So, the guys in Los Lobos must be like the Hells Angels in terms of drug input! They don't seem any worse for wear all these years on. I just re-read that portion of the book, and he claimed Vicodin was the one, and the main thing he felt while taking it was normal in a positive way: upbeat, relaxed, no panic attacks, etc. So it would have been hard to gauge when and how much he was using given that his outward appearance was normal. I often said the same of one of my older brothers back in the 70s when we were entering our teens, and he fell into that crowd. He became a friendly, likable guy as opposed to the terroristic-threat of a big brother he had been. I should have known something was up!
The Red Brick Probably the most intense and 'hard-rocking' song on Warm, 'The Red Brick' is a dense and powerful track full of swirling layers of guitars that peak into a frenzy of noise. I know that Jeff always said that the "At Least That's What You Said" drone was his attempt at capturing the feel of a migraine or panic attack in sound, but I actually think that the climax of 'The Red Brick' gets closer to how I have felt during a moment of intense anxiety. The way the noise suddenly cuts off and gives way to gentle, soothing strums is the aural equivalent of claiming peace (however one may do that--taking deep breaths, lying down, medicating, etc.) Musically, it really tells that story to me. Now, lyrically, I'd love to hear your interpretations. This track is paired with the one that follows through its title. 'Red brick' is a main component of the lyrics of 'Warm,' not this song. This makes me think that Jeff wants to present these two songs as links. We'll talk tomorrow about the title song, but the general jist is that red brick is used as a metaphor for the way that it can retain heat (compared to the way a person can retain 'warmth' in their heart, even when things are dark and no sunlight can be found). But this song doesn't paint the portrait of simple love and peace that the next song does. 'I could never let it go' he chants, listening to the dark voice in his head ("my lonely said to me"). The narrator of this song lives a bleak life and it isn't a happy song. "I drank myself back into your life" he says. He also says "I aimed my scope out a broken window," conjuring the image of a hidden shooter. Again, metaphorical, but this feels like a song about torments and a man who is hurting the people in his life, including those he cares about. How does this relate to the title? I think of the red brick in 'Warm' as a positive image, but this is the opposite of that. I'm interested to read any interpretations. I like the song, but I don't fully understand what Jeff is saying here.
Do I hear banjo in the beginning? This is the Common Sense/Locator of WARM, and maybe the most inscrutable track on it. I guess it’s a rehab song. He’s crying on the rehab facility phone, right? It must’ve been yellow… And did he break the window by throwing a red brick in it? Talk about a colorful song! Maybe it’s cryptic, or maybe extremely specific, to the point of being cryptic. In any case, it’s all about feel, and as a flash of anxiety and discomfort, it works. Not as a great song, I think, but as a piece of sequencing, coming after the one-two punch of I Know What It’s Like / Having Been is No Way To Be, and just before the two quiet closing songs, I’d say it’s there to stress the fact that even after a breakthrough, you’ll still get chaos and pain, outbursts of anger or frustration, and that “recovery” should not be taken for granted. Ever. But then, as @Parachute Woman notes, The Red Brick is a link towards Warm (the song and the sensation), where the "red brick"'s metaphor is explained in a very different way. So maybe the correct interpretation of the title is that in the distress of rehab, instead of being numb, he still loved her and still felt like fighting for not letting her go. Would it be a hopeful and combative song, then ? Oh well, I guess inscrutable is the word!
Red Brick: a thumping cross (clash?) between what sounds like an Indian sitar trance and piling on of noise. I find myself not at all interested in the lyrics and consider this to be just a bit of album filler. Something to be endured. (Moving on into Warm is like a breath of fresh air).
I only can offer some general thoughts. Specific lyrical lines leave me clueless. The Red Brick and Warm (When The Sun Has Died) are antipodes. The former represents the anxiety and migraine attacks of the narrator. The latter is the support and help from his environment. The brick is warmed up by the sun. It is very helpfull, it can stay warm for a long time. But not forever. The environment can help him to some extent. Sometimes he is on his own, the stone is cold again and is prone to another attack. I wonder how does Jeff relate to the content of the lyrics. Why is he writing again about this experience ? Is he just looking back at a dark period of his life or is he still reviving these feelings more or less, from time to time ? Musically I like the intro with the two acoustic guitars left and right. Simple, but effective. With @Fortuleo 's ears I also hear the banjo. I also like the meandering distorteds sounds building up in the middle, but when the heavy low sounds set in it is getting awful, like wading through a pool of thick ****. Thankfully it ends up in a sweet release.
On a positive note, I would imagine that creating music that provides an aural representation of migraine headaches would yield more listenable results than doing the same for, say, chronic gastroenteritis. Doing so might require hiring a horn section which would be an even more jarring experience on a mostly acoustic album.
I agree about the lyrics, but musically I like this one about the best so far on this album (though admittedly a first listen again for me)
I think the answer to my own questions lies in what he's written in his Let's Go memoir: ". . . . the first songs I've ever written with the intention of telling someone something I want them to know about myself. Things I want you to hear." It's like the past is living through in the present. It's part of his identity. Like a scar or an open wound.
"The Red Brick"- It is fun to try and examine lyrics, but sometimes it's very hard to know the authors intent without them directly telling you what it's about. I think some of you have come up with good interpretations of this song and many others in these discussions. This is one of my favorite songs on the album. It has a hint of Star Wars in its aggression. I love the mix of acoustic and the build of the electric guitar. The music and lyrics sound like a moment of anger and panic before things calm down at the end and move into the next song. These two songs go beautifully together and the "Red Brick" line in the next song lets the listener know that these songs are meant to be tied together. I love this song and the frantic music that comes in at 1:40. This album has a really strong side 2. "The Red Brick" and the two songs that surround it are the centerpiece of the album for me. Really tremendous songwriting and has me realizing I was wrong to overlook this album in the past. 5/5
Hard to discuss Red Brick without Warm. While I know the words to Warm pretty much by heart, I’ve never listened to the words on Red Brick. I think it’s just a song of pure existential angst. I’ll have more to say tomorrow... these two are some of the best stuff he’s ever written imo.
This is one that I respond to more musically than lyrically like a lot of you. Some good churning noise here, and I think there is some backward guitar that is pretty cool. Like @Fortuleo , "the red brick" made me think of throwing a brick through a window. I don't mean to steal @frightwigwam's thunder because I know they have posted many of these, but when looking up the lyrics I saw this quote about this song from Apple Music: "A parallel quote thematically comparing companion song “Warm (When the Sun Has Died)” aside each other: These two songs are both reactions to the same set of circumstances. The first is a more violent reaction and, in my opinion, an unsustainable one. And the second is the way I truly feel: There is an innate hope that it’s not worth my effort to kill.”
Like most of you, I'm having a hard time getting into "The Red Brick". Musically, it reminds me a little of some of the stuff Crosby, Stills, and Nash did with that raga-like intensity and the guitar, which definitely sounds a bit Stephen Stills-like. The song is a bit impenetrable but I do like the sonics and the contrast it provides to the last few songs. Not one of my favorites on the album based on this first listen but one I think will grow on me with more time spent with it.
I keep getting Wilco/Tweedy updates. This is the latest: Barry Jenkins remixed the hell out of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Warm (When the Sun Has Died) Please take my advice Worry into your song Go away from your anger Distance belongs I don't believe in heaven I keep some heat inside Like a red brick in the summer Warm when the sun has died The extremely lovely title track lives up to its title. It is indeed so warm. 'Warm (When the Sun Has Died)' is a quiet, brief (2:18) meditation featuring a pillowy sound full of echo, emotional 'slide' playing and those patented lullaby-style vocals from Jeff. It's incredibly beautiful in sound and the lyrics bring it over the top. After contemplating death and the pains and strife of life over the course of the album, he straight-up addresses the audience here and offers sage advice. Pour your anxiety and worry into something constructive. Don't stew in your anger. And allow your environment and the people and things that love you to warm you up on the inside. Carry that warmth with you all the time, even at your darkest hour, and it will help you heal. This reminds me of Galadriel giving Frodo a vial of light in Lord of the Rings and telling him to take it out only when "all other lights have gone out." When it seems absolutely hopeless, look for that positive light that you keep inside your heart. Your family, friends, passions, faith, whatever. Whatever it is that matters to you. This is an amazing little song that says so much in such a brief running time and soothes like a balm every time I play it.
