The band signed with Nonesuch Records, a different subsidiary of AOL Time Warner (who basically paid for the album twice). It was released in April 2002 and went Gold, charting at #13. It received extremely strong reviews, that praised it for being any of the following adjectives: complex, rich, exotic, rewarding, adventurous, battered, bonkers, bewildering, experimental, scrambled, etc.
    Speaking for myself, I wish I could say that I knew that any of this was happening at the time. I was 13 and just on the cusp of getting into more ‘serious’ or ‘adult’ music. My first Wilco album was A Ghost is Born in 2004, when I was in high school and firmly interested in ‘alternative’ music. I came to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot after that and fell in love with both albums deeply. They were both a major part of the soundtrack of my late teen years and I love them to this day. I absolutely adore this album. I think it is a true American masterpiece right up there with Blonde on Blonde and Murmur. The sounds and tones of this record are never off-the-wall just for the sake of it. It is a true experience in tone and texture with every decision in arrangement made carefully to bring this disorientating, fragile, emotional journey to life. I’ll save deeper thoughts for the individual tracks.

    We begin today with the opening song:

    I Am Trying to Break Your Heart



    I see this song as the culmination of everything we’ve been talking about over the past several releases. The band first started their somewhat tentative explorations of dissonance on Misunderstood and Sunken Treasure. Summerteeth brought in the use of abstract lyrical couplets designed to come at emotional truths from unusual angles. Jay Bennett brought in the inventive use of piano (never forgetting that piano is a percussion instrument). Jeff began working with Glenn Kotche and Jim O’Rourke, who brought a particular kind of scattered, noisy minimalism. And, personally, Jeff Tweedy is now deep in the throes of addiction and writing quite honestly about it and the impact it has on his life.

    The result is this piece of sheer brilliance. ‘I Am Trying to Break Your Heart’ unfurls slowly, an ever-expanding sonic experience that I have always found a bit shocking in how intimate it is. That’s one of the chief hallmarks of this period for Wilco. These songs are as personal as those on any classic soul-baring singer-songwriter album (like Blue or John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band). They are painted with the colors of distortion and dissonance, but that reflects an inner world spiraling out of control. The lyrics are odd, but they do not lack meaning. I can pick any line from any song on this album and dig in to the meaning and where I think Jeff was coming from.

    You’re quite a quiet domino, bury me now

    The emotional destruction and devastation you brought on me was unexpected.

    Let’s forget about the tongue-tied lightning

    Don’t think about the beautiful early days of this relationship when we were sparking with electricity and raw with nerves.

    His relationship is spiraling out of control and he knows it. The percussion stumbles and thumps, like a frenetic heartbeat. The keys are twisted, jarring, beautifully sloppy. The vocal is tired, wasted. It opens with the hum of feedback and closes with an interpolation and foreshadowing of ‘I’m the Man Who Loves You’—he really does, even if everything is awful right now. A brilliant opener, of course.

    I can’t tell you how excited I am for this next stretch in the thread. I really look forward to reading all of your thoughts on this album and the songs contained on it!
     
  7. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    The Light: How I Went From Disgruntled Alt-Country Fan to Extreme Summerteeth/YHF Appreciation

    In July of 2003 I was living in Tokyo. My wife and children had gone back to Seattle to escape the summer heat and I was batching it.

    Alone, I spent my time at home listening to music and one evening found myself determined to make something out of my favorite band’s last two albums (Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot). I couldn’t understand or fathom either one of those albums and had decided that Jay Bennett was the culprit. Prior to Jay getting a songwriting credit, everything was fine. It was only after his name was splashed over everything (on Summerteeth and YHF; I conveniently ignored the Mermaid sessions) that the band went to hell. I blamed Jay Bennett for the ruination of Wilco.

    Because it was my favorite band I decided I’d give it one last try and pick the salvageable songs from both records and burn them to a separate disc. I mean, there had to be something underneath all those layers that I could enjoy.

