jakobnicholas

1. Future Islands - On The Water ("Grease" is my song of the year.)

2. Richard Buckner - Our Blood

3. Drive-By Truckers- Go Go Boots

Lists are kinda fun to debate, as this one will be.

 

If Michael Jackson can get 2 songs (solo and Jackson 5), why not Lennon or McCartney?

 

If pop culture phenoms like "Hey Ya" or "Single Ladies" can get a mention, then why not an 80's nugget like "Don't Stop Believing" or "Don't You Forget About Me"?

 

It seems like a lot of earlier selections cancelled out later selections. Did Neil Young not get a song 'cause Dylan, The Band and Crosby/Stills/Nash got a song? No Replacements because Big Star got one?

 

The 90's and 00's is too heavy on rap and Top 40 pop in my opinion. And the mix of popular ("Get UR Freak On", "Borderline"), obscure ("Vincent Black Lightning", "Being Boring") and obvious ("Superstition", "Johnny B Good", "Jailhouse Rock", "Over the Rainbow" ) is random and annoying.

 

No Elton John. No U2. No White Stripes, etc....oh well.

 

Overall, not a bad representation of 90 years of music, I guess.

TIME'S ALL-TIME 100 SONGS

 

"Our critics pick the most extraordinary English-language pop recordings since the beginning of TIME magazine in 1923. Here are 100 (unranked) songs of enduring beauty, power and inventiveness"

 

(Should be noted that it was decided to limit an artist to only one song.)

 

2000s

 

Janelle Monae Tightrope

Missy Elliott Get Ur Freak On

Outkast Hey Ya!

Arcade Fire Wake Up

Kanye West Gold Digger

Lil Wayne Georgia Bush

LCD Soundsystem All My Friends

Beyonce Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

Lady Gaga Bad Romance

 

1990s

 

Sinead OConnor Nothing Compares 2 U

Pet Shop Boys Being Boring

Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit

Richard Thompson 1952 Vincent Black Lightning

Wu-Tang Clan C.R.E.A.M.

A Tribe Called Quest Scenario

The Notorious B.I.G. Juicy

Tupac Shakur California Love (Remix)

Pulp Common People

Radiohead Paranoid Android

 

1980s

 

Joy Division Love Will Tear Us Apart

George Jones He Stopped Loving Her Today

Michael Jackson Billie Jean

New Order Blue Monday

Prince Kiss

Metallica Master of Puppets

R.E.M. Its the End of the World as We Know It

Lucinda Williams Pineola

Public Enemy Fight the Power

Madonna Borderline

 

1970s

 

The Melodians Rivers of Babylon

James Brown Get Up (I Feel like Being a) Sex Machine

Led Zeppelin Immigrant Song

Black Sabbath Iron Man

Joni Mitchell A Case of You

The Who Baba ORiley

Stevie Wonder Superstition

Dolly Parton Jolene

Big Star September Gurls

Bonnie Raitt Angel from Montgomery

Fela Kuti Zombie

Bruce Springsteen Thunder Road

Queen Bohemian Rhapsody

Donna Summer I Feel Love

Bee Gees Stayin' Alive

David Bowie Heroes

Ramones I Wanna Be Sedated

Fleetwood Mac Dreams

Peter Tosh Equal Rights

Parliament One Nation Under a Groove

Velvet Underground Rock & Roll

Loretta Lynn Coal Miners Daughter

 

1960s

 

Bob Dylan Subterranean Homesick Blues

Patsy Cline Crazy

Roy Orbison Crying

The Ronettes Be My Baby

The Beatles I Wanna Hold Your Hand

Astrud Gilberto The Girl from Ipanema

The Supremes Where Did Our Love Go?

The Beach Boys God Only Knows

Aretha Franklin I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)

Marvin Gaye I Heard It Through the Grapevine

The Band The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

Big Mama Thornton Ball n Chain

Jackson 5 I Want You Back

The Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter

Crosby, Stills and Nash Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

Otis Redding I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)

Johnny Cash Folsom Prison Blues

 

1950s

 

Les Paul How High the Moon

Kitty Wells It Wasnt God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels

Elvis Presley Jailhouse Rock

Odetta Take This Hammer

Frank Sinatra I've Got You Under My Skin

Chuck Berry Johnny B. Goode

Ray Charles What'd I Say

 

1940s

 

Woody Guthrie This Land Is Your Land

Lena Horne Stormy Weather

The Andrews Sisters Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

Spike Jones Der Fuehrers Face

Bing Crosby White Christmas

Betty Hutton It Had to Be You

Mahalia Jackson Move On Up a Little Higher

Hank Williams Cold, Cold Heart

Ella Fitzgerald Baby Its Cold Outside

Doris Day Sentimental Journey

 

