Let’s Go Reviews and Discussion

[Albert Tatlock]

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jeff-tweedy/lets-go-so-we-can-get-back/?fbclid=IwAR1yqkJ7bMllwQ-gtolabpRZ8rIMcxWSJhYcjOVbiTEAuBlrfUNQWpMx2q0

 

Tweedy (Adult Head, 2004) would like to avoid the usual trappings of the rock memoir: stories of sexual exploits, drug use, and endless road tours. Of course, these elements are present in his memoir, just not in the manner one might expect. The author, lead singer of the American rock band Wilco and founding member of alt-country group Uncle Tupelo, actively demythologizes the rock-’n’-roll hero. Instead of painting a self-indulgent portrait of bravado, unflagging charisma, and innate musical talent, Tweedy relates tales of social awkwardness and panic attacks overcome by hard work and an encyclopedic knowledge of rock history. The author lays claim to vulnerability as his defining artistic trait, a characteristic that fuels an intense openness to emotions, musical influences, and artistic relationships. Fans will appreciate early sections recounting the search for obscure albums and the necessity of playing dilapidated venues. Tweedy also details productive yet embattled relationships with the two Jays, fellow band mates Jay Farrar and Jay Bennett. Some of the most powerful sections cover Tweedy’s lapse into, and recovery from, opioid addiction. Jettisoning the hackneyed image of the womanizing rock star, the author also recounts an anguished story about a sexual encounter with an older woman when he was 14. Taken as a whole, the memoir provides lessons in making art from a person who needed to create in order to combat loneliness and despair. At times, the writing meanders, though this could equally be described as the book’s changing tempo, as it alternates between plot-driven sections and more ruminative pieces. The introduction, moreover, is discordantly jokey. Sincerity is what bolsters this book. Tweedy writes movingly about his parents, his wife and children, and his desire to find an artistic home for his band.

 

Thoughtful, earnest reflections on family, creative integrity, and a life in music.

[Boss_Tweedy]

I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on this book. Thanks for sharing the review.

[kidsmoke]

Great review. I can't wait to read this book!

[The Inside of Outside]

Reading that review has made me really want to read the book. Prior to reading that review, I had not given much thought to it - figured I would read it, but I was not waiting impatiently for its release. Now I am impatient....

[Albert Tatlock]

Skimmed the Uncut article in a newsagent. Again some pointers to the memoir being an interesting read.

 

A while back I saw something somewhere that mentioned a ghost writer being involved. Can't pinpoint where and don't know if it's true.

If it is I would hope that it is acknowledged in the book, since JT's sense of humour is the major part of my becoming a fan rather than a listener and I'm wondering how that will manifest itself in the writing. I'm sure many here who feel a connection of some kind would also like to know if the book represents a truly authentic voice, perhaps especially for the audiobook of course. Even if this is the case, it won't detract from all the new insights and information, but I would like to know one way or the other.

[Yaz Rock]

Skimmed the Uncut article in a newsagent. Again some pointers to the memoir being an interesting read.

 

A while back I saw something somewhere that mentioned a ghost writer being involved. Can't pinpoint where and don't know if it's true.

If it is I would hope that it is acknowledged in the book, since JT's sense of humour is the major part of my becoming a fan rather than a listener and I'm wondering how that will manifest itself in the writing. I'm sure many here who feel a connection of some kind would also like to know if the book represents a truly authentic voice, perhaps especially for the audiobook of course. Even if this is the case, it won't detract from all the new insights and information, but I would like to know one way or the other.

 

I imagine most celebrity bios aren't actually written by the celebrity - ie, they didn't sit down at their computer for hours upon hours, day after day for a year or two, to actually type things out. I believe it's usually done by oral interviews with a ghost writer who then patches together the various topics into a cohesive narrative. I don't think they'd actually change the wording much though.

[Albert Tatlock]

Yeah I get that, and have read some terrible memoirs in the past from rugby players done that way. It just seemed that if the book took 2 years to come together as JT has said then I imagined (backed up by what I perceive as the work ethic he applies to making music) that it might indeed be more his effort than anyone else's and involved more than stitching together some transcripts, but I would like to hear definitively what the real situation was/is.

