Making of Mermaid Ave DVD

[yermom]

Must add:

Nora and Billy sittin' in a tree...

Her eyes go all sparkly when she's hanging with him! But I've seen her around on other stuff and she seems like a pretty good lady.

[yankhotelfox]

Hey Billy

 

Kidding, kinda. I really like "She Came Along to Me."

[caliber66]

I prefer a lot of the Bragg tunes on Mermaid to a lot of the Wilco ones.

[cryptique]

There aren't many artists I can say this about, but I'm actually a bigger Billy Bragg fan than I am a Wilco fan. I loved Man in the Sand. I'm currently getting started on Bragg's memoir (The Progressive Patriot).

[So Long]

I genuinely dislike Billy Bragg as a musician, he's stuck in this romantic mindset that America is still crawling with trobadours hoping on freight trains. lol

 

The documentary didn't impress me very much, I found Wilco's parts to be good, but I felt that they were portrayed as "some young kids just goin' along for the ride"

[cryptique]

I genuinely dislike Billy Bragg as a musician, he's stuck in this romantic mindset that America is still crawling with trobadours hoping on freight trains. lol

I'm not going to get all pissy and defensive over Bragg, but I honestly cannot fathom exactly where you got that idea.

[a.miller]

some young kids just goin' along for the ride

IMO, they brought more to the project than Mr. Bragg. Anyone can come in and holler off-key.

[cryptique]

[a.miller]

I was just kidding about the Billy Bragg thing. I thought it would ruffle your feathers.

[LouieB]

Whatever anyone thinks of Billy Bragg (I happen to be a fan), he picked Wilco sight unseen, just from hearing their albums, in the processes greatly enhanced this project and also helped gain Wilco many new fans.

 

LouieB

[uncle wilco]

i like man in the sand mainly because it is part of wilco history. there are some fine tunes on the mermaid cd's. even some of billy's are pretty good and i'm not a big billy fan at all. he was kind enough to ask wilco to join in on the project and i think that gave wilco an integrity boost in the industry as a legit band of fine players. they were now something much more than leftovers from uncle tupelo. mermaid, coming right after the excellent being there record put them on the map imo.

 

plus, natalie merchant is in it. and although she's a bit flaky, i've always had a crush on her. there, i said it.

[MattZ]

Wilco fans would not have California Stars or Mountain Bed (etc) without Billy Bragg (or woody, of coure). If I remember right, Nora picked Billy. Billy brought Wilco along for the ride.

 

Yes, I agree that Billy comes across pretty annoyingly at points in the documentary, but I think he's great. Do the Bragg haters actually know any of his music outside of Mermaid Ave? Or are they basing it on what they see of him in the movie? Is it possible not to like Talking with the Taxman About Poetry?

 

Its pretty clear that Billy and Wilco were on different pages when it came to the interpretation of Woody's lyrics, but that's what I think makes the project so compelling.