Ashes... in my mind this was one of my two least favourite songs on the album, the second of which is still to come, and both of which I know to be favourites or both fans and Jeff. On re-listening, it’s better than I thought, but still one of my least favourites on the album. To put it into perspective it’s at least an 8/10 and probably a 9. The bar is just so high on this album! What works: well, the lyric, of course! One of Jeff’s absolute finest. Summerteeth has some good stuff, but this is at another level. He’s gone from being a mid-west punk teenager to a genuine poet reflecting on the decline of America. Also, the song itself is beautiful with a lot of great production flourishes. That mellotron that harmonizes with Jeff, only to cut down almost to nothing after crying, “you know I would die if I could come back new”. That lyric is a brick wall in the middle of the album. So what doesn’t work for me? Somehow the whole arrangement doesn’t entirely gel for me. Hearing some of the context above helps me make sense of why this might be. The drums feel slightly off kilter, or maybe a hair behind the beat, an absolute rarity for Glen. If this is essentially a Jay demo filled out that Ken had trouble with, it may have just been that difficult to play over with precision. Wilco v2.0 seem to benefit from collaborative recording, and that obviously wasn’t happening here. Also, the arrangement really does feel of a piece with She’s a Jar. I love all the disintegrating noise at the end as well, but that leaves the overall arrangement feeling a bit like it’s cut from two pieces of cloth. It’s almost like it’s a bit unfinished, then. As if they couldn’t find the way to turn this fully into a new Wilco song as they did with the rest of the album. To go back to Mermaid, I found it interesting that my favourite cutting room track - Listening to That Wind That Blows - has a solo by Jeff. That’s a solo that is begging for a Nels treatment. Between Yankee and Ghost, Jeff would take guitar lessons that really enabled him to move into a new sonic space. You can hear him feeling that out on Wind That Blows, and I think Ashes would have benefited from a little dose of that guitar destruction. I can make no better case than to point to the live version of Ashes from the DVD with Nels’ instrumental coda. This is what the album version is lacking and it takes my least favourite song on the album and probably turns it into my top song in the entire Wilco catalogue. It’s absolutely jaw dropping... plus I believe this version is from a sound check, so it’s just the band playing for themselves. If you haven’t heard this version you need to.
Much thanks to Parachute Woman for such a wonderful job on this thread. It made me do a deep dive into Wilco. I listened to YHF yesterday after not hearing the entire album in quite some time. It was such a fresh listening experience after not playing it for so long. This is an OTJ day. I gave it a rest after almost constant play.
These two lines nail Ashes to me All my lies are always wishes I know I would die if I could come back new All my lies... I Deceive myself or other’s that I am okay I know I would die.. 2 metaphors I would rather Have gone on the battlefield than be in this state Or I would give anything to be whole again
It’s an amazing song. It’s bare bone is so strong, that all of the many versions can shine it’s own light. I love them all. On the YHF album there is the starkest contrast between the oppressing state the narrator and/or the society (whatever you like) is in, and the galactic, futuristic soundscape without any bounds. I think it sounds impressive, but at an emotional level I’m connecting more with the earthy, organic demo version (not to be confused with the engineer demo version).
"Ashes of American Flags"- Jeff's lyric writing continues to impress."A fresh wind and bright sky to enjoy my suffering" is such a fantastic line and it's surrounded by many other great lines. I love the guitar riff and the way this song begins. It then all breaks apart, at the end, into what sounds like an alarm warning of an alien invasion or maybe a terrorist attack! Some of you have talked about the drums and how they were not happy with how Ken was originally playing it. It does sound like a song that would be hard to get the drums right. They cut them out in the middle verses and go with the atmospheric sounds. Maybe the song doesn't need all the drums? This is one of those songs where I would love to play around with the mix. There is so much to work with. I prefer Jeff's vocal take on some of the demos and live versions, but overall this album version is the masterpiece of the song and my favorite. It does feel like the heart of the entire album and a song that Jeff is very fond of. This album has a near perfect score going so far. 5/5 Here is a recent live version from The Tweedy Show.
He ain't too proud to take his former self on the grain: There were many, many nights in St. Louis where me and my friends would go see some punk band, and then we’d all go to the landing on the Mississippi River, because the bars on the landing had a 4 A.M. liquor license. And all us punk guys would sit there and scoff and feel superior to all the heavy-metal bar bands with the big hear and the Spandex, most of whom were having the ****ing time of their ****ing life. So who was losing? Me. Those guys were getting laid, they were deluding themselves into thinking they were gonna be huge stars, and they were living. And I was dead. I was staring into my drink.