[theashtraysays]

Yeah I get that, and have read some terrible memoirs in the past from rugby players done that way. It just seemed that if the book took 2 years to come together as JT has said then I imagined (backed up by what I perceive as the work ethic he applies to making music) that it might indeed be more his effort than anyone else's and involved more than stitching together some transcripts, but I would like to hear definitively what the real situation was/is.

I would expect that exact question to come up in at least one of the upcoming book tour sessions.

Can I quote you on that one, sir?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Albert Tatlock]

I would expect that exact question to come up in at least one of the upcoming book tour sessions.

Can I quote you on that one, sir?

 

Sure

[lost highway]

https://aux.avclub.com/a-sly-thriller-jeff-tweedy-s-memoir-and-more-lucia-be-1830181090

 

 

The highest compliment one can pay Jeff Tweedy’s memoir is that he clearly had a lot of fun writing it. From his almost constant self-deprecation, to sections that splinter off into conversations with his wife about how much he should share in the book, all the way down to a lighthearted cartoon in the middle, Tweedy took on the project with a kind of glee that makes Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back) an incredibly fun read. That’s not to say he denies readers some deeper insight into who he is, but most of that comes through in how he writes about his life, not what he chooses to cover. Long-time fans will get the dirt they’ve longer for, such as how his relationships with Jay Farrar of Uncle Tupelo and Jay Bennett of Wilco both fractured, but the real charm is how unguarded it all feels, and how even the most casual fans can pull something of worth from the book.

 

Fun she says?

[Magnetized]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeff-tweedy-on-building-a-lasting-career-while-avoiding-the-nostalgia-act-trap-1541512928

 

 

Jeff Tweedy on Building a Lasting Career While Avoiding the Nostalgia-Act Trap

The Wilco frontman strikes an introspective chord with a new solo album and memoir

 

By John Jurgensen

Nov. 6, 2018 9:02 a.m. ET

 

When is the right time for an artist to step back and look at the life and work he has created? For Jeff Tweedy, leader of the rock group Wilco, it was when someone offered him a book deal.

 

Writing his memoir, “Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back),” the 51-year-old came to better understand what has sustained him throughout his career, including a compulsion to create and the thrill of exposing raw emotions through song.

 

Mr. Tweedy grew up in Belleville, Ill., a town near St. Louis where he picked up guitar, sought out punk records and with high-school classmate Jay Farrar formed the band Uncle Tupelo. In the early 1990s, their blend of punk and American roots music fueled a new sound dubbed “alt-country.” Mr. Tweedy would later shed that label with Wilco, the band he formed in 1994 after Uncle Tupelo broke up.

 

‘There are some musicians that reach a point where they’re pretty happy to be a nostalgia act,’ Mr. Tweedy says. ‘I don’t think I’d be happy for very long doing that.’

‘There are some musicians that reach a point where they’re pretty happy to be a nostalgia act,’ Mr. Tweedy says. ‘I don’t think I’d be happy for very long doing that.

 

Wilco has since released 10 studio albums and in 2005 won a Grammy for best alternative album. In his book, Mr. Tweedy writes about the band’s path and collaborators, including Mr. Farrar and soul singer Mavis Staples, as well as his struggle with prescription painkillers, which he used to blunt chronic panic attacks and migraines.

 

A solo album, “Warm,” set for release Nov. 30, includes some of Mr. Tweedy’s most autobiographical songs yet and serves as a musical companion to his memoir, out next week.

 

“It’s an opportunity to answer a lot of questions you never get asked,” he said in an interview at the Loft, the nickname for Wilco’s gear- and guitar-filled headquarters in Chicago. He spoke with the Journal about songwriting without words, how addiction affected his work and his aversion to the term “dad rock.” Edited excerpts follow:

 

Before this book, what was your position on retrospective stuff such as reissuing old albums and performing them on tour?

 

It’s probably smart to underline and enhance your previous work, but the majority of our energy gets spent on what’s next. I don’t know how this applies to other art forms, but there are some musicians that reach a point where they’re pretty happy to be a nostalgia act or a legacy artist. That doesn’t seem like a terrible way to live your life, as a troubadour, but I don’t think I’d be happy for very long doing that.

