Please be patient with me Getting clean is just the start of the battle, and the things that led to the addiction still exist. It is a case of introducing more healthy coping strategies. Agree completely with Parachute Woman's breakdown up there. This song is like Jeff exposing his soft white underbelly, and that is never an easy thing to do. I really like the guitar, and the simple arrangement. It gives the album a little more diversity, and we have this beautiful thing, to me, happening with this album. Some of the cryptic stuff is peeling away and we just get an honest and straight forward album. Pretension is cast aside for a more raw honesty. With each track I like this album more and more.
"Be Patient with Me," is pretty much the epitome of a "grower" as far as songs are concerned. For the longest time this another one of those songs that you sort of passed through or by on the way to greater things. Then one day I found myself humming it and for a bit I absolutely could not remember what Wilco album it was off of. I had paid that little attention to it. Now I would say that its definitely a top tier song on this record for me. Its very raw and honest and the stripped down production fits it to a "T."
PBPWM I like this one. Quiet introspection is always nice when it’s from a great songwriter. There’s a moment in the instrumental break when I hear Jeff warm up his big loud electric guitar to emit one of those loud Neil Young bursts, but then he doesn’t and things stay mellow. I’m very much enjoying the “flow” of this album.
Please Be Patient With Me - Nice call dirkster. That's one thing that hit me was the flow of this album. Perfect placement here of a gorgeous song. It's honest and direct and every word, every line means something. I especially like "Oh, but my blessings get so blurred". We struggle and we know we should be happier, better, more there - and we struggle to see the light and just be - grateful. Perfect. It does have a 70's singer-songwriter vibe to it and that little layer of electric guitar sets it apart just right.
Beautiful song, in that Julia / 4+20 fingerpicked style that signalizes a “solo song” in a band context. I see it as a sequel of sorts to Reservations, one of the “naked relationship songs” that Jeff does occasionally, really apologetic and heartfelt. I admire the fact that at this stage, Jeff is not self-complacent anymore, nor self-loathing, he’s trying to be open and honest. Wonderful opening post, as always @Parachute Woman. You coined the term : it's a very tender song. We assume that being tender is about giving, but in this case it’s by asking that he shows tenderness and warmth. There's a promise in asking someone for patience : bare with me, and I promise I'll try, and maybe, hopefully, things will get better at some point… Once again, the singing stands out. In previous records Jeff would’ve sung it 1&1/2 keys lower, and it would’ve changed the sentiment, it would’ve been darker, more bottomed out. Here, it’s vulnerable, aspirational, comforting. For himself and for the one that his plea is addressed to. This is a recovering song by a recovering man, who manages to use his recovery as artistic inspiration, just as he did with confusion or pain. In Sky Blue Sky, he saw the past, relieved to be alive. In Please Be Patient with Me, he’s trying to find his footings in the present. And by the last song on the record, he’ll acknowledge that he can now envision (& on) the future.
"Please Be Patient With Me"- I'll take a stripped down Tweedy song any day. I'm really happy that this album had songs like this one. Beautiful acoustic guitar picking, and tasteful electric guitar with killer tone. Jeff's voice sounds very much like it does today, and this could basically be on any Wilco album. Many nice comments and thoughts on this song so far. I was hoping this would get some love. 4.5/5 I thought Jeff surely must have played this recently on the Tweedy show and sure enough here he is.
"Please Be Patient with Me" is a gorgeous and deceptively simple song. Deceptively simple not only because it's a showcase for Tweedy's fairly advanced fingerpicking style, but also because its melody and chord changes are harmonically rich for what sounds like a little folk ditty. To the guitar players out there, try playing along in the C Aeolian or G Phrygian modes. Wilco has performed "Please Be Patient with Me" only once, during the 2008 Chicago Winterlude. The electric guitar on that performance is understated, as on the album. I'm not sure it's Nels or Pat, and I wasn't there to see it in person. I hear Glenn add a few chimes on the . . . wait for it . . . crotales! but I don't hear much accompaniment from the rest of the group. Maybe this is why they don't play it--they never really arranged it for the sextet to perform live. I saw Jeff play it once solo, from the second row of the stunning Paramount Theater in Charlottesville, which is in the middle of the pedestrian mall I mentioned earlier. It's an incredible place to see a show--the sight lines are great, the acoustics very good, the 1930s theater ornately renovated--and I've seen Jeff there twice, the second time with the Autumn Defense opening and then joining him for an encore. The first time was 2007-01-31, several months before Sky Blue Sky was released. In addition to "Please Be Patient with Me," Jeff also played "What Light" at that show.