    I ended up with a cd of 8 or 9 songs but somehow that intense process on that hot July night tore down any obstacles I had with both Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I decided that that meant that I needed to give credit to the guy who I had previously determined to be the devil.

    The very next day on the way home from work I went to Tower Records and bought the Sam Jones film that I must have noticed that they had in stock (rather amazing in itself as Wilco was an unknown in Japan at that time). I watched the movie that evening and was in shock. Bennett ended up being ousted from the band! I had had exactly one day to appreciate what he brought to Wilco and can’t even describe how stunned (and angry) I was after watching that film.

    But the Summerteeth/Yankee Hotel Foxtrot appreciation, and then watching the movie (where I learned for the first time that Jay was no longer in Wilco) all happened to me over the course of 48 hours.

    I’ve never had anything close to such an experience (as relates to music) before or since. As someone said upthread, a real Road to Damascus moment for me.

    I’m pretty sure I kept that cd with the short list from the two albums, the tracks I thought were salvageable, up until very recently but I can’t find it now. Via Chicago was on it, I’m quite certain, but after that I can’t remember.

    It wasn’t the arrangements and musicianship on Being There that made me a Jay Bennett fan (even if it should have been). I didn’t realize how he’d contributed back then. It was all about this one intense night. That’s when I became a fan of Summerteeth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Jay Bennett.

    Being There is probably unassailable but both Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot are alongside it on my Top 100 Albums List.
     
  8. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    The ‘Wilco is/was’ crack (on the liner notes) has always really disturbed me. So here is what I’ve found (if anything is incorrect, please advise). I’ll insert this here at the start of YHF discussion so I don’t keep jumping in later, piecemeal.

