Sky Blue Sky

[sweetheart-mine]

I don't understand why some people don't like Please Be Patient With Me. It's such a sweet, personal, song.. Not to mention, coming from a guitar player, the fingerpicking work on it is remarkable.

another agree-er here. at first there were 3 or so favorite songs i'd mention from SBS. now, with all the listening i'm doing,

all of these have to be put in the favorites category:

 

either way

you are my face

impossible germany

sky blue sky

side with the seeds

please be patient with me

hate it here

what light

on and on and on

[jakobnicholas]

I like Leave Me Like You Found Me much better than Hate It Here and Please Be Patient With Me.

 

To me, One True Vine is the slow-song gem of the SBS recordings. Jeff must have thought Please Be Patient fit lyrically better into the album.

 

 

 

It seems almost unanimous that Shake it Off is the stinker. I can only guess it was left on the disc because of its lyrics. I've tried MANY times to like this song and continue to fail gloriously. Thanks to my Sharpie marker, my cd booklet lists song #6 as "(SKIP)".

[Panther]

I think Shake it Off is music geared twoard the lyrics and sure as a song it dosent flow but hey arent Wilco an art rock band I think its a great art rock track very Deerhoof.

I like how the guitars sound tough when he sings the shake it off part , its funny and endearing, also somewhere theres a war sometimes there is art is my favrite line on the album. Plus it makes SBS wilcos loudest recorded which is also funny, dose anyone remember laughter?(lame,I know)

[sweetheart-mine]

somewhere theres a war sometimes there is art is my favrite line on the album

very true, that's a great line.

also i've noticed that the music jerks rhythmically around the line "shake it off" -- sounds literally like something being shaken off. it's clever, no doubt about it.

but i skip listening to it unless i'm in a claustrophobic tense mood and need to shake it off.

which means: it doesn't get skipped all that much in my house!

[froggie]

did anyone else think that jeff was singing "when i'm wanking off, i'm shake it off" when they first heard the song?

[Dreamin']

I don't understand why some people don't like Please Be Patient With Me. It's such a sweet, personal, song.. Not to mention, coming from a guitar player, the fingerpicking work on it is remarkable.

I agree. It's a gem. ... I also really love Side With The Seeds.

 

SBS is comfort food for the soul.

[Sir Stewart]

To me, 'What Light?' is the only stinker on the record.

[MattZ]

To me, 'What Light?' is the only stinker on the record.

 

I agree -- but at the same time, that's why I kind of like the song. Given the lyrics, it's sort of cool that the song is a bit of a stinker. Just sing what you feel, you know?

 

So, I guess I don't agree. I like every song.

[lamradio]

I agree -- but at the same time, that's why I kind of like the song. Given the lyrics, it's sort of cool that the song is a bit of a stinker. Just sing what you feel, you know?

 

So, I guess I don't agree. I like every song.

 

Yeah, it's probably my least favorite song on the album. It's funny because when the record first came out, it was my favorite song. But I guess the chorus just got old after a while.. But it's still a great song.

[sweetheart-mine]

I agree -- but at the same time, that's why I kind of like the song. Given the lyrics, it's sort of cool that the song is a bit of a stinker. Just sing what you feel, you know?

 

So, I guess I don't agree. I like every song.

well i can't figure out how to get the original quote included above. damn my low-tech-ness sometimes! anyway, i too noticed (just a few days ago) the irony of not completely liking "What Light." my least favorite line of SBS is in that song, yet i love that the point of the song goes beyond the dislike of any particular line or whatever. "just sing what you feel, don't let anyone say it's wrong." whether one likes the song overall or not, i've gotta love the basic message, which can't be eradicated by any sort of so-so or highfalutin opinion or review. the message is built-in, and even if it's not "new" in terms of today, it's a guiding truth. kind of refreshing that way! it's definitely not my favorite track on SBS, but . . . i include it in the larger list of SBS favorites because of that message which is pretty important in both humanistic and artistic terms.

[hondo0524]

Here's how I see it

 

SBS songs on the record 3/5

 

SBS songs live 5/5

 

While the record versions of SBS songs are and will remain interesting, they are another magnitude of greatness live.

 

SBS just reaffirms that all truly great bands must be seen live.

[dondoboy]

After a year, I'm still disappointed. So much so that when they came to town, I skipped the show. By far the worst record lyrically. Pandering, almost trite love songs at points. I don't listen to it anymore.

[SkortBrun]

I still think it's a great record. Probably my 3rd favorite Wilco album (after AGiB and YHF).

[FourStrongWinds]

did anyone else think that jeff was singing "when i'm wanking off, i'm shake it off" when they first heard the song?

 

I still can't get over that line in Kicking Television either, I just find it really hard to imagine Tweedy having a wank, It ruins everything for me

[M. (hristine]

That Saturday night they first streamed it on their site, I thought - This might be my favorite Wilco album ever. Nothing's really changed my mind since then.