1930s

 

Ethel Merman I Got Rhythm

Cab Calloway Minnie the Moocher

Duke Ellington It Dont Mean A Thing (If It Aint Got That Swing)

Louie Armstrong Star Dust

Fred Astaire Cheek to Cheek

Ray Heatherton Where or When

Judy Garland Over the Rainbow

 

1920s

Al Jolson My Mammy

Bessie Smith St. Louis Blues

Paul Robeson Ol Man River

The Carter Family Wildwood Flower

We're approaching the 20th Anniversary of the recording of "March 16-20, 1992".

 

In my fantasyland, I imagine Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy meeting at Peter Buck's home studio in March, 2012 to record a batch of songs for an album to released later in the year. Heidorn also shows up for percussion. Henneman and Buck offer added musicianship where needed. Buck produces.

 

Whereas "March 16-20, 1992" dealt with struggles of American workers and perhaps foreshadowed Tupelo's break-up (Fatal Wound and Wipe The Clock), "March, 2012" would focus more on acceptance and forgiveness.

 

If anybody knows anybody who knows Peter Buck, plant this seed in his ear. One can dream right?

Rolling Stone is streaming a new R.E.M. song to be on their hits package Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth. The song is called "We All Go Back To Where We Belong".

 

It sounds like it was written to be the last song recorded by the group. Really beautiful, I think.

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-stream-r-e-m-s-final-single-we-all-go-back-to-where-we-belong-20111018

I'd probably rank "All Things Must Pass" as the best post-Beatles records, though Harrioson had been accumulating most of the songs for years.

 

I'm a huge Paul fan (including Wings), so I think his post-Beatles work in general is the superior of the group. I have a personal love for Back To The Egg...an album that might as well not have been released, 'cause it's hardly ever mentioned. While certainly not on par with "McCartney" or "Ram", I think it's a very energetic, gutsy record.

 

To the basis of the thread, "Maybe I'm Amazed" is at least as good as anything Lennon did post-Beatles.

I can only think of 5 Wilco songs that I'd say "I do not like":

 

- Shake It Off

- Walken

- Hate It Here

- You Never Know

- Sonny Feeling

I have always been a bit perplexed by the amount of love "The Lonely 1" gets.  I would probably rate it as my third least-favorite Wilco song.

I'd rate that about a 543.

I would never tell a Wilco fan what songs to like or dislike, but the love and number of posts on this thread dedicated to The Lonely 1 is a bit baffling to me....There is no question I believe it should be left off BT, never requested in concert and generally forgotten.

I've scanned this board for many years and have read tons of things I disagreed with to varying degrees. If 1 degree was very slightly disagree, and 100 was massively disagree, the above post would be about a 748.

I too LOVE the Mermaid songs. I'm gonna request Blood Of The Lamb and Another Man's Done Gone for a December show...though I won't expect them to be played.

 

Kind of off topic, but I'm holding out hope that they break out an off-the-wall cover in December. They used to playe Led Zeppelin and other classic songs in the early days. And fairly recently they did Band and Thunderclap Newman.

 

The Whole Love reminds a LOT of McCartney. I'd soil my trousers if they busted out "Hi, Hi, Hi" or "Uncle Albert" one of these nights. How freakin' cool would that be?!

Not sure why, but I always thought it might have been about Roy Orbison (probably because of Orbison's "Only The Lonely" and I believe he had a song with "Lonely One" in the title.) Westerberg makes more sense perhaps. But what about the gold lame? That might hint more towards Neil Young. An interesting thought is if it's about Jay Farrar. The line about hoping to hear an old voice on the machine hints that it's about someone he once had a relationship with. Jeff supposedly idolized Jay at one time.

 

I personally think it's just a brilliant song about the sometimes shared lonliness of a fan and artist alike. Really beautiful song.

 

 

Being There is a great, great record. I probably only have one minor complaint. Kingpin is a bit too wanky for me, but it sounds like it was so fun for Bennett and the band to play, that I feel bad for even thinking that. And I've just gotta say that Hotel Arizona is maybe the coolest-sounding song in the Wilco catalogue. I NEVER tire of hearing the jam-out after the last vocal...amazing.

I stumbled on a blog by great sportswriter Joe Posnanski. Below are his thoughts...very well done, I think:

 

"I have this story about R.E.M. that I wrote when the band announced that it was closing down, and I have not had the time to finish it, and by now it’s probably too late to finish it. So I’ll put one R.E.M. thought here. I love R.E.M. It’s pretty close to Springsteen love. My favorite R.E.M. moment happens in a song called The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight. That’s not one of my 40 favorite R.E.M. songs, by the way, but it has what I think is the quintessential R.E.M. moment.