Correction: Glenn plays glockenspiel on "Please Be Patient with Me," not crotales. In his live set up, the glockenspiel sits right below his crotales. I just like saying crotales. Crotales.
Patient is a gorgeous tune. Always assumed it was Nels on electric, however it totally sounds like Jeff. He likes to double track his leads and they play the parts against each other. Both slightly off rhythm and weaving in and out of the melody. That means there are never clear harmonies (as in Impossible Germany), but instead a lot of slight dissonance and then moments of relief as the two parts meet in unison or join in harmony. It’s actually an interesting contrast to something like Handshake Drugs which never resolved any of its dissonance. It’s like you can hear that Jeff is still rough around the edges but finding moments of peace in life. As for our piano/Hammond count, this is the second in a row to deviate from that pattern. 4 for 6 so far.
I love the acoustic guitars on "Please Be Patient With Me". It's a lovely song that reads like a personal plea from Tweedy to his partner, possibly borne out of his recovery from addiction and treatment for his migraines. This song works as sort of a quiet break after the previous two songs and before the next one. Musically, it would have fit on a John Denver album (this is not a slam; I love Denver's best stuff). It's a very nice song, even if I feel a bit like a lurker listening to it given the lyrics. I wouldn't consider this one of the album's high points, but it maintains the overall quality and sounds particularly nice coming after the somewhat abrasive "Shake It Off".
Ha! I wrote my post on this song before reading anybody else's and I find that we are right in sync with the John Denver comparison! Too funny!
Sky Blue Sky (Finally getting around to this...) If I recall correctly (and I certainly can't guarantee that), this album came out with a mixed critical response. It wasn't so much a case of being deemed a bad album so much as it fell short of expectations. I have to admit, it doesn't have the same impact as the previous two records, but this album probably confirmed and solidified my interest in the band. Sky Blue Sky seems to come across as a more contemplative, cerebral collection of songs, along with a new, more sophisticated guitar oriented sound. Nels Cline's imprint is very notable, and I would say this album is the start of the band's next phase. I like this album a lot, mainly because I think that it continues to offer a greater depth of songwriting, and the band's sound continues to evolve. If I had any wavering interest of the band at the time, I was all in with this release.
Yes, people tend to remember the "dad-rock" putdowns and poor/lukewarm reviews, but the Release & Reception rundown at Wikipedia shows that the album received a fair amount of good press. A 73/100 Metacritic score, #12 in the Village Voice critics poll, a Top 10 album of 2007 in Billboard, Paste, Uncut, and The A.V. Club. Four stars from both Rolling Stone and Spin. A lot of favorable comments not unlike what fans have been saying here this week. And it sold a little better than A Ghost is Born, too. Sky Blue Sky - Wikipedia
In general, SBS works better for me than Ghost (but not YHF). Simply stated, a few better songs. Some of the more 70s influenced tracks on Ghost feel pretty standard to me - as a child of the 70s who has that sort of music fused into my being. SBS plays with the formulas a little better, takes a few more chances in terms of turning off the listener. We've gone from dissonance to time signature shifts in tracks as the X Factor songwriting and production theme, which started on Ghost with the opening track. I like that. It also had the weird issue of "The Thanks I Get" appearing as a single (a good one, and in a VW commercial), but not on the album. I like the cleaner, no-BS production on SBS - Jeff was clearing out his mind, his body ... and the band's sound! Bottom line, the songs have to be there, and they are. Keep the timeline in mind, too. The band is now taking three years between each release as opposed to one or two. I don't know if that's extensive touring or the band just taking longer to pull together enough tracks for an album? I'm not sure if the band could have (or wanted to) keep up the pace leading up to YHF.
