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Guest Cousin Tupelo
If you really put your mind on the drum parts you will realize most drummers couldn't pull of SBS like Kotche. There are a couple of technically difficult parts (the fast parts of Side With the Seeds) and an overall attentiveness and groove that is hard to match.

 

You can't make this kind of music without a top-notch rhythm section. I would love to know how Kotche got that cymbal sound in Leave Me (Like You Found Me).

 

And throughout this whole thread, I don't think anyone has mentioned Hate It Here, a gem from the Tweedy Soul Revue.

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do you all know or have an idea of what jeff tweedy means by "happening stone" in "patient"?

 

i'm listening to sbs every day (tinnitus therapy!), and it's about the only thing that i can't

figure out for myself. so far.

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And throughout this whole thread, I don't think anyone has mentioned Hate It Here, a gem from the Tweedy Soul Revue.

 

One of my favourites from the record, reminds me a lot of Abbey Road era Beatles.

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Guest Cousin Tupelo
One of my favourites from the record, reminds me a lot of Abbey Road era Beatles.

 

There are times through the Wilco records where I hear in Tweedy's voice Lennon, ala Plastic Ono Band.

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do you all know or have an idea of what jeff tweedy means by "happening stone" in "patient"?

 

i'm listening to sbs every day (tinnitus therapy!), and it's about the only thing that i can't

figure out for myself. so far.

 

"Im this apple this happening stone when Im alone" "oh but my blessings get so blured at the sound of your words"

I think it is simply saying that the blessing is life being alive ,

you know when your alone and thinking strange thoughts and your like wow I fucking exist what a blessing or something...and then someone talks to you and all you focus on is

the conflict the conversation w.e you forget the simple blessing and focus on the complexity of conflict. I think thats what hes saying.

 

By the way are there still those of you out there who still believe the album was dissapointing lyricaly cuzzzz your insane.

I suppose disapointment is totally subjective so thats not fair but still come on.

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"Im this apple this happening stone when Im alone" "oh but my blessings get so blured at the sound of your words"I think it is simply saying that the blessing is life being alive , you know when your alone and thinking strange thoughts and your like wow I fucking exist what a blessing or something...and then someone talks to you and all you focus on is the conflict the conversation w.e you forget the simple blessing and focus on the complexity of conflict. I think thats what hes saying.

oh i think you're right! i know how the sound of someone else's words can blur some kinds of blessings but wasn't sure what blessings he meant with "i'm this apple, this happening stone." they're the blessings of being alone, even though it's a mixed blessing.

thanks.

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yea ... I also think that happening stone is a good way of describing an apple , like its like a stone exept its alive or happening

yah, and there's some sweetness to an apple -- so sweetness (or just plain old good taste and nourishment in anything) is part of the aliveness of being alone as a "happening stone." it really speaks to me because my husband and i have a very close relationship yet i have a large need for solitude too.

 

to me this image is one of the best on SBS.

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I hesitate to post this as I don't want it to come off as baiting. Please take this post as an honest attempt to try to understand what I'm missing as everyone seems to love On and On and On but me. To me the music is trite and boring and the lyrics are among the MOST trite I have EVER heard from Tweedy. What does everyone hear in this tune? Am I destined to just not "get" it and it's as simple as that?

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To me the music is trite and boring and the lyrics are among the MOST trite I have EVER heard from Tweedy. What does everyone hear in this tune? Am I destined to just not "get" it and it's as simple as that?

 

Yeah, you are probably destined. I hate nothing more than trite music and trite lyrics, but I dont think that song has either. I agree that trite-ness is a fine line though. I can't explain why I love the song, but I do. Maybe my opinion is colored by the fact that I heard/read that it was a song he wrote to his father after his mother died? Not sure. And not sure I can explain it. I love it, though.

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I hesitate to post this as I don't want it to come off as baiting. Please take this post as an honest attempt to try to understand what I'm missing as everyone seems to love On and On and On but me. To me the music is trite and boring and the lyrics are among the MOST trite I have EVER heard from Tweedy. What does everyone hear in this tune? Am I destined to just not "get" it and it's as simple as that?

it might be as simple as that, moe. i guess we're all affected by music as it relates to our whole musical and life experience, which obviously is different for everyone.

 

since i literally just finished listening to SBS, as i do every day, and "on and on and on" was (almost) the last song, it's fresh in my mind and i'll try to tell you what i hear in it.

 

to me it's about the life and death cycle, which repeats and repeats itself with all its pain and joy; about acceptance of death AND of the sorrow but also eternal-life-in-memory it leaves us with; and about trying to hang on, while we're here, to the few solid-as-possible attachments we form on this earth. i realize it may sound trite to some, but sometimes thoughts seem trite BECAUSE they are so true and huge.

 

often it's possible to look at different aspects of a wilco song -- the lyrics, or the meaning, or jeff's voice, or the musicality. this is one of the few songs where i think those aspects can't be separated. everything, including the underlying on-and-on-and-on rhythm of the instrumentals throughout, holds the same weight in this song. it all fits together and can't be taken apart.

 

i think it's an exceptionally beautiful song, and for the last few months it gives me chills every time i hear it. in fact, i flip back to track 1, "either way," to end my SBS listening because "on and on and on" leaves me a little sad yet grateful yet overwhelmed emotionally.

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Thanks for the honest and helpful responses. I didn't realize the history of it being for his father. I guess I see it a BIT differently now, but still don't feel like it captures that "circle of life and death" idea very well (for me at least). For me a good example of that is Joni Mitchell's Circle Game. Although any song on this subject will compare unfavorably with that one for me since it is the song I selected to play at my brother's funeral 16 years ago. I guess I will just give up on the song and keep it in my permanent skip file. ;) That's the great thing about music is how one song can mean such different things to different people!

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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.

 

Sorry, haven't been here in a while. I'm sure my opinion was/is influenced by Tweedy saying that it was a record for his wife. Where I find that sincere and as good a reason as any to write songs, its the sort of thing I don't want to know about. Pandering was meant to address that aspect. Paul McCartney was often pandering and trite and he's Paul McCartney. And I'm less concerned about what he feels and experienced than I am about what I feel and experience by putting those headphones on or seeing the show. And I'm not married to his wife. I have tremendous respect for the band and the songs and all the records.

I didn't mean to sound like a jerk.

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I really enjoy it.

 

It wasn't what I expected at all with the inclusion of a shred master

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Sorry, haven't been here in a while. I'm sure my opinion was/is influenced by Tweedy saying that it was a record for his wife. Where I find that sincere and as good a reason as any to write songs, its the sort of thing I don't want to know about. Pandering was meant to address that aspect. Paul McCartney was often pandering and trite and he's Paul McCartney. And I'm less concerned about what he feels and experienced than I am about what I feel and experience by putting those headphones on or seeing the show. And I'm not married to his wife. I have tremendous respect for the band and the songs and all the records.

I didn't mean to sound like a jerk.

your "pandering" strike zone sounds wider than mine, i think that's what threw me. thanks for explaining -- i don't

feel that way but now understand it.

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unfortunately, for me, the album just doesn't speak to me for some reason. i like it but i rarely find myself wanting to hear it. maybe someday i'll connect more deeply with it like i have with their previous lps.

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I will agree there. The lyrics are unfortunately obscured by all the other crappiness going on in the song, vocal and otherwise. I'm now going to have to go back and listen to it again to try and remember why I hated it so much!

I've always thought this was one of the albums strongest songs. Love the groove. Go figure.

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I wasn't so sure about SBS when I first heard it, but after listening to it over and over you start to really feel it and then seeing them in concert is what finally won me over. They're coming to our neck of the woods, and when I told a friend about it he said, "yeah I'll bring the kids because their latest CD is so laid back that it should be a good family concert". Well - sure bring the kids, but seeing them play these songs in concert is not like frolicking through the flower fields - those songs ROCK!

 

If you get a chance to see them during their Summer tour, I'd advise you to do so to really hear SBS at it's best.

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Guest Cousin Tupelo
A friend of mine gave this album to me - burned a cd for me. Except he inadvertantly recorded them in reverse order. I thought that was the original order, and I still prefer listening to the album this way.

 

Still a great album.

 

I bought it and burned it off iTunes (the first copy I bought) and "Let's Not Get Carried Away" came as a bonus toon. So my first several listens had that as the last song, rather than "On and On and On." Slight difference in tempo 'dere.

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