Jay Bennett R.I.P

[gogo]

I've transcribed below the Tape Op article about Jay Bennett. This is the best thing I've read about him since his passing. Despite his falling out with Tweedy/Wilco, I can see from this article why it must've been inspiring to work with Jay.

 

-----------------------------------------

 

Jay Bennett, by Jason T. Lewis

 

...

 

"Look, I could do that. I could play a bunch of stuff and I could Wilco all over your record, but then it wouldn't be you. You know what you want and I know that you can do it. I'll step in when I need to."

 

...

That's great. Thanks, jff.

[Guest Francis X. Hummel]

Fuck yeah, that's a great piece. I might pull the trigger and buy the EP he's referring to.

 

Jason Lewis - Happy All the Time

[jff]

Fuck yeah, that's a great piece. I might pull the trigger and buy the EP he's referring to.

 

Jason Lewis - Happy All the Time

 

I don't know what the recording is, but I'd like to get a copy. Do you know what it is?

[Guest Francis X. Hummel]

click on the link

[Analogman]

I actually know that dude. Or rather, I use to know him well enough to speak to him. We had some classes together in college.

[Guest Speed Racer]

I'm going to go ahead and say again that I don't understand the extent to which people knock Jay's portrayal in IATTBYH. I saw exactly what Jason says he didn't, in the film - an enormously creative man who would go to ANY lengths to get just the right sound. What I also saw was someone who, in the process, strained some personal relationships because he would go to the lengths he did to get the sound, and that sound wasn't necessarily what the group wanted. His approach to work definitely comes off in both portrayals as a potential liability for personal relationships; in one case we see that happens, and in the other it doesn't.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the Jay described in Jason Lewis' article is the same one I see in IATTBYH. Jay produced incredible music and executed amazing visions, but Jason Lewis' portrayal too shows a man who definitely had the capacity to grate on people that were not prepared to create with him on those terms.

[jff]

click on the link

 

duh, sorry.

[MattZ]

thanks for taking the time to type that, jff.

[kidsmoke]

That was a beautiful piece, jff. Thanks for sharing. Speed Racer, I concur with what you've said...I saw that Jay, too. A great talent and a very dedicated guy. Reading a piece like this, I feel even sadder at his early death.

[Beltmann]

Great piece. Thanks for posting, jff.

 

Speed Racer, I concur with what you've said...I saw that Jay, too.

Me too. In fact, the Jay I saw in the film made me a bigger fan; I'm not sure I would have followed his solo career so closely (and with such patience) without having seen those glimpses.

[Sir Stewart]

I want to echo the sentiment that the IATTBYH movie made me feel more sympathetic toward Jay than Jeff. What Speed Racer said is spot on for me too - in that Ashes/HMD scene, he was trying to figure out exactly what was going to be on the record, exactly where one song was was stopping and the next was starting. He seemed to care about it much more than Jeff did (in that moment), and I've never been able to relate to the idea that the scene shows how Jay had worn out his welcome. If anything I've always been disappointed in Jeff's actions in that scene (with a grain of salt, of course). The record - the "art" - seemed only to matter to Jay in that scene, and that's sad.

[mpolak21]

I want to echo the sentiment that the IATTBYH movie made me feel more sympathetic toward Jay than Jeff. What Speed Racer said is spot on for me too - in that Ashes/HMD scene, he was trying to figure out exactly what was going to be on the record, exactly where one song was was stopping and the next was starting. He seemed to care about it much more than Jeff did (in that moment), and I've never been able to relate to the idea that the scene shows how Jay had worn out his welcome. If anything I've always been disappointed in Jeff's actions in that scene (with a grain of salt, of course). The record - the "art" - seemed only to matter to Jay in that scene, and that's sad.

 

Yeah, neither really seemed right in the scene. Jay seemed hyper focused on wanting to be understood and trying to get the mix perfect. The only thing that really seemed to matter to Jay was the art, it gave us two masterpiece albums, but ultimately cost Jay his band and one of his best friends. Jeff was acting like anyone with a throbbing migraine would. I think the biggest factor in the perception that Jay was somehow the bad guy in that film is the fact that Bennett was the one that got canned. If Jay and Jeff's parts had been switched and Tweedy was the one that got fired, I think people would have been just as critical towards Jeff.

 

--Mike

[jff]

I could be wrong, but it seemed to me that Jeff and Jay were on the same page in terms of what they were attempting to do with the HMD intro, but for whatever reason they were unable to realize it. I think if they each had done the version they were striving towards, the end products would have been virtually identical. If each of them had stopped talking, and simply listened to what Jay was working on, there may not have been a conflict at all.

 

Of course, this theory discounts however much footage there was relaing to the conflict that didn't make it into the film.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Oooh, thanks. And here I thought I had explained myself poorly.

 

they were unable to realize it.

 

My perception of that scene was always that Jeff finally "got" what Jay was saying, realized it was the same thing that he was saying, but Jay still wanted to explain why Jeff didn't understand him earlier. "I don't have to understand you all the time," always makes me a little sad to hear; it's true for every good, healthy relationship, but in that context it always sounds so sad to me.

 

That scene was a glimpse of two people doing all the wrong things when they were each having a bad day, but I think it also illustrates some of the bad habits their relationship was starting to develop - what happens when co-dependent becomes co-dependent.

[Sir Stewart]

It doesn't help that I don't know what the hell they're talking about in that scene.

[jff]

It doesn't help that I don't know what the hell they're talking about in that scene.

 

Basically, they're both saying "Heavy Metal Drummer needs to start off with 8 beats worth of a really goofy and dated drum machine rhythm".

[Guest Speed Racer]

Basically, they're both saying "Heavy Metal Drummer needs to start off with 8 beats worth of a really goofy and dated drum machine rhythm".

 

...with Jay phrasing it: "when Ashes ends, the drum machine starts," and Jeff saying, "the drum machine starts at the beginning of Heavy Metal Drummer."

[jff]

...with Jay phrasing it: "when Ashes ends, the drum machine starts," and Jeff saying, "the drum machine starts at the beginning of Heavy Metal Drummer."

 

 

That sums up my take on it.

 

I always felt the better examples of the growing wedge between Bennett and Tweedy were the scenes in which Bennett wanted to play some "easy rockers" at an upcoming show, rather than working up some of the newer tunes, and the scene in which Tweedy claims that "two guitars is obsolete", to which Bennett responds "I don't know what that means."

[schoenfraun]

Tweedy claims that "two guitars is obsolete," to which Bennett responds "I don't know what that means."

 

 

And that's why Wilco occasionally has 3 guitars on stage these days (with 2 keyboards)...like on the new Tonight Show. Totally obsolete, eh?

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

 

That sums up my take on it.

 

I always felt the better examples of the growing wedge between Bennett and Tweedy were the scenes in which Bennett wanted to play some "easy rockers" at an upcoming show, rather than working up some of the newer tunes, and the scene in which Tweedy claims that "two guitars is obsolete", to which Bennett responds "I don't know what that means."

 

 

Listen to the commentary on the dvd and you will hear the real intent of Jeff's comments.

[caliber66]

Listen to the commentary on the dvd and you will hear the real intent of Jeff's comments.

As given by Jeff, after the fact, without Jay present?

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

As given by Jeff, after the fact, without Jay present?

 

did you listen to it?

 

The context was referring to the song they were playing, not the two guitar thing in total.

[caliber66]

did you listen to it?

 

The context was referring to the song they were playing, not the two guitar thing in total.

Transcript?

[mountain bed]

I kind of always thought that the 'two guitars are obsolete' comment was just the kind of thing someone would say knowing that such a comment would push the buttons of the other person involved. Like you would do with someone you've lived with or been close to for a long time. Only this was on film. Sigh.

[kidsmoke]

I kind of always thought that the 'two guitars are obsolete' comment was just the kind of thing someone would say knowing that such a comment would push the buttons of the other person involved. Like you would do with someone you've lived with or been close to for a long time. Only this was on film. Sigh.

 

That's exactly how I've always seen it.