Wilcoworld is incorrect and your instincts, on the other hand, are spot on (Tweedy 90%/Bennett 10%): MAGAZINE CALLED SUNSETTITLE TITLE DETAIL BMI Work # 6385257 ISWC # T-071695305-7 Total Controlled by BMI: 90.00% SONGWRITER/COMPOSER CURRENT AFFILIATION CAE/IPI # BENNETT JAY W ASCAP 129697627 TWEEDY JEFFREY SCOT BMI 233292781 PUBLISHERS CURRENT AFFILIATION CAE/IPI # WORDS AMPERSAND MUSIC BMI
It's interesting to hear where the final version came from. But not more than that, for me hearing it after the pounding final version with the groove of all grooves. Is handshake drugs an expression for any illegal drugs that you discretly turn over to someone else by means of a handshake?
I don’t know the phrase as a colloquialism. In his memoir Jeff talks about getting his pills from a drive-thru pharmacy where the clerk would add significantly extra to his prescription. It was all done with a knowing wink or handshake.
I take the phrase “handshake drugs” to be a reference to the drugs that you can to obtain by means of a surreptitious handshake. The dealer, as viewed by an outside observer, appears to merely shake your hand but yet you are giving them the money and they are giving you the drugs simultaneously or in sequence. Never done it myself, but I watch TV and movies.
I’m the Man Who Loves You (live Bside) Since we are in the process of covering the EP and (I assume) some of the other non-album tracks I want to give a quick shout out in favor of this version: It was a Bside for the “War On War” single, and it is live-in-the-studio for the Sound Opinions show on WXRT Chicago. Nice version here, with acoustic and electric guitars, but without the irritating guitar histrionics of the YHF album version it is more straightforwardly pleasing. Recommended listening! Lots of treasures in the Alpha Mike Foxtrot collection once you start going through the albums and looking for associated Bsides.
Yes. I may have goofed by re-reading the memoir right before discussing Ghost. I was rattled just reading his no-holds barred description. And it now colors my (preliminary) reexamination of the album.
Listening some more to the EP this morning, I see what Tweedy means about The Jesus & Mary Chain. I would not have made that connection myself because, while I thoroughly enjoy J&MC and have all their albums, this doesn’t really sound like them at all. But it does sound like someone *trying* to sound like J&MC, which is what Tweedy is saying. This EP version of “Camera/Kamera” is essentially the engineer demo version but remastered a bit. Need to give it a headphone listen and see if there’s really any differences.
Update: it’s exactly the same take as the engineer demo but they’ve remixed the levels of the various instruments and the drums. Then, on the fade out after the song ends, a small bit of amplifier noise and studio chat has been cut and replaced with some sound effects that fade up into the next song on the EP.
Yeah. To my ears they just take that underlying fuzzy bass and make it more prominent and even more saturated. Don’t think there’s any new overdubbing. What is emerging, though, is Jeff’s love for over the top spluttering fuzz. Very different than the more stonesy overdrive of Americana era Wilco.
I don't know if we're going to have a day to discuss all the outtakes that didn't come out on More Like the Moon, but I'll just take this opportunity to post a link to the other B-side/bonus track from the "War on War" single, "The Good Part." It sounds like a hybrid of A.M. and Summerteeth, with a Polynesian-Exotica kind of intro. Wilco has played it 12 times in concert, all in 2006 or 2014. Jeff Tweedy has played it 5 times, most recently to open his April 23 streaming show this year.
Thank you for posting this - I’ve wanted to discuss it myself! So, what is the deal with the applause? Is this a live track or have they added some canned applause into the mix? What is going on in this recording? That stop-start pause in the song is so “off” it always makes me thing the file is corrupted or I’ve lost my internet connect every time it happens.
At My Window Sad And Lonely Backtrackin’ a bit, I found this today: Not exactly the same lyrics as the Mermaid Avenue song, but some commonalities. Interesting to compare though, especially the “Jeff Tweedy solo” version used as a Bside.
Jeff's liner note to AMF: "It's not live. Sounds like it's live, but if you listen closely you can hear that the audience is looped. This was an effort to entertain ourselves in the studio--I think there were things about this track that were hilarious to us at the time. Listen closely for the looped audience." WilcoWorld has it listed as having been played 13 times--and I was at one of those shows! 2006 in Charlottesville. I was in the front row and sang along to every word, including "The Good Part." I imagine if Jeff noticed, it might have freaked him out a little.
An awesome tune. The chorus is very Big Star or Stonesy and then it’s got that Pacific island vibe in the verses. Glad it saw the light of day, but it’s definitely not Yankee compatible. I included it on my imaginary album between Mermaid II and Yankee - it fits the same vibe created by the Stonesy Will Not Let You Down.