Yeah, I knew that I might be wrong about the name of the instrument used, I just went with what seemed obvious. Thanks for the clarification.
Can someone shed some light on the opening line "The cash machine is blue and green" please. Does this relate to a specific bank's ATM at the time, and if so is there a reason that Jeff would intentionally mention this bank? Or is the "Blue" a reference to his state of mind (Blue = Depression) and Green a simple reference to US currency (Greenback)? Once again, being located half way around the globe has me wondering about the possible meaning behind local references... Thanks.
"Ashes of American Flags" is one of the high points of the album. It's just an incredible piece of sonic art. I guess I can see some similarities to parts of Summerteeth here, but, again, there is so much more space in the sound here that I don't really think of it as being of a similar piece as most of that album. There is quiet in this music. Yet, it's also quite unsettling, particularly the "train blasts" that come at the end. I love the ending to this one, as though something is falling apart in a sadly beautiful way. 6-for-6!
“All my lies are always wishes/ I know that I would die if I could come back new,” brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Also, “I’m down on my hands and knees every time a doorbell rings/ I shake like a toothache when I hear myself sing.” Jesus, man. Get out of my head!
Some banks, notably US Bank, use blue as the primary color on their signs and logos, and even the ATM screens may be blue. But he’s probably using “blue” in the figurative sense, too.
https://www.newsobserver.com/entertainment/article234929262.html Excerpt: ‘Ashes of American Flags,’ the emotional centerpiece of Wilco’s most popular album BY DANIEL COOK JOHNSON SEPTEMBER 11, 2019 04:54 PM
Ashes of American Flags • Christoph Green • Producer and Director Short video trailer, includes brief live clip (not of Ashes, though)
I don't really have anything to add regarding the magnificence that is Ashes of American Flags. Great, sad song.
I absolutely could not say it any better than this as far as "Ashes" is concerned. One of my least favorites on the album, but live it is probably my all-time favorite Wilco song, hands down. Absolutely love the live version of this song. And the version off of the live DVD is astoundingly good. One of my favorites. I planned on posting it myself and got back from a weekend away visiting one of my children and saw that @jalexander had beaten me to it! I have only seen Wilco play this song one time, on the Anniversary tour in Raleigh at an outdoor show at the North Carolina Art museum (can't remember the exact name of the venue but its a great place for a show). I drove up by myself on a Saturday afternoon in October. Beautiful fall day - just a little bit chilly for an outdoor show. At that point I'd probably seem them play 8-10 times and this song had never been in any of the setlists. It was very much my "most wanted" Wilco song at that time. I was to the point I was wondering if I'd ever get to hear it live. Anyway, it was the show opener. I've only been moved to absolute tears a few other times at shows - seeing the reunited E Street Band at a Reunion Tour show, seeing the Eagles play "Wasted Time," and when I saw Paul McCartney a few years ago. This was the fourth such occasion. I just wept. It was one of the most moving concert experiences of my life. It was an incredible moment - one I will never ever forget.
For “Ashes” - it works for me and I recognize it as a Wilco classic. However, I don’t love the disintegrating noise to end it on the YHF version. I much prefer later live versions with some tasteful but creative guitar outros by Nels instead
"Jesus, Etc." Geez, this is such a perfect song; practically the ideal match of music and lyric. Not a surprise it has become such a popular track for the band. It's the simplicity of this piece that makes it so powerful. The string arrangement adds just the right touch to elevate this into something special. It floors me every time I listen to it. "Ashes Of American Flags" A fascinating track, looking back on it I get the impression that it represents a sort of turning point in Jeff's approach to writing lyrics, with a new kind of introspection that carries through in subsequent albums. The atmospherics here add a dark tone that's also somewhat ominous.