    Jay Bennett Wilco-Era Recordings Writing Credit Facts:
    • First track credited to Bennett is California Stars (Mermaid Avenue)
    • Bennett has 29 original release co-writes while a member of Wilco, covering 4 albums (Mermaid Avenue; Summerteeth; Mermaid Avenue Vol. II; and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
    • Bennett is credited as a co-writer of 74% of the Wilco material released during this time (29/39 = 74%)
    • The music for two tracks (and the lyrics of the latter) were entirely written by Jay Bennett (California Stars, My Darling)
    • Based on Bennett’s own YHF recap and an in-depth study of ASCAP/BMI, Kot book and liner notes, Bennett additionally wrote ‘’much of the music” (25-35%/50) with songs listed high-to-low): Kamera/Camera; Blood Of The Lamb; Ashes Of American Flags; We’re Just Friends; Airline To Heaven; Secret Of The Sea; Radio Cure; Jesus, Etc; Poor Places)
    • Jay also co-wrote a significant portion (15-20%/50) of the music for: Remember The Mountain Bed; Nothingsevergonna...; Pieholden Suite; Christ For President; Can’t Stand It; She’s A Jar; A Shot In The Arm; Summer Teeth; Candyfloss; Pot Kettle Black
    • Lesser co-writes: I’m Always In Love; How To Fight Loneliness; ELT; Hoodoo Voodoo; She Came Along To Me; In A Future Age; War On War; I’m The Man Who Loves You
    • Of the four albums that include real-time Bennett written material, the Jay contribution breakdown is: 4/7, 13/15, 4/6 and 8/11
    • Co-Written Outtakes That May or May Not Have Later Been Released on a Wilco Album: 50%ers — Shakin’ Sugar (Alone); Venus Stopped The Train
    • Outtakes Continued: 30%ers— *Car’s Can’t Escape (Reasons For You To Love Me); Let Me Come Home (with vocals 30%/instrumental 60%)////*Jay Bennett’s Bigger Than Blue album says “which contains lyrical contributions by Jeff Tweedy” confirming my own suspicion that Cars Can’t Escape is predominately a Jay Bennett song (as evidenced in the Wilco film)
    • Outtakes 25%ers —- Whispery Kiss
    • Post Jay-era Official Released Co-Writes: Magazine Called Sunset (10%) on More Like The Moon; Ain’t Gonna Grieve (25%/50) on Mermaid Avenue Vol. III
    • Puzzling or I Can’t Figure It Out: I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Jay does not indicate any credit for this song in any of his post-divorce accountings of his YHF contributions which means he acknowledges this as an all-Jeff song. BMI has the song 100% credited to Jeff Tweedy. However, ASCAP shows I’m (note: not “I Am”) Trying To Break Your Heart as 25% Bennett/75% Tweedy. The entry even references “Film: I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” (and, yes, this time it’s’ I Am.’) My accounting here does not include the song as a Bennett co-write (because it isn’t) but maybe there’s a version out there that is! (See attachment at end of this missive)
    • Another Big Question: When The Roses Bloom Again — hmm?
    • Mermaid Avenue Leftovers That Became Jay Bennett Album Tracks: Little White Cottage; No Church Tonite/Tonight; Cajun Angel. Words by Guthrie/Music by Bennett, credited 50-50
    • Songs I Haven’t Heard: Whispery Kiss. This song is on the film index (credited entirely to Jeff Tweedy) but I can’t recall ever hearing it. ASCAP gives Jay 25% which means he wrote ‘much of the music.”
    • Often Overlooked Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Fact: Jay Bennett co-wrote ‘much of the music’ on five of the eleven Yankee Hotel Foxtrot tracks. (He’s co-writer on 8 tracks overall). From the 19 song Engineer’s Demos track list, 7 Bennett co-writes made the final. One additional song was written by Tweedy/Bennett subsequent to the leak of the demos (to account for Jay’s 8). This means that 9 other songs were rejected (4 of which were major JB written songs (Magazine/Shakin’ Sugar/Cars/Venus) and 5 of which were written entirely by Jeff Tweedy). In addition, Tweedy (according to Kot book, was considering Not For The Season, so that is six non-Jay tracks that could have been selected for the album). Instead, 73% of the YHF album has Bennett writing contributions (above and beyond everything else he did including arranging and audio engineering).
    • The last song Bennett co-wrote with Jeff Tweedy was Jesus, Etc. This was after the engineer’s demos.
    • Attachment: I'M TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART
    Total Current ASCAP Share: 25%
    ISWC: T9138781290 Work ID: 886564666
    Writers
    ASCAP controls 12.5% PRO IPI
    BENNETT JAY ASCAP 129697725
    TWEEDY JEFFREY SCOT BMI 233292781
    Performers
    WILCO
    Publishers
    ASCAP controls 12.5% PRO IPI
    YOU WANT A PIECE OF THIS MUSIC
    Contact Info ASCAP 342021124
    Additional Non-ASCAP Publishers
    Alternate Titles
    I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART (FILM)
     
  9. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    The last of my prepared material, @Parachute Woman !
    Possibly Originally Considered 10-Song YHF Track List (based on Kot book, p. 187) (sequencing undetermined):
    Magazine Called Sunset
    Not For The Season
    Kamera
    Alone (later titled Shakin’ Sugar)
    Nothing Up My Sleeve
    I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
    Reservations
    Ashes Of American Flags
    Poor Places
    Radio Cure

    Greg Kot says that the (above) first five were ready to go while Ken Coomer was still in the band. The latter five, beginning from I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, were “not ready.”

    Ken Coomer is listed as an additional musician in the liner notes. Is he playing drums on Kamera? On any other song? (Perhaps on Magazine Called Sunset on More For the Moon EP?)
     
  10. slop101

    slop101 Guitar Geek

    Location:
    So. Cal.
    I always got Trying to Break Your Heart mixed up with Misunderstood.

    As far as YHFT, while it was considered Wilco's "breakthrough" and/or their most popular album, it never rated that high with me. I like it just fine, but there's like five or six Wilco albums I like more.
     