 

 

For every band there’s a turning point when people seem more excited about the music they created in the past than the stuff they’re creating in the present.

 

A new piece of music isn’t going to be someone’s best friend right away, in the way that a record over time can become someone’s companion. But a lot of times artists give up on their new material too soon because of that fact. They’d be better off sticking to their guns and not just sneaking in a couple new songs in a set. When we started playing “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” [the 2001 album considered one of Wilco’s best], people f—ing hated it. But it’s a good issue to contend with. It means you’ve managed to stay around for a while.

 

Even when your painkiller addiction was at its worst, you would time your drug intake to make sure you had some clarity when recording or performing. Was that out of pride, fear of embarrassment or what?

 

Some desire to do a good job, not let people down, not be embarrassed. But also to maintain my delusion about my own condition, my thinking that I was using drugs to be normal, not to party. Those types of thoughts were what kept me ill. I made a value judgment about what kind of addict I was. Ultimately all addicts are the same.

 

How important is self-confidence to your creative process?

 

I’ve managed to hang onto something that most people get—I don’t want to say beaten out of them—but it usually disappears for them. When you’re a little kid, you make stuff, and it’s good enough because it was fun. I still have that same kind of glee about just making something.

 

How do you get into that mode when you’re not feeling it?

 

That doesn’t happen very often. I get here [to the Loft] in the morning about 10 a.m. Usually there’s something obvious that I’m working on, and [with engineer Tom Schick and studio manager Mark Greenberg] we jump back into it. If not, I’ll listen to iPhone demos to see if there’s something I can start building on, or listen to things from countless other sessions to see if something inspires me to pick up another instrument or start to write some lyrics.

 

You’re not coming in waiting to be struck by lightning: “The greatest song ever written will be written today!” It’s more like, “I wonder what is going to happen today?” You have to like work.

 

Before you write lyrics, you record a rough draft with wordless singing. Do those vocals ever feel more emotionally potent than the lyrics that replace them

 

Yeah, sometimes I have to try three or four times to get the lyrics, the actual words, to feel as good and create the same emotion that the “mumble track” did. The words can break the spell. In them I hear myself being clever, or I misunderstand how important a certain sound is to one part of the melody. There are several verses on things I’ve released over the years that are not words. It’s just the original mumble track that I’ve already translated elsewhere in the song.

 

In the book you say that writing songs is an effort to get closer to people. Do you have an image in your mind of who the listener is?

 

Commercially or marketing-wise, it makes sense to because you can see them in front of you on a night-to-night basis. But it’s a stereotype that doesn’t help me at all artistically, because I want to sing to everybody. That’s one of the things that have always made it sting to be critiqued in that way. There’s a general shorthand for comedians about what the whitest band is and Wilco is often used as that. The Dave Matthews Band is in there, too.

 

I can take it. It’s not racism or anything. But what am I supposed to do? They’re painting a picture that might make someone who hasn’t heard us think that our music is not for them. “Dad rock.” On one hand, it’s super thin-skinned to complain about jokes like that. On the other hand, it’s a legitimate complaint. I should be fiercely protective of my right to sing to everybody.

 

You see a distinction between “Wilco fan” and whoever you’re singing to?

 

Ultimately, I’m only singing to myself. For any artist, that’s all you have at the end of the day. You don’t get to have anyone else’s consciousness. As simplistic as it sounds, I want to get closer to everybody, but I’m all I’ve got.

 

WHO IS HE?

 

Name: Jeff Tweedy

What He Does: Singer and songwriter

How He Got There: In Uncle Tupelo, the band he and Jay Farrar co-founded as teenagers, he shared songwriting and singing duties with his bandmate. With Wilco, which he started after the acrimonious end of Uncle Tupelo, he came into his own as a songwriter and frontman.

His Big Break: Though already known to roots-music fans, Wilco achieved mainstream success with its fourth album, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” It released the album free online, a radical step in 2001, after its record label rejected it. The band was picked up by another label, which released “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” commercially in 2002.

His Obsession: Haiku. “They’re designed to paint a picture with what isn’t in the words. I’ve been trying to get closer and closer to get words in my songs to do that. Just getting imagery to appear like it was written in invisible ink.”

[tinnitus photography]

when is this thing shipping again?

[Magnetized]

when is this thing shipping again?

You didn’t pick up an advance copy in Chicago? November 13.

[lost highway]

I preordered, yet I'm getting it days after it comes out. I really must learn to stop doing that.

[tinnitus photography]

You didn’t pick up an advance copy in Chicago? November 13.

i pre-ordered a signed copy from B&N. where were the advance copies on sale?

[Boss_Tweedy]

i pre-ordered a signed copy from B&N. where were the advance copies on sale?

 

That's what I'd like to know!

[Magnetized]

Oh I’m sorry everybody. That was a little wink wink, nudge nudge to Tim. I don’t know of any advance copies.

 

I’m really eager to read it too. I ordered through Bn.com with express shipping and it says arrival on Friday, 11/16.

 

BUT I also ordered the spoken word version on Audible.com and that is still scheduled to be released on Tuesday, 11/13.

[Magnetized]

i pre-ordered a signed copy from B&N. where were the advance copies on sale?

Sorry, I was just joshing.

[Albert Tatlock]

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/jeff-tweedy-book-excerpt-addiction-anxiety-a-ghost-is-born-752428/

 

They’ve gone for the obvious issue as an excerpt, but I like what I read in terms of general style, a lot more lucid detail than I was expecting, etc.

 

P.S. “Suppository”

[theashtraysays]

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/jeff-tweedy-book-excerpt-addiction-anxiety-a-ghost-is-born-752428/

 

They’ve gone for the obvious issue as an excerpt, but I like what I read in terms of general style, a lot more lucid detail than I was expecting, etc.

 

P.S. “Suppository”

heavy stuff there.

[nalafej]

There is a Spotify playlist for the book. Looks pretty good too. Any thoughts? Clues? Do people care about playlists?

[uncool2pillow]

There is a Spotify playlist for the book. Looks pretty good too. Any thoughts? Clues? Do people care about playlists?

I like playlists. I don't listen to them as much because it's hard for me to keep up with music these days. My listening habits have really shifted to podcasts. This one looks fantastic. Link for those interested.

 

https://open.spotify.com/user/wilcohq/playlist/0ygjrAG7wNdUWWsf4gsTR4?si=dzjtjp2VRheNxxwgRdFJvQ

 

Edit: I notice Carla Bozulich's Red Headed Stranger is on there. I saw her open for Wilco while touring that. Found out years later that Nels was in that band.

[nalafej]

New article in Boston Globe:

 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2018/11/08/wilco-jeff-tweedy-details-making-his-memoir/Rsh81RawapyslIav7pYHzO/story.html

 

Couple interesting passages to me:

 

‘If I have a message,” said Jeff Tweedy, “it’s that everybody should make stuff. Everybody should feel liberated to do that. People suck at sports, but they feel compelled to play softball the rest of their lives when they discover they’re not any good at it. But [most] people stop creating when they leave kindergarten. They don’t give themselves any license to sit and make something that wasn’t there.”

 

Q. When you went into rehab finally, did you think there was a chance Wilco might not exist when you got out?

A. Sure.

 

We’ll be starting back up next summer. There’s a healthy amount of energy, just about the process of getting back together. I think sometime around this time next year there’ll probably be another Wilco record. 

[nalafej]

New article in Philadelphia Inquirer:

 

http://www2.philly.com/philly/entertainment/music/jeff-tweedy-wilco-memoir-lets-go-free-library-20181109.html

 

I liked this:

 

I interviewed you when you played the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 2010 and called you a “serial collaborator.” Is that right? You’ve teamed with a lot of people, from the Jays to Jim O’Rourke [on Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born] to three albums with Mavis Staples.

I've actually been doing a lot in the past five or six years that's primarily been me making all the music. Most of the last few Wilco albums have been done that way. So in that sense, I've been working more in a solitary fashion than I ever have.

[TCP]

We’ll be starting back up next summer. There’s a healthy amount of energy, just about the process of getting back together. I think sometime around this time next year there’ll probably be another Wilco record. 

Nice.