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Your Favorite Nuances/Parts of Wilco Songs


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Capitol City: "breathe in that country air!" - can't help but sing it at the top of my lungs

 

I've been doing this too, glad I'm not the only one!

 

Some others off the top of my head:

 

- "walk down any street..." in When You Wake Up Feeling Old- that stomping beat kills me

- Jeff's ripping solo in ALTWYS

- "come with me" harmonies in Hell is Chrome

- that warping syththy sound in rthe last verse of Company in my Back (live version)

- the bluegrass awesomeness of recent live versions of Forget the Flowers - why don't they have any other songs in this vein?!

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Just listened to "Cars Can't Escape" for the first time on headphones. Wondering why I never gave it the headphone play before. Too many details on this one to even name. Banjo. Piano. Three-part harmony on about two or three words. Eargasm.

You are so right. I just got a new pair of headphones yesterday and decided to play this one from the YHF engineers demos. Holy crap! Some people might think of it as cheap studio trickery the way the sounds travel from ear to ear, but I totally loved it. And Jeff's voice is the mix is so warm and intimate.

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What a great discussion…

 

One of the things that makes this band so fascinating, are the very touches everyone’s talking about – Wilco is such a detail-oriented band, they make headphone listening imperative.

 

That said, I may as well dive in with what really is a cursory list – there’s simply too many to mention, but here we go:

 

From A.M.: The overall hazy, druggy sound of “Should’ve Been In Love”. Awesome. My favorite track on an already impressive 1st album.

 

From Being There: In Misunderstood, just before Jeff tees off with the “I wanna thank you all for nothing”, the underlying sounds/noises, which had been building in intensity, start to feverishly oscillate, subtly, yet dramatically, underscoring the pent-up emotion about to spill out. An amazing moment in an amazing song.

 

From Summerteeth: In Shot In The Arm, the forceful way the entire song shifts to G on the sixth ‘…maybe all I need is a shot in the arm’ - and then , after the last one, how the song slows waaaay down…almost like, well…drugs coursing through a needle into a vein. Wow.

 

From YHF: In Ashes Of American Flags, as they start the last verse, they introduce a chord not heard at all in the rest of the song (around 3:24)…not sure if it’s a 6th chord or maj7th, but it’s sole purpose appears to highlight the last verse, ‘… I would like to salute’…beautiful touch.

 

From AGIB: All the delicate guitar work in Muzzle Of Bees.

 

From SBS: The back end (3:10 on) of Walken.

 

From TWL: Around 11:16 in One Sunday Morning, the playful way the song chugs back into gear one last time.

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The pedal steel in "It's Just that Simple."

The sweet strains of fiddle in "Passenger Side." And the voice cracks.

 

Yes, I'm listening to AM. As another poster put it recently, it sounds like coming home. Sigh.

 

There's not a damn thing wrong with listening to A.M. Hell, as of late, I've actually been in an Uncle Tupelo mood.

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The subtle keyboard fills after Jeff finishes singing the first line in the second verse of "Born Alone." It's just two little notes.

 

In Born Alone, I love whatever Mikael (I think) does on the synth (I think-I have no idea about instruments) after Jeff sings "Subtract the silence of myself." It always makes me smile.

 

That's what I meant in my above post.

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What I call the kettle whistle scream on I'm a Wheel is my all time favorite.

 

As an oldtimer and a long time fan of the Grateful Dead - I'm a Wheel - in the encore spot - has the same energy and excitement as One More Saturday Night. I love when Jeff does the tribal scream at the end similar to Bob Weir at the end of OMSN. Love this thread.

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Awesome! Being There has terrific background vocal arrangements all over it. "Someday Soon," "Forget the Flowers," "What's the World Got in Store." Very well done on all accounts.

 

I love the background vocals on Summerteeth and Heavy Metal Drummer. Love when the audience gives it a shot at Tweedy's solo shows.

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Fun to read through this. I agree with many.

 

I like Hotel Arizona's end jam, Tweedy's shredding on At Least That's What You Said, Jeff's guitar playing on More Like The Moon, and I've always LOVED the guitar Jeff uses on Future Age on the "Sunken Treasure - solo" disc as well as many of his solo shows. I've longed wished Jeff would play a solo acoustic song during a Wilco show.

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  • 4 weeks later...

On Born Alone, I really like how Glenn hits the bell sounding thing right after the first guitar break and before the "Tonight I would rather count the warm fuse internally...". It is especially neat to see live.

 

I like how Tweedy plays bass on It's Just That Simple live.

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I've just been noticing recently how much I like the way Jeff kind of slurs the V sound in the word "voice". It's most obvious on Dawned On Me but then I noticed it again in Jesus, Etc. And Poor Places. Maybe it's just that it's a soft, slippery word--one that sounds especially good coming from Jeff. :wub

 

And speaking of Dawned On Me, that song has really grown on me. I love the sentiment, and especially the lines "I've been taken by the sound / Of my own voice and the voices in my head"

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The trance like poetry of She's a Jar. That song stops me in my tracks.

 

Well said!

 

My favorite "Jar" lines:

Are there really ones like these?

The ones I dream

Float like leaves

And freeze to spread skeleton wings

 

I'm into "Rising Red Lung" lately, especially the instrumental after these lyrics:

As intimate as a kiss

Over a phone

And it goes...

 

By the way, how intimate is a kiss over the phone, really? I'm trying to figure out if that means there's too much distance between lovers to be truly intimate since they are on the phone, or whether a phone allows for an intimacy even in a crowded place, where potentially only the two on either end of the phone can hear the conversation...or kiss.

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There's a spot in Misunderstood where you can hear Jay humming.

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The bright and dark sounds in "Radio Cure" - the constant underlying dissonance that sets the song's mood, but then there's the happy little guitar melody in the second verse and Glenn's bells in the chorus. Back to dissonance and then the super poppy chorus. Makes me think of a defense mechanism, putting on a brave face.

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I'm into "Rising Red Lung" lately, especially the instrumental after these lyrics:

As intimate as a kiss

Over a phone

And it goes...

 

By the way, how intimate is a kiss over the phone, really? I'm trying to figure out if that means there's too much distance between lovers to be truly intimate since they are on the phone and not in person, or whether a phone allows for an intimate private conversation or kiss even in a crowded place, where potentially only the two on either end of the phone conversation can hear.

 

At work one day, I overheard my direct supervisor saying goodbye to his girlfriend on the phone and he made a kissing sound into the phone. I'll be honest, it grossed me out. And when I hear that line in Rising Red Lung, that's what it calls up in my mind! But I love Glenn's drumming in the song, the snare fills towards the end. Just no kissy-face over the phone! Maybe it's TOO intimate (certainly for the workplace)!

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At work one day, I overheard my direct supervisor saying goodbye to his girlfriend on the phone and he made a kissing sound into the phone. I'll be honest, it grossed me out. And when I hear that line in Rising Red Lung, that's what it calls up in my mind! But I love Glenn's drumming in the song, the snare fills towards the end. Just no kissy-face over the phone! Maybe it's TOO intimate (certainly for the workplace)!

 

:lol Maybe a super-quiet kiss is appropriately intimate!

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