  11. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    Autumn 2001. I was a dedicated Wilco fan. Had all the albums, loved both Mermaid Avenues. Was especially a big admirer of the sixties pop oriented Summerteeth, as the 90's had been my own Kinks/Beach Boys/Zombies decade. My favorite artist at the time was Elliott Smith.
    One day at work, I visit Wilco's website, and here it is, the new LP! I can't remember how it was presented, a zip file or song by song, but I downloaded it and burnt the thing on a CD, deciding not to play it before getting back home, in favor of a dedicated listening session with my then girlfriend (and now wife).

    I got home with the big surprise, we prepared ourselves, pushed "play" and it was a… DISASTER. We were expecting something along the lines of Can't Stand It, and instead we had some 20 minutes of lethargic drone-sy slow ambient songs. We were disappointed beyond belief.
    As it happened, the songs had been badly sequenced on my CDR, resulting in the following opening string of three songs : Radio Cure, Reservations and Poor Places. Wonderful tracks, yes, two absolute masterpieces, yes, but not exactly along the lines of Can't Stand it, I'm Always in Love and Shot in the Arm ! Anyway, the mistake was soon corrected, and I still can remember how we marveled at the fact that the exact same songs could either make complete sense or no sense at all, depending on their placing in the flow of a record (which in this case was especially true of the two closing tunes).
    Anyway, whenever I listen to YHF now, I'm stunned that it once was deemed a challenging or difficult record. Now, I mostly hear straight-ahead pop songs, hooks, beautiful melodies, ear-worms, a very easy and accessible pop record. What was I thinking ?
    As for Radio Cure, Reservations and Poor Places, I often whistle them in the shower…
     
  12. Al Gator

    Al Gator You can call me Al

    How can I follow that set of YHF posts? I agree it's a fabulous album; it's definitely in my top tier. The odd combination of those gorgeous melodies, along with brilliant instrumentation and the atonal pieces somehow just works perfectly.
     
  13. ymenard

    ymenard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montreal, Quebec
    I always wonder what happened in those 7 days between 9/11 and the release of YHF on their website. I have to say, from my memory, even 7 days after 9/11 it was pretty much twenty-four hours of non-stop news about the disaster, it was all everybody was talking all the time. The band must have thought it was a gift to their fans? Was it planned even before 9/11?
     
    Rockford & Roll likes this.
  14. John C Bradley Jr

    John C Bradley Jr Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbia, SC
    I don't think it an exaggeration to say that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is Wilco's masterpiece. The songs are uniformly incredible. The lyrics continue to reveal with each listen years after I first heard them. Everything I read or hear about this record and the way that it was recorded makes me appreciate the genius behind it. It is a landmark record, not just for the band, but a landmark record "period."

    I think I have mentioned my old habit of packing a handful of CD's back in the old pre MP3 days whenever I had to go on a road trip that involved time in a rental car. While I was still a few years away from my "Wilco conversion," I did buy this record not long after it came out, because Wilco was a "band who I was following" and also after reading all of the articles about its release. I took it with me on work trip to San Jose. I padded my trip with a few extra days to "explore' the region and on a Sunday I drove to Needles National Monument for some hiking and also for a stop at the Steinbeck museum in Salinas. I have a vivid memory of putting the CD in as I left the hotel that morning and listening to it all that day. I still so associate the CD with that day.

    I am going to say something a big odd though - while I recognize the records greatness, and on any given day I would say - well on most given days I would say - that this is my "favorite" Wilco CD, and it contains a lot of my "favvorite" Wilco songs, YHF is not my "go to" for these songs. A lot of them I actually like the "live" version better than the "record" version. There are a couple of songs that we will get to where this is "drastically" the case. To me, and I am probably an outlier here, these songs have just gotten better and better played live through the years. I think for many of them I actually prefer the live version to the studio version now.

    I will have a lot to say about this record. Like @Zeki I have been thinking a lot about what I am going to post about this record.

    This is a record that BEGS for a deluxe reissue/box set. I have the "Engineer's Demos," (its the only Wilco boot I own). A reissue that walks you through the recording, construction (and "de-construction") of this record would be amazing. The outtakes that we know of, are fantastic. There were several in @Zeki's excellent post I have never heard. I would pay HUGE money for this type of reissue. It would be a purchase at any cost for me.
     