Re "Handshake Drugs (First Version)"--I had the More Like the Moon EP download from the website, and so this is the version I got used to. When A Ghost Is Born came out, with the rolling bass line, I didn't quite like it at first. Years later, it's hard to hear what I preferred about this first version. That bass line on the album came to define the song, and the noise at the end is really something live. Edit: Jeff feels differently. From his liner notes: "For some reason, we re-tracked this song, and I don't know if I ever liked the version on A Ghost Is Born as much. I was really happy with the guitar playing on this one."
Agreed - and that's a good thought. I pledge to read Tweedy's liner notes to Alpha Mike Foxtrot first before asking any more questions like that! Seems like he is answering the questions that I am thinking most of the time. I oughta read the whole thing.
So Jeff Tweedy likes this one better but @parachutewoman likes the AGIB version more. Artistic differences!
Blasting Fonda Speaking of Alpha Mike Foxtrot, I figured out something about this song today. The version on AMF and also the Feeling Minnesota movie soundtrack from 1996 are the same, but they are both different to the version on my Outtasight/Outtamind CD-single. The CD-single starts with a backward guitar bit that fades in for about 13 seconds before the first acoustic guitar notes begin. The AMF and soundtrack version is exactly the same, except it is missing this 13-second long overdub and in its place we hear 4 seconds of strummed guitar as Tweedy is synching up to a metronome and getting the timing right before the proper song itself begins. Fade-in version: (ignore the end of the video - the YouTube poster has taken artistic license with the song. The intro is correct however) AMF & soundtrack version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYIhYgy-4Tk
The Good Part (demo) I can't find a separate video listing for the demo of this song, but cue it up to 34:37 and you'll hear it: The demo starts off not with canned applause like the finished version for the Bside, but instead begins with 9-10 seconds of a voice speaking in spanish, like a radio broadcaster. Then it goes into a laid-back acoustic guitar and bongo(?) driven groove before going into some very fuzzed out guitar for the chorus. The demo is also lacking the stop-start in the middle of the song. The officially released Bside has a similar "groove" in the beginning but it's a slide guitar instead of an acoustic guitar, and a louder fuzzed guitar, but the same basic idea. Kinda hard for me to pick a favorite between the two versions actually. They both pretty much have the same presentation going, with their own little quirks though.
Slide guitar vs fuzzed out guitar. Sounds like the difference between a Jay lead and a Jeff post YHF lead.
Handshake Drugs (First version aka More Like The Moon EP version) Hadn’t spent much time with this song before today. I must say this is pretty good. The acoustic guitar, combined with the stinging electric leads are a formidable combination here. lyrics: “I was chewin' gum for something to do” Reminiscent of the Ramones‘ in Rockaway Beach “chewin’ out a rhythm on my bubble gum”. Our singer is so bored he’s chewing gum just to feel himself doing something. “The blinds were being pulled down on the dew Inside, out of love, what a laugh I was looking for you” He’s in the house with the blinds drawn all by himself. He had taken a peek, hoping he might spot his girlfriend outside, but no such luck. “Saxophones started blowing me down I was buried in sound” Listening to some nice loud music on a lonely day inside his house or apartment. “Taxicabs were driving me around To the handshake drugs I bought downtown” He takes a taxi out to downtown to score some drugs, perhaps because he ran out of bubblegum and got bored playing records. “They were translated poorly, I felt like a clown I looked like someone I used to know” The drugs made him feel weird - maybe because he took too much due to a mistranslation of the dosage printed on them? He looks at himself and sees someone a little different, as the drugs have altered his sense of perception. “I felt alright And if I ever was myself I wasn't that night” Self loathing. He felt “alright” while on drugs, and that’s not the way he usually feels, so that means he wasn’t feeling like himself. “Oh it's okay for you to say What you want from me I believe that's the only Way for me to be, exactly What you want me to be“ He just wants to make his girlfriend happy. He’ll be whatever she wants him to be, as long as they can be together. His self-loathing tells him he”s not worthy of her, so he’ll do whatever it takes to be together. This is a really good song. The music conveys the edginess and unease of being uncomfortable in your own skin and needing something to help with that feeling. The later version on AGIB doesn’t have the acoustic guitar, and the electric guitar is a different approach than what we have here on this EP. Nice version though, and I assume we’ll be discussing it again. And... wow. Just listened to the Kicking Television live version, and that’s gotta be the definitive guitar solo for this song, right? Fantastic stuff there. Three versions, each with great reasons to like them. But this is the first one and it’s really great on its own merits. If it had stayed a Bside it’d still be a very well-regarded song in the canon, no doubt about it.