I was sitting in a lovely study in Winnetka, Illinois that night. I had just listened to Tweedy sing and play guitar and harmonica in the basement of that house. He and his wife had gone, but we were still there with that beautiful album streaming. I won't ever forget the first time I heard it.

 

Like Wendy I have a tendency to play stuff I like over and over, so I'm happy when new stuff gets released just to save me from myself. I love this album lyrically and sonically. Plus John's bass work is incredibly melodic. It's a soul record made by grown ups. Tweedy isn't an adolescent anymore, there is no reason for him to write AM ever again.

[Guest Cousin Tupelo]

I think you've nailed it on the head. It is a mature album -- soul yes, but has other tones that harken back to 70s album sides. This is a crafted album, a collaboration. In Tweedy's lyrics there's still problems, no solutions; he's just meeting them head on and saying, O.K. Sometimes you see the beauty in simplicity, a straightforward response to all that's complex. There's no reason to dig behind it.

 

YHF took a similar approach but draped it with complexity that was appropriate for the message and themes of the album. SBS is a more organic approach to similar themes.

 

... I said you hit it on the head and went and blathered trying to embellish your point. Sorry.

 

Gary

 

I was sitting in a lovely study in Winnetka, Illinois that night. I had just listened to Tweedy sing and play guitar and harmonica in the basement of that house. He and his wife had gone, but we were still there with that beautiful album streaming. I won't ever forget the first time I heard it.

 

Like Wendy I have a tendency to play stuff I like over and over, so I'm just happy when new stuff gets released just to save me from myself. I love this album lyrically and sonically. Plus John's bass work is incredibly melodic. It's a soul record made by grown ups. Tweedy isn't an adolescent anymore, there is no reason for him to write AM ever again.

[Sunken mountain]

. Tweedy isn't an adolescent anymore, there is no reason for him to write AM ever again.

Well said.We all aren

[M. (hristine]

Ha! No worries, Cousin Tupelo.

 

I'll further embellish myself by adding that there is a kind of joy I get watching arc of artistic output from a writer whose work I admire. Tweedy is one of those writers. If he was still writing songs about spilling his beer in the car I would have lost interest a long time ago.

[sweetheart-mine]

After a year, I'm still disappointed. So much so that when they came to town, I skipped the show. By far the worst record lyrically. Pandering, almost trite love songs at points. I don't listen to it anymore.

you skipped the show on purpose? i HAD to skip the show, after finally getting a ticket, and was heartbroken.

i can understand why a few might not want "trite" love songs from jeff tweedy (or anyone).

but where have you heard the SBS ones before? many of them may be love songs, but they're hardly trite.

as for "pandering," no way. did you listen to the interviews in the dvd? this is what he felt and experienced,

not what he thinks others wanted to hear. listen to him speak about it before throwing the label "pandering" at him.

i think your reading is way off, but you're welcome to it and there will never be an album suited to everyone.

[FourStrongWinds]

I would argue this record was maybe even Tweedys strongest lyrically

 

I remember my mother’s

Sister’s husband’s brother

Working in the goldmine full-time

Filling in for sunshine

Filing into tight lines

Of ordinary beehives

The door screams I hate you

Hate you hanging around my blue jeans

Why is there no breeze

No currency of leaves

No current through the water wire

No feelings I can see

I trust no emotion

I believe in locomotion

But I've turned to rust as we've discussed

Though I must have let you down

too many times

In the dirt and the dust

 

I have no idea how this happens

All of my maps have been overthrown

Happenstance has changed my plans

So many times my heart has been outgrown

Now everybody’s feeling all alone

Can’t tell you who I am

When everybody’s feeling all alone

Can’t tell you who I am

 

I am looking forward

Toward the shadows tracing bones

Our faces stitched and sewing

Our houses hemmed into homes

Trying to be thankful

Our stories fit into phones

And our voices lift so easily

A gift given accidentally

When we’re not sure

We’re not alone

[Preferred B]

I was just thinking that SBS probably includes one of my top five Wilco songs ever, as well as one of my bottom five. (I don't actually have a "top five" or "bottom five" figured out or anything, but if I were to go to the trouble, I think they'd be there.)

 

My least favorite song is not "Shake it Off." I like "Shake it Off" a whole lot.

[Sir Stewart]

My least favorite song is not "Shake it Off." I like "Shake it Off" a whole lot.

Me too - one of my favorites on the disc.

[awatt]

I would argue this record was maybe even Tweedys strongest lyrically

 

I remember my mother

[H.Stone]

I don't understand all the hate for Shake It Off, either. (Well, unless you were at the show when the audience added "WOOO!" after every Shake It Off. I'd get hating that.) I especially like the scene the opening lyrics paint.

[So Long]

(Well, unless you were at the show when the audience added "WOOO!" after every Shake It Off. I'd get hating that._

 

that's some Dave Matthews Band shit...let's keep that out of Wilco shows...