 

See, what makes R.E.M. so cool to me is that you always got the feeling that they never stopped trying and seeking and all that. At some point, they might have been the biggest band in the world. They could have just re-released some version of Out of Time over and over again, made a bajillion dollars, and lived what most people would consider a rich life. But, no, they did Out of Time once, and they did Automatic for the People once, and they kept moving, kept pushing their music in all sorts of directions — including directions that, frankly, I didn’t like at all. But that’s OK. I didn’t want them to make music for me. I wanted them to follow the muse, wherever it led them, because that’s what I admire in people, that’s the only way you can do a song like Gardening at Night or (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville or Nightswimming, or Moral Kiosk, or even a mishmash of things like Radio Song. And R.E.M., to their everlasting credit, did follow the muse and kept following it.

 

Anyway, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight is a typically weird R.E.M. song, and there’s a part where Michael Stipe is singing:

 

Baby, instant soup doesn’t really grab me

Today I need something more, sub sub sub substantial

A can of beans or blackeyed peas, some Nescafe and ice

A candy bar, a falling star or a reading from Dr. Seuss

 

That’s an R.E.M. lyric for you right there. In any case, something funny happens after “Dr. Seuss.” It sounds — and I’ve listened to this many times — it sounds like Michael Stipe is breaking up. He sounds like he’s laughing right through the next lyric. I can’t be SURE that he’s doing this. No matter how many times I listen, it is not entirely clear. And, to be honest, I don’t really want to know for sure. It SOUNDS like he’s laughing, and that has always been good enough for me. I have always tried to imagine what the other guys in the band did to make him laugh. Put on Dr. Seuss hats? Drop their pants to reveal Dr. Seuss underwear? Asked for more cowbell? I don’t know.

 

But I love that laughter. R.E.M. did serious songs, many of them on very serious topics, but listening to the music always made me very happy. I think surprisingly often about that moment when it sounds like Michael Stipe breaks up, and I find myself wishing that all of my favorite artists — writers, actors, musicians, whoever — have those moments when they feel the same joy performing that I feel receiving."

I believe A.M. and Trace are both great records, but for me, I'm not sure the former could ever be replaced by the latter.

To me, both of these records enter my mind when I'm going on a long drive. A.M radio used to be a great place to find good music, and it's neat that one record has an old radio on the cover while the other starts off with a song about getting lost in a great A.M. song.I think Son Volt's record is "better"....it's just very classic sounding and deep and doesn't have a track that's even the smallest bit weak. But I find Wilco's record more fun. Tweedy and Wilco have come a long way musically, but listening to A.M. you realize how great most of the songs are. And the simple way they were played make it very comfortable. 20 years from now, I'm guessing I'll grab A.M. more times than most Wilco records.

No offense to Lowe, but I was hoping Wilco would bring along a young/upcoming band like they've done many times over the years. Oh well, they obviously are enjoying playing together.

My point in all of this is that everyone in the band is probably contributing a lot, but it isnt a writing credit if you make up a cool part to go on a song.  Songwriting is the melody, lyrics, and chord skeleton.  Sprucing that up well is why you get to stay in the band!

Maybe a tad off topic, but I think it's a bit unfair for band members to not get some writing credit on some songs and some albums. The songs on "Sky Blue Sky" and "Wilco (The Album)" are more straight-forward, so the credit going mostly or all to Jeff Tweedy seems fine.But, to me, what makes "The Whole Love" so enjoyable (and more enjoyable than the previous 2 records) is the numerous flourishes and contributions by everybody in the band...John's great bass lines, Glenn's incredible drumming, the keyboard sounds, the synthesizers, strings, blips...etc."The Whole Love" would have been a good candidate for "Lyrics by Jeff Tweedy, music by Tweedy and Wilco" on most if not all songs. "I Might" has so many cool things going that it seems unfair to give all credit to Tweedy. Same with "Art Of Almost". The strings on "Black Moon" make the song. "Red Rising Lung" would be nothing special without all the interesting sounds going on. I think of a song like "At Least That's What You Said", and one of the things that makes me want to listen to it again and again is the drum explosions by Glenn. Does that deserve a writing credit? Probably not. But it seems he should get credit for the music...his contribution helps make the song so good. Or a song like "Hotel Arizona". That song is a stunner for me because of the guitar jam at then end. Did Tweedy do all that? Or maybe it was Jay Bennett...I don't know. "Poor Places" is hauntingly great. My favorite YHF track. I believe Bennett DOES get writing credit for all the things he contributed on that.I always liked how R.E.M. did it. All songs said "Music by R.E.M.".