  15. John C Bradley Jr

    John C Bradley Jr Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbia, SC
    The 911 aspect of many of the lyrics on this record still gives me chills. As I mentioned yesterday, there is a very, very good "My Favorite Albums" podcast relating to this record which discusses that. After I heard that I once again listened to this record with that in mind. Its astounding how so many of the lyrics seem to be referencing that event that certainly had not occurred when the record was written and recorded.
     
  16. John C Bradley Jr

    John C Bradley Jr Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbia, SC
    Finally, every time I go to Chicago I have to take at least one or two photos of the Marina City Towers which my wife always refers to as the "Wilco Towers."
     
  17. Fortuleo

    Fortuleo Used to be a Forum Resident

    About the (real) opening song
    He’s addressing us ! Us, the Wilco fans. There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind. He’s trying to break our heart. That’s his goal as a songwriter, and this phrase is his manifesto. He may be “misunderstood”, he may challenge us once in a while, at the risk of losing some of us, but he’s always trying to break our heart. And he does – more often than not. This song is a triumph in every way. It’s highly melodic, original, “experimental” but still full of irresistible hooks – the drum fills, the seven notes bell’s riff, the little lifting piano melody at 2’30’’, the mid-song power chords that make it such an exhilarating live number (I’ve read somewhere that it was a David Kahne’s mixing idea ? Can’t place where I read this, please help me out, since it would be highly ironic if proven true).

    Sometimes, bands need to “replace” old favorites by updating them, and yes, @slop101, I suspect IATTBYH was designed as a sequel of sorts to Misunderstood, the link between the two songs being acknowledged at the very beginning by the dissonant intro, then at the end when Jeff screams the first lines again, in his “Nothing / Nothing at all” voice (in this case, of course, Misunderstood was not really replaced after all, as it remains a live favorite).

    As I said above, it's amazing to me how what once seemed challenging is now comforting on the ear, self-evident, without losing any of its sonic inventiveness and power. This is obviously one of the most iconic Wilco songs. Almost as engaging and beautiful when performed as a solo folk tune, always incredible as a live band experience, but the studio version beats them all, as it is such a glorious piece of avant-pop music, one of the only art-rock songs that you can sing along to as if it was a campfire tune. Which may be the best way I can think of to describe Tweedy’s artistic approach.
    Breathtaking, and as vivid and exciting now as it ever was.
     
  18. fspringer

    fspringer Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    Must read interview for this album:

    Exclusive Glorious Noise Interview with Jay Bennett

    At the end of this article is a link to another article where Jay lists what he thought were his contributions to each track on the album, songwriting and instruments.

    Interesting stuff. I recall reading it for the first time and being shocked that a band member was being so forthright about his role in the band. But I gather this was May 2002, and Jay felt no pressure to "take one for the band." It strikes me as being honest and gives a better portrayal of him as opposed to the mad genius who had to go as seen in the YHF documentary. (Frankly, the "fight" scene in the studio is pretty underwhelming. I would imagine minor production disagreements like that were legion. In the commentary, Jeff noted that the scene of him retching into a men's room toilet bowl afterwards occurred on a different day ... yet he's wearing the same outfit?)

    I recently re-watched this, and it is a great story unto itself - a guy goes in to do a documentary on his favorite band, and in short order, they put together what he recognizes as an amazing album, drummer gets fired a few days in (with what appears to be little to no drama, or at least the viewer is never exposed to this), rumors of friction with the label, band delivers album to label, label demands changes, band says no way, lead guitarist and songrwriting/producing mainstay gets fired, label gives the album to band for free and says get out, band eventually signs on with more creative subsidiary of umbrella media conglomerate that owns both labels, record goes on to be a hit.