Had no idea Shake it Off was maligned. I like it! Maybe the first non 5/5 track on the record, but I would still give it 4, and there are 1 or 2 weaker tracks to come I think.
Happy Friday... Hate It Here Jeff Tweedy: vocals, electric guitar John Stirratt: bass, eight-string bass Glenn Kotche: drums Mikael Jorgensen: piano Nels Cline: electric guitar Pat Sansone: Wurlitzer Jim O'Rourke: percussion I've never seen Boyhood, but there is a scene in it in which Ethan Hawke's dad character plays this song for the titular boy to try to get him invested in good music. I've watched the scene on YouTube and all I can think is, "Stop talking over the song! Let him listen to it!" His point is essentially that the song is just 'straight-up, nothing fancy.' Jeff himself considers this the funniest song he has ever written, so he is definitely writing with his tongue in cheek as he writes from the perspective of a guy who has lost his woman and tries to distract himself with chores. "What am I gonna do when I run out of shirts to fold?" It also mentions mowing the lawn. All of these facts taken together seem to point the way towards 'Hate It Here' being the epitome of dad rock. I think it's just a great song. It's got just the right touches of blues and country and great playing from everybody. The guitar solo is brief and sounds great, I love the crashing piano bit and the whole band holds together perfectly. It is tight and loose at the same time, like all the best rock 'n roll. The lyrics don't personally resonate with me, but I do like their simple power and this one is all about the mood and creating something in the classic vein. I guess Ethan Hawke was right. Straight-up, nothing fancy. Just good music.
There is a live take of 'Hate It Here' on the Sky Blue Sky bonus DVD. This was in their rehearsal space. I neglected to mention how great Glenn is on this track. His fills are excellent.
Hate It Here: The first time I heard this song I burst out laughing over the lyrics. I’m kinda relieved to find out, today, that Tweedy was deliberately trying to be humorous because he succeeds. (Prior to this, the best lawn maintenance lyric was Henneman’s ‘She ripped through this heart of mine like a weed eater with brand new line There was no blood and no, there was no gore She cut me clean she cut me fine I knew she never could be mine’ from Perfect Far Away). The music is rhythm and blues, along the lines of his Mavis Staples album If All I Was Was Black. I like the song just fine but won’t be selecting it as a playlister.
A good description of Hate It Here. And while it's humerous, there's a real underlying sadness to the song. I really like that little guitar solo about halfway through. It's a very good track.
It’s meant to be a fun track, and yeah, I guess it works, it’s a good joke. I saw them do it live, and it was full of lighthearted energy. Unfortunately, the song is not really there, it’s ok but not better than, say, The Thanks I Get, Glad it’s Over or One True Vine, which are perfectly fine as outtakes for me. Musically, there’s more of that R&B vibe, but drenched in Beatles-isms, as Ethan Hawke duly notices in Boyhood. They’ll do some more of that on the next (album), but in many ways, this is the song where they out-Beatle themselves big time, with some typical Harrison / Extra Textures chord changes in the verses, guitar riffs like it’s time to start LP2 of the White album and then the whole instrumental section at the end, with quotations of actual George and John solos, Macca dudududu Abbey Road bass attacks, prestonian electric piano soloing as if we were on a London roof in early 1969, and Ringo fills all over it. Each of the Wilco members doing their own instrumental impersonation of their respective Beatle never fails to put a smile on my face.
Hate It Here is a great song. It's my wife's favorite on the record and she always wants me to play it again. I'm always happy to. It's a very homey kind of song, a little humor sure, but it's the underlying pathos that sells it for us. I check the phone I check the mail I check the phone again, I call your mom She says you're not there and I should take care I've been there. And all of my favorites start with the music, Hate It Here is simple rock n' roll as distilled by Wilco from the Beatles - nod to @Fortuleo.