I am thinking about picking this up tomorrow at Target. I see it is not listed on their website though.

 

Wilco just put out a Facebook post about the album being available at Target and Barnes and Noble. Of course, Barnes and Noble want too much money for it. So - piss on them.

I got mine at a Target at opening time yesterday. Looked like they had about 7 or 8 of them.

1. Summerteeth

2. Being There

3. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

4. The Whole Love

5. A Ghost Is Born

6. A.M.

7. Sky Blue Sky

8. Wilco (The Album)

AV Club gave it a B, but it was a bit harsh. http://www.avclub.co...ole-love,62309/

The Onion's AV Club review IS a bit harsh, but a pretty good take."The Whole Love" does have a "low-stakes feel" (tracks 1 and 2 excepted), as pointed out by the AV Club writer. But for me, that's not a negative. I don't think a band needs to torture themselves on every record to recreate the wheel. Saying that, I would LOVE if Wilco made a whole record that had the vibe of Bull Black Nova or Art of Almost. Both songs sound spontaneous and natural. Same with the Wilco Book disc...I really like the feel of that record.I don't know. I like the varieties of song types on The Whole Love, but it DOES sound a bit purposely crowd-pleasing in parts...not that that's a bad thing.

Saw a piece on JT in The Times this morning.

Things I learnt:-

2) Wilco are going to be involved in O'Bama's re-election in some shape or form.

Oh joy. (sarcasm)It's nauseating when singers and bands try "make a difference" and be a part of a Presidential political campaign. Nobody gives a sh*t who Bono or Toby Keith or Stevie Wonder wants us to vote for and it's likely to irritate half of their fans by publicly endorsing somebody. It's just silly. Oh well. I don't have to watch or listen to that crap. I'll just hope and pray Tweedy doesn't sprinkle any pro-Obama bullsh*t into the live show I'll be at in December, (as he did in many live shows the last couple elections).

As another complete aside, this is absolutely correct.  Such a great album.

I concur. Great album. I have the re-issued version from years ago with bonus songs. I really like "Song #4".It's weird, strange and awesome.

This PopMatters review absolutely nails it, I think.

Good write-up, but similar raing as Pitchfork (7 out of 10).Music's subjective, but I've decided a rating less than 8 out of 10 for "The Whole Love" is wrong. Case closed.

 

Apart from a few tunes up to about the Monster period, this band was done for me with the release of "Out of Time," which I think is brutal. 

Ouch. That's a kick in the nuggets. Out Of Time would rank in my R.E.M. top 3. I think I love early R.E.M. as much as most R.E.M. fans, but almost equally like their albums Green-Hi Fi. They're more poppy and less mysterious, but doesn't lessen their greatness.

As a HUGE R.E.M. fan, I have zero interest in the new greatest hits discs. I'll likely pay $3 on iTunes for the new songs.

 

You all think there's any chance they might someday release another Dead Letter Office-type record? Peter Buck has said forever that they have tons of unreleased bits over the years. I'm envisioning songs that never made the cut, alternate versions of album songs, some of their amazing covers, musical bits that never had lyrics....etc.

Pitchfork gets its jollies by being unpredictable and contrary.

 

A 6.9 rating for "The Whole Love" is unfair. Musically, it's an 8+ album EASILY. Having listened to it many times, it just SOUNDS like a great record. It SOUNDS beautiful and fresh and poppy and rockin'. It's got great pacing. I'm very impressed by it.

 

The reviewer might make a decent point about Jeff's lyrics being random one moment and heartfelt the next. I haven't yet "felt" as many lyrics on "The Whole Love" as on Wilco's best records, and I wish I did, but it's not preventing me from liking to listen to it. I STILL have no idea what Michael Stipe is mumbling on "Murmur" but don't care. I DO know what Lennon is saying on "I Am The Walrus", and it's very bizarre and un-relatable, but I'm not bothered by that either.

I recorded "Born Alone" from Lettermen and showed to some people last night. A female, about 40, said "he's a nice looking guy if he cleans up a little."

 

Jeff's been shaggy forever. Never bothered me, nor something I thought about. But he DID look a bit ragged....especially for being on a tv show. His hair many times looks like he just woke up after sleeping on a pillow coated in maple syrup. And I can't tell if he's trying to grow a full beard, or just hasn't shaved for 12 days.

 

Just an observation. If Jeff wants to look like a hobo or a Survivor member, makes no matter to me.