    Question: how many of you were listening to the MP3's of this album long before the album was officially released? I didn't even bother buying the album until it was made clear you could download the bonus More Like the Moon EP with proof of purchase (I think that was the case?). Can't recall if I pulled the YHF tracks from the band's website or Napster? But it was a savvy move at the time when the digital world was just starting to take over.

    According to wiki, album sold around 590,000 copies (by 2007) - proving Warners/Reprise right. At that time, Wilco was booted because "major label" bands were expected to sell in the millions. At the end of the CD age, that was a normal expectation for a successful band on a big label. Wilco hadn't been doing it on that level (although I don't have sales figures handy), thus the constant monkeying with single mixes by David Kahne that seemed ill advised. (Kahne takes a lot of crap with how he handled Wilco, but he does have an impressive track record. The bigger hurdle was probably Howie Klein, former head of Sire and huge Wilco supporter, being let go in the AOL merger just before the band turned in the album.)

    A few years later? A band selling 590,00 units would be considered superstars! Still, they had a great run with Nonesuch.
     
  19. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Not me. I had just moved to Japan and was caught up in a whirl of activity (including being stuck in Ottawa for a week during 9/11) and probably missed all the hype. I bought the cd when it came out and then downloaded the Moon EP.
     
  20. John C Bradley Jr

    John C Bradley Jr Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbia, SC
    Me neither. I knew it was "out there," but (sadly) I just wasn't that big of a fan to go out and get it...
     
    Zeki likes this.
  21. Paul Gase

    Paul Gase Everything is cheaper than it looks.

    Location:
    California
    I’ve mentioned in other posts how my family is a Wilco family. YHF sealed the deal for us.

    This record is a slow burner, and it didn’t grab me immediately the way BT or ST did. But, we were a CD in the car family, and boy, between going to school, after school, soccer practice, Hebrew school, errands, etc....we had a LOT of family music listening time in the car.

    Within those circumstances, songs like Heavy Metal Drummer and I’m The Man Who Loves You became like Yellow Submarine or Ob La Di Ob La Da....go-to songs that we’d crank up loudly. Maybe we’d skip Radio Cure and Reservations but we all absorbed this album collectively, in the car, in 20-30 minute increments.

    I Am Trying To Break Your Heart is a brilliant A+ brave opening song.
     
  22. rancher

    rancher Unmade Bed

    Location:
    Ohio
    YHF was my start with Wilco, loved it so much that I immediately started working backwards. It may well be their masterpiece, but then again sometimes I think that is true of Summerteeth, BT and even AGIB :D I own the YHF engineering demos, which I like quite a bit as well, (they never should have taken the acoustic guitar hook out of "War on War"!)

    IATTBYH - one of the best tunes both sonic and lyrically, lots going on with the instrumentation and percussion
     
  23. John C Bradley Jr

    John C Bradley Jr Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbia, SC
    IATTBYH - What a great album opener. Its a song that really sort of sets the stage for everything that is to follow.

    I am not positive about this - but I think I have heard this played at every single Wilco show I have ever been to - I have certainly heard it played, probably, the most of any other Wilco song, live. The thing about this song (on album or live) to me is that it sort of moves along, threatening to fall apart at any time until about the 4:15 or so point where after Jeff sings "I am trying to break your heart," there is a brief pause and then the band comes in. Bam! I love that particular moment. Every time I hear this song live I know that that moment is coming and when it does, it makes me so, so happy. It's a great moment every single time.

    The imagery of the lyrics is astounding. Some of my favorites - "Bible Black Predawn," being one that has sort of stuck with me through the years. I love that description.
     
    jalexander, robcar, awsop and 6 others like this.
  24. slop101

    slop101 Guitar Geek

    Location:
    So. Cal.
    YHFT also started the weird Wilco trend that had a paper slip around the CD jewel-case which had the same exact art/info as contained on the jewe-case/booklet.
     
  25. Analogmoon

    Analogmoon All the Way Back in the Seventies

    I think the cd release also had boxes of different colors around the jewel case. I think mice was a beige color. Although now it is white.
     
    frightwigwam, rancher and Fortuleo like this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine