Yes, this is excellent. I'm not sure I agree that the first disc is Saturday night and the second Sunday morning. I think the whole thing is a bit too ephemeral to fit into neat boxes like that (plus--Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness does the passage of the day thing). I do think he gets the repeating themes we've been discussing here and the ways in which the album seems to be a direct commentary on music as much as it is about personal relationships. And even our relationships with music and the musicians we love can feel like interpersonal relationships. Jeff is hitting on that when he says most of his life experience is music. The songs are the people he knows. Great essay. And it reminded me of the fact that I think 'Sunken Treasure' is a beautiful title and image. But there is no sunken treasure Rumored to be Wrapped inside my ribs In a sea black with ink He doesn't feel that his very heart is a precious gem for someone else to find. That's (pardon) heartbreaking. Amazing lyrics on this track.
This is such a special song. Can't remember another song like this. Misunderstood and this are siblings, but are for me quite different. What I specially like is the slow, repetitive groove which paves it's way in your head. Around it all the fantastic instruments, sound explosions and distortions and above all Jeff's singing his heart out. One thing still makes me curious. Throughout the whole song there's a repetitive instrumental sound lasting a few seconds. The first time to be heard at 0:09, then at 0:17 etc etc. Does anyone know what instrument this is? Is it one of those miracle sounds out of Jay's keyboard?
What do you think of the phrase that he was maimed by rock and roll? The whole song makes me think that music (rock and roll) has overgrown his personality. Deep inside is an empty heart filled with all those smart rock and roll lyrics. But at the same time music is his saviour. So 'maimed' seems a bit incongruous to me.
"Sunken Treasure" was the third Wilco song I saw performed live, in the short-lived quartet lineup of Jeff, John, Leroy, and Glenn, with Mikael off stage cueing prerecorded parts. This was the finger-picked arrangement, Jeff on acoustic and Leroy on keys. It's a fairly different arrangement, with the band building to a noisier bit by the end. It was actually some time before I realized there was more than one arrangement, not cluing into the fact that this live version I'd heard, which is similar to how Jeff plays it solo, differs pretty drastically from the album version.
I tried to touch on that in my intro. I'm sorry I didn't explain it very well! I take that as the idea that great music can actually hurt sometimes because it cuts so deep. It's like how listening to really sad music can be so cathartic. It hurts, but it helps you purge and ultimately heal. That's just my interpretation. I could be way off base of course!
It tends to divide opinion! I love about 2/3 of it but think it kind of falls apart at the end. Doesn't stick the landing.
I think you’re on to something and, of course, there’s no actual right answer. This isn’t math class! I always took it as an acknowledgement of the damage that the rock and roll life can do to performers. Obviously there are addiction issues but it’s also just a hard way to make a living. Toiling away for 100 nights a year on the road, driving overnight in vans to one crappy venue after another, bad food, bad sleep, hard to maintain a stable home life etc. It all takes a physical and psychological toll. Add in Tweedy’s experience of breaking up with Farrar and the emotional scaring that came with that.
Absolutely. It's a "rock and roll fantasy" but there are a lot of downsides. Even for the biggest stars in the world. Jimmy Page and Keith Richards were both extreme heroin addicts during the height of their fame.
Great insight about "this is the point where you realize you are listening to a masterpiece of an album." For me, that seems right. I think at first listen, I kept waiting for a tapering off of quality, and the quality is so high through the first batch of songs. And then "Sunken Treasure" came on, and I just realized that this is some next-level stuff. This album is not tapering!
Well said. Jay's keyboard and piano skills have always amazed me. His playing is very subtle, where he chooses to play or not play. He's not a virtuoso but has a real knack for playing in a rock n' roll band and playing ballads, kind of like Elton John or someone. I wonder if this is the Burt Bacharach song he was referencing (the beginning piano), a kind of staggered phrasing:
I can see the noisy connection between this song and "Misunderstood" but it's interesting how different this one: while that one was weary and used noise to express a sort of rage that surprises even the bearer, this uses the noise in a rather arty way to suggest the dissonance between too people; and the second disc thus gets off to start that feels more low-key and sombre, sadder. There's a lot of depths on this album but they are all different depths. Jay's keyboard touches are subtle and not overdone at all, adding a delicate ache to the heavy atmosphere.
Didn’t really strike me when I first heard this and trying to take it all in within 2CD’s. Then I saw the Pacific Northwest DVD and was immediately hooked. I love how the crowd just feeds this. Now I love the Being There version. That happens to me quite a lot. I am an acoustic singer-songwriter fan foremost but “music is my saviour and I have been maimed by rock and roll”
Thanks for your explanation, it helps to give me more understanding. Right now I'm reading in Wiki that maiming or mutilation is some permanently physical damage. So unless he is using the word not literally but more as poetic license, I think it goes further than the temporary hurt of a deep cut. If he was older, hearing loss would be a good candidate. Excuse me if I'm sounding as a pedantic mr. know-it-all. It's a bit of an exercise in English for me, as it is not my native language. Before this thread I hadn't studied Wilco's lyrics that much and had never heard of the word maimed.
I think he's just being dramatic) He was young. A lot of musicians probably feel they sacrifice a lot by travelling all the time and living in buses and hotel rooms which can lead toproblems with interpersonal relationships and/or indulgence in damaging drinking or drugs; and I just take a line like that as being indicative of general rock and roll weariness. This album is steeped in it.
I don’t think it’s a just being dramatic, I think there is a genuine sense of permanent damage. Watching live footage from this era, Jeff really does seem to be on edge. And there are lots of stories of how confrontational he could be with audiences back then. We’ll get there as the thread continues, but the choices he’s made at this point will have long term effects (e.g., still no Uncle Tupelo reunion!), and future choices will also have long term effects as well. I really like the duality of being saves/maimed by rock and roll. And if music is indeed his saviour, then it’s a theme that is quite common in most religions’ concept of salvation... think of those Jewish stories of Jacob wrestling with God, coming away with his life, but also a permanent hip injury. Or Job having everything taken then restored in his testing by the devil. Then in Christianity there’s Jesus idea of dying to live (a central idea in a YHF song we’ll get to). Reading Jeff’s memoir brings out these ideas. His home life was one without many prospects, although still one with love. Rock and Roll gave him a way out, even leading him to the love of his life, but already ar this young age it had also cost him.
Dramatic if you look at the word "maim" as being literally physically maiming as the poster I was replying to seemed to be getting at.
Next up: Someday Soon As Misunderstood resolved into Far, Far Away, so Sunken Treasure turns us in to 'Someday Soon.' I will say that I have always thought this song would fit right in on Mermaid Avenue. Obviously, the lyrics are not Woody Guthrie's, but I think the melody Jeff wrote here looks ahead to some of the sounds he would go for on Mermaid Avenue. It has a sound that feels like an updated take on classic folk and country. Especially those backing gang vocals and the way the verse melody is wrapped around with banjo. In addition to reminding me of Mermaid Avenue, this one kind of has a Basement Tapes feel to it for me. I suppose my point is that it feels like something of a throwback but with a modern twist (the calling card of Mermaid Avenue). It's an enjoyable track and only two and a half minutes long so it certainly makes its statement quickly. Not an album highlight for me but a good album track.
Someday Soon: a jaunty, banjo-picking/guitar strumming, car windows open, singalong complete with backing chorus, “you don’t know me...what I do!” Of course, I like it.
I came late to Wilco through a friend and have bought a load of CDs vinyl and box sets over the last few years. The great thing about Wilco is where ever they are playing live in the world they Stream there shows live or record and stream at a later date. I’ve watched some great gigs of there’s again during lockdown.
Thread guide Introduction and Uncle Tupelo Mar 1995 AM I Must Be High Casino Queen Box Full Of Letters Shouldn't Be Ashamed Pick Up The Change I Thought I Held You That's Not The Issue It's Just That Simple - live Should've Been In Love - live 1995 Passenger Side - live 1996 Dash 7 - live 2010 Blue Eyed Soul Too Far Apart Outtakes Oct 1996 Being There Misunderstood Far Far Away Monday Outtasite (outta mind) Forget The Flowers Red Eyed and Blue I Got You What's The World Got In Store Hotel Arizona Say You Miss Me Sunken Treasure Someday Soon
