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Being There, single disc


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I'd just like to preface this by noting that I was recently chatised for chastising someone for posting a new topic instead of contributing to an established thread, and I am fully prepared to eat my words here if this has already been done. A quick search turned up a discussion about Being There, disc 1 vs. disc 2; but it didn't turn up any results on my proposed topic.

 

SO - anyway - like some of you who in the aforementioned thread who refused to vote because Being There should be digested as a whole, I agree because I love the whole thing. But if you absolutely HAD to condense Being There to a single disc, what would it look like?

 

There were some tough decisions to make on what to cut. Here's mine:

 


    Misunderstood
    Far, Far Away
    Monday
    Outtasite (Outtamind)
    Forget the Flowers
    Red-Eyed and Blue
    I Got You (At the End of the Century)
    Hotel Arizona
    Sunken Treasure
    Someday Soon
    Kingpin
    The Lonely 1
    Dreamer in My Dreams

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Guest Speed Racer

I am fully prepared to eat my words here if this has already been done.

 

In this case, it's so fluid though! I would have posted something entirely different than what I will post in a minute - I had kind of written off Disc 2 until listening to it for the first time in years the other day. A true masterpiece! I'll post mine in a sec, but since I can't remember the last time this was done, I'd say it's fair to assume others' opinions might have changed.

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Considering that the whole album already fits on a single disc, I wouldn't cut a thing. :P

 

This is true. The first copy I owned was a single burned CD; however, being the 'completist' that I am, I bought a real copy of it after the scratches on the burned copy, the result of 100000 listens, rendered it unlistenable, even though I had MP3s. Since there's folks out there who feel that the record is bloated with too much filler, I thought it might be interesting to see what fat people might trim off the delicious steak that is Being There.

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I came here to post this. It pretty much nullifies the whole thread.

I was thinking the same thing. This calls for a new thread. "If any Wilco album (other than Being There and Kicking Television) were a double disc, what songs would you add to make up the extra disc?"

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Crikey, I give up. I, like all of you, love it for what it is and wouldn't change anything about it. Just wanted to throw a little random somethin' out there...a "What If?" situation. It's not like people haven't openly discussed altering YHF to include other tracks from the era, or in place of something on the record. Or the SBS/W(TA) mash-up thread...

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Ok, I'll play. There is only one song on that record that I could see not completely missing and this is Was I In Your Dreams. Was I? I like that part. No, I could live without that song, wouldn't want to, but I believe I could. I use to be luke warm on Why Would You Wanna Live?, but the banjo lick hooks me everytime now.

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I'll play too. If we assume (I will, anyway) that we need to cut five songs to achieve the single-album masterpiece, here are my choices:

 

Hotel Arizona

Outta Mind (Outta Sight)

Kingpin

(Was I) In Your Dreams

Why Would You Wanna Live

 

Some (but not all) of those pain me, but if I was tasked with making these cuts, that's how I'd do it.

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I'll play too. If we assume (I will, anyway) that we need to cut five songs to achieve the single-album masterpiece, here are my choices:

 

Hotel Arizona

Outta Mind (Outta Sight)

Kingpin

(Was I) In Your Dreams

Why Would You Wanna Live

 

Some (but not all) of those pain me, but if I was tasked with making these cuts, that's how I'd do it.

 

Hotel Arizona slays me. I don't know why, but that song, especially the "I guess all this history, is just a mystery to me, one more worried whisper right in my ear" Oh the tears.

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Guest Black Witcher

Misunderstood

Far,Far Away

Forget The Flowers

Red Eyed And Blue

I Got You

Why Would You Wanna Live

Outta Mind(Outta Sight)

Hotel Arizona

Sunken Treasure

Dreamer In My Dreams

The Lonely 1

 

I know that alot of people hate on Why Would You Wanna Live but I really like it.

I think it's mostly beacause of the version from I am trying to break your heart.

Monday,Outtasite and Kingpin don't really do much for me.

 

Was I In Your Dreams is the only fat turd on the album for me.

The other songs are alright from time to time but I do think that Being There is

one of those double albums that suffers from being a little too sprawling.

It has nice songs but they don't all rub against each other that well.

 

That's just what I think and it may be very wrong for you.

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That's just what I think and it may be very wrong for you.

 

For me, this is probably the strongest emotional connection I have with a record. I was in my second of year at college. I had just started dating/falling in love with the girl who is now my wife. We use to sit in her car and listen to every single word like it was some greater truth.

 

Has there ever been a greater opening line to an album "When you're back in your old neighborhood, where the cigarettes taste so good" ?

 

I wish I could feel the way I felt every time I put this record on. Man o man.

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Guest Speed Racer

I personally wouldn't mind if in the future if it's ever reissued, if they put it all on one cd.

 

I would hate that. To me, Being There is two distinct albums issued under the same name. It doesn't work as a single, 19-song album - it's too clunky and the moods don't match; like skipping the closing/opening credits of two unrelated movies and bleeding them together.

 

If I had to pare down the two discs to a single, cohesive album, it would be as such:

 

Misunderstood

Someday Soon

Monday

Outtasite

What's the World Got in Store?

Kingpin

Red-Eyed

I Got You

Someone Else's Song

Hotel Arizona

Sunken Treasure

Why Would You Wanna Live?

Say You Miss Me

Dreamer in My Dreams

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I'd just like to preface this by noting that I was recently chatised for chastising someone for posting a new topic instead of contributing to an established thread, and I am fully prepared to eat my words here if this has already been done. A quick search turned up a discussion about Being There, disc 1 vs. disc 2; but it didn't turn up any results on my proposed topic.

 

SO - anyway - like some of you who in the aforementioned thread who refused to vote because Being There should be digested as a whole, I agree because I love the whole thing. But if you absolutely HAD to condense Being There to a single disc, what would it look like?

 

There were some tough decisions to make on what to cut. Here's mine:

 


    Misunderstood
    Far, Far Away
    Monday
    Outtasite (Outtamind)
    Forget the Flowers
    Red-Eyed and Blue
    I Got You (At the End of the Century)
    Hotel Arizona
    Sunken Treasure
    Someday Soon
    Kingpin
    The Lonely 1
    Dreamer in My Dreams

 

Two songs you left off are the two that for me would be the first to stay, 'What's the World Got In Store' and 'Say You Miss Me'

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OK, if you were the record execs who thought the idea of a double-album wasn't a good one, and you forced the band to trim it, what would it look like?

I would tell them to shove it.

If that did not work I would submit this.

 

1. "Misunderstood"

2. "Far, Far Away"

3. "Monday"

4. "Outtasite (Outta Mind)"

5. "Forget the Flowers"

6. "I Got You (At the End of the Century)"

7. "Hotel Arizona"

8. "Sunken Treasure"

9. "Someday Soon"

10. "Someone Else's Song"

11. "Kingpin"

12. "(Was I) In Your Dreams"

13. "Dreamer in My Dreams"

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