I completely understand where you’re coming from. As a live song, Ashes really shines. It is an absolute masterpiece of interplay and organic band chemistry. The six guys line-up was carefully put together by Jeff in order to do justice to the band’s repertoire in concert, and some songs really benefited from this approach. I don’t know how and why this habit of working from Jay’s demos became customary. Maybe because he was so good, maybe because he was so proud, maybe because it earned him some well deserved songwriting points, or a combination of all this? He would construct these demos with a lo-fi mad scientist approach, laying down parts that could be worked with by the band, be it for a bona fide studio take or for the live show. Hooks, fills, riffs, gimmicks, sounds, he would come up with all these little ideas that could be then moved around and played with to create some modulations and movements inside the songs (even at the mix stage). In my opinion, this has remained a great asset in Wilco’s music through the years : the movements beneath the songs themselves, the way they almost never repeat themselves, even when they are classically structured in a verse/chorus/ bridge fashion. Both the arranging/playing and the singing/phrasing are in constant movement for the duration of any given song. During the “Jay years”, I’m pretty certain that both guys conceptualized this approach together, they must've discussed it and found tricks to make sure their songs kept constantly reinventing themselves as they moved along. The strings arrangement of Jesus etc. is a case in point : fiddle, then glissandos, then pizzicatos, then chamber quartet, matching Jeff’s words metric that is ridiculously distinctive from one verse to the other. The same goes with Ashes of American Flags, with the phrasing of the words on one part (Diet Coca-Cola / Speaking of Tomorrow / I Ache like a Tooth-ache : note how he deliberately accentuates different syllables every time) and the instrumental backing on the other, shifting constantly, from busy to airy, from melodrama to restraint, from landscapes to ruins, from refined beauty to fractured devastation etc. Of course, this “let’s make the demo the basic track” approach has its failings, making the tracks feel a bit cluttered (like on a few Summerteeth songs), or a little less polished or organic that some might hope for (like on Ashes of American Flags). There’s a fair chance Jay sometimes didn't even use a click track, making it extremely hard for a drummer to play along (and for the singer to find his own cues). It sure sound like it was the case here. But this studio take remains a laboratory of fabulous ideas and, listening to the masterful live version you’ve posted, one cannot but notice that all the little bits and pieces of the “demo” are still there, just rearranged and repositioned, to maximum effect. I just love it. I love the fact that the studio take “stutters” a bit, it struggles to articulate complex and contradictory feelings/thoughts, like the forming of an idea in the creator’s head, and then, when they play it live, the idea is fully formed, they know exactly what they want to say, it’s articulate and assured, it has become an authoritative statement. Funnily enough, Jeff has come back to this way of working in recent years, most of his recent records (Tweedy/Mavis/solo/latest three Wilco LPs) being born out of his own Loft demos.
Heavy Metal Drummer 'Ashes of American Flags' disintegrates away in a haze of noise and anxiety...and then in fades the shimmering, glorious 'Heavy Metal Drummer.' Another perfect moment of sequencing with the mood suddenly lifting like the sun breaking through the clouds. Of course, there is a twinge of sadness in 'Heavy Metal Drummer' (he misses the innocence and simplicity of his youth, going to see bands live when it was all so much fun) but it's really just a wonderful tribute to local bands, KISS covers, dancing even when you are a terrible dancer and the pure joy of music. The music is a superb, blissful blend of chugging Pavement-style indie rock and sunshiny burbling keyboard accents. It is one of the most purely melodic songs on the album and one that has brought me a lot of happiness over the years. It has also become a live staple. I mean, what Wilco fan doesn't like Heavy Metal Drummer? (Here's where one of you chimes in--I hate this song! ) This song was also used in the episode of Gilmore Girls in which Rory's best friend Lane finds her calling as a drummer. That alone makes me seriously nostalgic for my own youth.
The way Ashes segues into HMD is an example of perfect sequencing. I don't know of any other song that could have followed Ashes so well. Those two songs fit together.
Yes, Heavy Metal Drummer is just the right song at this point on the album. It's a simple blast of fun. It's a rare example where I think the song's production takes away from it; keeping it slightly simpler would have let the song breathe. Nevertheless it's a fine track, and I love the live versions.
That's must be partly because the piano chords heard in the last seconds of Ashes are the chords of Heavy Metal Drummer, which makes for such a cool transition. It made me think that if Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was divided in "sides" as a single LP, Ashes of American Flags should start side 2 (and not end side 1). BUT as it happens, on the original double (!!) LP, Ashes was the last song of side 2, and Metal Drummer, the opener of side 3… I guess that makes YHF a true “CD era” album.
The transition from Ashes to Drummer was at the heart of the film‘s Bennett/Tweedy quarrel/vomit scene. Kot’s book says the studio cost $1,000/day and that Parker called Jeff (who wasn’t present) when things were at an impasse. “He didn’t care how the problem was solved, as long as the sound he envisioned was realized. To him, the transition into “Heavy Metal Drummer” was nearly as vital as the song itself.”