Hmm… Not quite the title track (it would need to be in capital letters and not have the ‘when the sun has died’ parenthesis), but almost, a bit like Summer Teeth or Wilco (the song). So I'd say Love is the King really is the first official title song ever in Jeff’s career! Nevertheless, I agree Warm (the song) is a thing of beauty. The title itself (including the parenthesis) is extremely poetic. It’s in the haiku tradition Jeff started in the “fondamentals” experiments (Woodgrain / Bob Dylan’s Beard). A short poem, a powerful image (“like a red brick in the summer”), a hushed but deeply felt delivery and a fabulous soundscape of guitars, guitar effects, pseudo steel sounds (one of the key features on the whole album, as @jalexander made us all notice), and just a little touch of high pitch mellotron near the end. The melody is incredible. So moving, so delicate, so spiritual… The little squeaky bird guitar and little wave sounds in the beginning are like the calm after the storm, on the shore after a shipwreck, or like a peaceful morning after a fever night (the previous song). That’s what I like the best about the segue between The Red Brick and Warm : the calm comes first at the end of Red Brick. The fever has to cool off first, only then the Warm song can start and Jeff’s message (even in god’s absence, there’s still spiritual aspiration in all of us) hit home. The fever. The calm. And only then comes the spiritual realization, in all its clarity and briefness, highlighted by the abrupt suspensive ending. Really, this is otherworldly stuff.
Wow. I was fully prepared to say this is terrible, and was horrified at first. But after a few minutes there's something strangely interesting at hearing this stuff at half-speed with percussive blasts with some dude intoning the lyrics like a 45 record playing at 33-1/3. This sounds like being high!
Warm (with Red Brick) is one of my favourite Tweedy tracks of all time. These two little songs really sum up this life journey documented in Jeff’s songs. He’s moved from a a life of chaos to real peace. He doesn’t talk about it a lot in the book, but I see a lot of ideas from Judaism influencing this. His shift from the Christian world of southern Illinois (see Let’s Go Rain) to Judaism gives him a context to think differently about the spiritual things - particularly death - that have pervaded his work. Notably, Judaism doesn’t presume the afterlife. The notion of eternal life emerged during the era of the prophets, so some time after all the familiar (to many) stories of Abraham, Moses, David, etc. The idea of our life bringing warmth to others after our death echoes the covenant of Abraham about his ancestors (the people of Israel) bring like sand on the beach or stars in the sky. Live your life well today and it will help those who come after you. As Jeff has wrestled with the deaths of his parents, he is now in a place to face his own mortality (and his wife’s) as they watch their children grow. My spiritual views may differ, but I find this to be a beautiful, inspirational message.
I am truly enjoying this deep dive into Warm. Almost all of these songs are new to me and I have a handful of favorites and it's now a buy for me. It's good to give a solid listen to a fine record I totally missed. His synthesis of twang and atmospherics works really well. When I heard the line "Please take my advice" from Warm (When the Sun Has Died) it took me directly to Neil's Tired Eyes.
"Warm": a good track, if slight. Seems like the previous song title was a set-up to arrive at this more peaceful resolution. Not reading too much into afterlife hypothesis - sounds more like a brief treatise on enjoying the here and now, and whatever goodwill one has accumulated.
I always found the lyric "Like a red brick in the summer, Warm when the sun has died" to be very evocative. I can't add much to what PW said, that is a great summation of the meaning of this song, and as @Fortuleo mentioned, the transition from The Red Brick to Warm really helps set up this song. Love the pseudo slide here.
Commercial break: If anyone's looking to pick up any Jeff or Wilco music, there's a 25% off sale (and 50% off Roadcases) happening at the Wilco Store today. Wilco Store
"Warm (When the Sun Has Died)"- A lovely piece of music that I wish went on a bit longer. I guess it's like the second part of the song that came before it though. Two songs that have greatly improved my appreciation of this album. I'm now really looking forward to the next two solo albums. Before this started I would have said Warm was the weakest of the three solo records, but now I think it might be the strongest. Can't wait to hear everyones thoughts on Warmer and getting to know that one more. 5/5
$4.50 is a pretty reasonable price. Does anybody have any recommendations on legendary shows? I have the same issue with the live archives - overwhelming amount of live music, no idea where to begin.
