This is really cool. Great insight into the context of the times! Most of my favorite albums from '95 are there (missing: Garbage, Bjork, Emmylou Harris). Cool to see Page & Plant sneaking onto the concerts list and R.E.M. topping it. And that list of TV shows is the most '90s thing I've ever seen!
"Pick Up The Change" is a solid album cut, although it's not one of my favorites on A.M. I love the guitar sound on the "chorus" part. The loping country feel here makes this song the perfect soundtrack to a lazy drive (or walk) through pastureland. Given how often I was driving across Illinois (usually in the long direction and mostly on the two-lanes) at the time, this album always brings to mind the largely rural prairie landscapes of that state.
I like the AM and Being There songs better than later Wilco. To me Tweedy's voice is so resonant and strong that he can get lost in his musical ruminations. I feel that way about Elvis C. too. When you can just open your mouth and it sounds good it can be a little bit of a trap IMO.
"PIck Up the Change" is really a lovely song; but the main feature of the song is Jeff's amazingly bare voice -- it's so honest and pure in a way, I feel like he's singing directly into my ear and that he means every note from the bottom of his heart.
One of the most straight-country songs that Wilco ever played, Pick Up the Change is a solid album track, as others have said. It's not a favorite of mine but it's enjoyable when it's playing.
"Pick Up The Change" is a great song to barbecue and drink beers to, and also do a couple of tequila shots. That's my analysis. @Parachute Woman thanks for doing this thread. I have a suggestion, and feel free to torpedo it, but I can see where an album thread could go song by song when we are in a run of songs, or maybe an entire album of Wilco's, that 80 percent of the population here would gush over, and then go album by album where maybe there isn't much to talk about. Or forget conventional Wilco wisdom, you could decide where song by song or album by album is appropriate. And commenters are free to do song by song analysis anytime, if they feel like a run of songs merits that attention. I guess I think this thread is going slow, but at least it's not a struggle to catch up after three or so days of not reading it. edit: Another advantage is that I'm listening to A.M.'s songs more than I ever have.
Ah Parachute Women tackles another great artist thread Your Joni album by album thread was legendary. Really Looking forward to this Thanks
I agree with you that it's going slow and folks don't have a ton to say. I assume a lot of that is due to A.M. itself being a lot of "good song" type songs with not a huge amount of complexity. I'm going to sleep on it, but we may switch over to just going album by album. That format is working very well in the U2 thread... It does result in a lot of essay length posts though! The last thing I want is for the thread to be a total snore.
I need to consult "Wilcopedia" but I am not sure how much "Pick up the Change" gets played live. Its the first song we have talked about so far ((and I know there will be many others) that I have never seen played live.
So glad I read this after I made my suggestion. Let me not be the one to tell Picasso what or how to paint! But I guess I don't like riding on the passenger side. Whatever you want to do. I'm the sole "slowness" complaining person so far. I'm well into the Troubadour show on the Being There expanded edition. They play quite a few from A.M.
Or do two songs at a time. (Problem with that is more work for you on your initial introduction). Note: I’m not bored!
I like the song by song. I think this thread is going great so far! I have listened to A.M. more this week than the past 10 years. No complaints.
Thanks guys! I'm glad to hear it isn't boring, and I have been enjoying going through each song. I like my little YouTube dig each morning to see what I can find on each song. We'll continue as is. I guess I just needed a bit of reassurance.
One song a day is all I can handle at this point, and, personally, I have more to say about these songs than I will a lot of the songs on later albums simply because these early Wilco songs on the first four albums mean more to me. Once we get past YHF, Wilco songs sort of blend together for me and I probably won't have a ton to say about them (with a few notable exceptions). I still like them but they don't have the power or emotional resonance of these early songs. They get a bit too "arty" and less interesting to me the farther away they stray from their alt-country roots. Also, it seems like most of the participants on this thread have been gushing over each of the first four songs we've discussed! How much "gushier" can it get?!?
Honestly, I'm never going to have a lot to say on any of the songs, especially after the thorough introductions you're going to give anyway so going album by album won't magically make me more verbose... I still think song by song is the way to go; I figured that was how the U2 thread was going to proceed but it's way too chaotic for my tastes; I doubt I'll ever post in that one and U2 is one of my favorite bands... Keep in mind that the fanbase of Wilco is a fraction of that of U2 so there won't be as many posters either way anyway... You're doing an excellent job.
My Wilco Complete playlist never leaves my phone. I’m happy to take this one slow. The daily volume is comparable to the Morrissey song-by-song thread which I enjoyed and it’s less of a blitz than an album every few days.
I prefer the present format. It is much easier for me to focus on one song a day (and thus gain a new appreciation for the album in general) than on a whole album every three days. In fact, I'm currently involved on this, the Finn Brothers thread, the Robyn Hitchcock thread, the Beach Boys thread and the John Lennon thread. Five threads, and not much trouble to write on all five everyday. ON the U2 thread, by contrast, I probably won't be participating further, sadly;because I am less familiar really with the later albums and I rarely have the time to sit down and really critically focus on one entire album. Furthermore, focusing on one song tends to keep my writing down to manageable lengths: I fear on album by album threads done otherwise, people write some beautiful but very long reviews, but I rarely have time to read all of them: and I like to read it all! There's a place for longer writings too on song-by-song threads: but they tend to be more insighful and interesting for being rarer, IMO. Finally song by song threads tend to get me much deeper into the body of work, which is what I particularly enjoy about them.
Agree on all points. I think with the lock-down (for many) we have a plethora of good album threads. Currently participating in Elvis Posthumous, Steve Vai, Joe Cocker, Uriah Heep, The Who, U2, Wilco, Acdc .... and it can take some time to get through them all. I really love reading all the comments, but of late, have had to be content with just reading a few
Thanks for all the great feedback, everyone! I'm having fun too. Let's continue: I Thought I Held You I learned in Wilcopedia that Jeff Tweedy absolutely hates this song. Wilco didn't perform it live until 2008 during the Riviera Theatre residency when they played every song in the catalog and they kind of had to. Jeff introduced the song by saying, "This song is...this is dog ****, man. This is the worst song--this is the worst song ever." After playing it, the applause was fairly strong and Jeff said, "Did you enjoy that? That's because these guys are good. Thank you, fellows, for polishing up that nice turd for me." I'm not sure why this particular song produces sure ire in Jeff. I always liked it well enough. The melody and lyric aren't among Jeff's strongest by a long shot but I dig the arrangement with banjo from Max Johnston and pedal steel guitar from Lloyd Maines. I'm not going to say this one sets my world on fire, but I find it perfectly adequate. If this is as close as Wilco has come to "dog ****" no wonder I like the band so much!
I Thought I Held You I can only assume that this song has some bad memories for Jeff, because there is altogether nothing wrong with it. I like the banjo, and the slide. I don't hear anything bad in the vocal, it has a nice spaced delivery .... perhaps slightly too spaced. I think the arrangement could have been tightened up a little, but the space gives it an airy kind of feel, so it isn't bad at all. Not my favourite, but certainly nothing to be loathed at all.... Yea, this has to hold a bad memory for him, whether a person or an event, there is something deeper going on there
