Wilco Only Mermaid Ave.

[Dreamin']

"...On May 14, 2000, Jeff Tweedy played the Noise Pop Festival at Double Door in a concert that polarized Wilco fans. Natalie Merchant joined the band onstage, but left after Tweedy requested that she perform Utah Phillips' murder ballad "Rock Salt and Nails". " (from the wikipedia Loose Fur page)

If that story is true, she should have done it. I think a woman could transform that song into something like Strange Fruit.

[aricandover]

If that story is true, she should have done it. I think a woman could transform that song into something like Strange Fruit.

 

it's true, she's a wuss.

[TheMaker]

what do you mean by that?

 

Let's just put it this way: we all know whose songs Woody would prefer.

[ction]

Let's just put it this way: we all know whose songs Woody would prefer.

 

Yeah. Wait, what?

[Sir Stewart]

Bragg's contributions are more honest than Wilco's

Instant classic.

[TheMaker]

Yeah, it's just so fall-down hilarious, I know, to suggest that a great album is precisely that because of the involvement of all of the songwriters and musicians who created it, not just the ones we fetishize on this website. Hang that shit up on the wall just as soon as you finish framing it, Orson; you'll want company to see it, for sure.

 

Do you actually think Wilco's MA songs are treatments that Woody would have endorsed? I'm not saying he would've disliked them, but he sure would have been baffled by some of them. It's a shorter step to I Ain't Got No Home from Stetson Kennedy than it is from California Stars. And Ingrid Bergman has more in common with Woody's playful side than a Beatles pastiche like Secret of the Sea, no doubt.

 

The fact of the matter, though, is that Mermaid Avenue isn't Mermaid Avenue without Bragg AND Wilco. It was a brilliant project because the songs expressed so many things in so many interesting ways, and I really don't understand how people can enjoy Jeff's songs but not Billy's (and vice versa, for that matter). When shit's this good, I just figure people should thank their lucky stars that they ever discovered it.

[jasctt]

I haven't read through this whole thread, and I ain't gonna. What I will say is that i think MA1 is a f'n masterpiece. Every song is great, including BB's stuff. that eing said, I do feel that the wilco stuff on the second volume outshines most of what BB does with his stuff. i think that it is just the fact that they had grown so much as craftsmen after ST. So, I tend to sometimes to not listen to some of the BB stuff on MA2. BB just seems kinda one trick guy and I could never get into his stuff. I was into Wilco before MA1, so no big surprise I dig their stuff more. Will a volume 3 happen? Tweedy has said he'd love to go for it but I wonder if that is true. By now, he has really eclipsed a lot of his peers when it comes to the songwriting that BB would seem more like a sidekick and less a partner at this point. SO, in the end, be thankful for what you got from this experiment and enjoy those MA out takes! That's volume 3 right there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Doug C]

The only time that I have ever skipped a track on an album (cd) was the horrid Bon Jovi song on the first 'A Very Special Christmas'. That song is just that bad. I personally don't get the whole skipping tracks thing. I know people that skip all of the Tweedy tunes when they listen to an Uncle Tupelo cd and I know folks that skip all of the Farrar tracks. I had never heard of the whole idea of skipping tracks on a single band/artist's cd until people started a thread about it on jayfarrar.net several years ago. I have to admit that I was flabbergasted. The concept is silly to me. What is sillier still is actually giving a damn if someone else chooses to skip tracks to the point of debating the issue. Why on earth would any one truly care how someone else chooses to listen to music? There are a myriad of pointless discussions on the internet but there can't be many that are more inane than this one.

[caliber66]

The only time that I have ever skipped a track on an album (cd) was the horrid Bon Jovi song on the first 'A Very Special Christmas'. That song is just that bad. I personally don't get the whole skipping tracks thing. I know people that skip all of the Tweedy tunes when they listen to an Uncle Tupelo cd and I know folks that skip all of the Farrar tracks. I had never heard of the whole idea of skipping tracks on a single band/artist's cd until people started a thread about it on jayfarrar.net several years ago. I have to admit that I was flabbergasted. The concept is silly to me. What is sillier still is actually giving a damn if someone else chooses to skip tracks to the point of debating the issue. Why on earth would any one truly care how someone else chooses to listen to music? There are a myriad of pointless discussions on the internet but there can't be many that are more inane than this one.

I skip songs I don't want to listen to all the time. Do you mean deleting songs from cds? I can't imagine listening to something I don't want to listen to, just because I won't press "skip" on principle.

[Doug C]

I mean that I don't skip songs when listening to a cd. I honestly do not have any cds that I regularly listen to that have a song(s) that is/are truly unlistenable to me. No albums that I love enough to listen to but on a track or 2 wail, "Dear God! That is a an aesthetic crime of the highest order! How that 'song' is on this otherwise excellent album is beyond my comprehension! Oh skip function, you are truly a gift from the Creator!" Maybe I am actually a poseur and don't really understand good music. Who knows? All I know is is who gives a tinker's damn whether or not someone does or doesn't skip tracks?

[poppydawn]

I met him once myself and had a ball, hanging out backstage with him and Grant Showbiz. He really isn't an ass, I just think MITS paints him in a weird light. He loves his fans and is very generous with his time from what I have seen and he has been on the right side of many many causes over the years as well.

 

What I don't understand is, listeners who won't listen to an artist based on hearsay regarding the artist's personality. The fact is, a lot of creative people - musicians, painters, writers, etc - aren't always the most personable, friendly people. Creative vision and being nice don't always work together.

 

Personally, I like the contrast between the Wilco and Bragg material on MA. It's interesting to see different musicians interpret the same songwriter's lyrics in such a vast and varied manner. To me, that was the whole point of the MA albums, and what makes them unique.

[TheMaker]

I know people that skip all of the Tweedy tunes when they listen to an Uncle Tupelo cd and I know folks that skip all of the Farrar tracks.

 

That is just flabbergasting to me. The aesthetic was such that the band was so much MORE than the sum of its parts. It'd be like somebody going, "Yeah, this band The Beatles is pretty awesome... but I hate that Lennon guy. Can't even listen to his stinkin' voice!"

[Sir Stewart]

Maker, I said your "more honest" statement was classic - that had nothing to do with your later clarification. No matter what Woody would think, calling Bragg's tunes more "honest" than Wilco's is laughable (and yes, frameable). And I'm no fan of "Secret of the Sea."

[ction]

Dear TheMaker - If you get a chance, please let me know what Woody would have thought about 9/11, American Idol, the iPod, Paris Hilton, and the internet.

 

Thanks!

ction

[H.Stone]

Bragg called Jay a fucker.

This seems to be common practice...

 

 

I watched MITS, and I never got where all the Billy hate comes from based on that. :shrugs I'm indifferent to him, like some of his MA tracks, often skip past others... He's probably not much more of a pain in the ass to work with than any other artist who cares about the project in question.

[LouieB]

I watched MITS, and I never got where all the Billy hate comes from based on that. :shrugs I'm indifferent to him, like some of his MA tracks, often skip past others... He's probably not much more of a pain in the ass to work with than any other artist who cares about the project in question.

Agreed. I spoke to Billy about Jeff a bit and he didn't seem to have any ill will. I have said this here so many times... but Bragg helped Wilco out alot by involving them. They brought alot to the party, but without Billy requesting them it wouldn't have happened. As it is, Wilco exploded, reached all kinds of new audiences and made a masterpeice in the process. In 10 or so years there will be a Mermaid Ave box set with outtakes, etc. I am sure of it.

 

Even if they artistic and personal issues, the end result benefited both of them (and Jay for that matter.) Some day all the bad blood will be gone.

 

LouieB

[owl]

I skip songs I don't want to listen to all the time. Do you mean deleting songs from cds? I can't imagine listening to something I don't want to listen to, just because I won't press "skip" on principle.

 

Ditto.

 

That is just flabbergasting to me. The aesthetic was such that the band was so much MORE than the sum of its parts. It'd be like somebody going, "Yeah, this band The Beatles is pretty awesome... but I hate that Lennon guy. Can't even listen to his stinkin' voice!"

 

I do often skip the Ringo tracks.

 

Agreed. I spoke to Billy about Jeff a bit and he didn't seem to have any ill will. I have said this here so many times... but Bragg helped Wilco out alot by involving them. They brought alot to the party, but without Billy requesting them it wouldn't have happened. As it is, Wilco exploded, reached all kinds of new audiences and made a masterpeice in the process. In 10 or so years there will be a Mermaid Ave box set with outtakes, etc. I am sure of it.

 

Even if they artistic and personal issues, the end result benefited both of them (and Jay for that matter.) Some day all the bad blood will be gone.

 

LouieB

 

I definitely eventually, albeit slowly, found a great love for Bragg's music through Mermaid Ave.