So Misunderstood: The Songs of Wilco

"I'm Always In Love"

2007-09-05T00:06:00.000-07:00

SONG: "I'm Always In Love"
ALBUM: Summerteeth
TRACK: 5

I can't believe I let a whole month go by without posting. And I was off to such a good start! Well, consider this my return to form. I'm gonna try harder to post regularly, if not terribly often, from now on. However, it's now past midnight so my good intentions have to be channeled into a short, sweet, simple post. So I've picked a short, sweet, and simple song.

Right off the bat, that synthesizer leaps out of the speakers. The melody echoes The Cure's "Just Like Heaven", but the tone is more in line with the power-pop of The Cars. The song itself features many of the recurring elements in Summerteeth: a catchy tune, dark and conflicted lyrics, and a Beatles homage. Tweedy sings about having "a heart full of holes", "[letting] go of your throat-sweet throttle", and sinking until "I forget my mother". Yet by the time the chorus rolls around, he feels like he could "set the sun / on a big-wheeled wagon" as the keyboard theme swells up again. These confused emotions can be seen as symbolic of a kind of manic depression -- made all the more clear as he ends the song with a repeating coda of "I'm worried / I'm always in love".

The Beatles homage is, of course, the harmonized chant of "smoke pot, smoke pot" that bassist John Stirratt intones in the background of the bridge. Wilco lifted this from the psychedelic outro of "I Am The Walrus". This is ironic, considering "Walrus" fades out to the sound of voices drifting through radio static -- a technique Wilco would borrow on their next album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. It just goes to show, practically every trick in modern rock music owes a debt to the Fab Four.

Misunderstood

2007-08-06T21:27:00.000-07:00

SONG: Misunderstood
ALBUM: Being There
TRACK: disc 1, track 1

While this site is still in its early stages, I might as well try out all the writing techniques I can think of. With this in mind, I will attempt to "liveblog" this song. I will cue up the track and begin writing as soon as it begins. Whenever possible, I'll try to note the timing. And awaaaaaay we go..

Opening sounds - tribal tom toms and feedback static. Goodbye alt-country! Here comes something new...

0:35: A bed of noise is split by cymbals and...backwards cymbals? Madness!

0:45: Ah, acoustic guitar. Jeff sounds so bittersweet. I detect a weird little wobbly effect in his voice. Nice how the organ subtly sneaks in. Jay may be a douche, but he can play a fine piano.

1:50: The song hangs in the air for a moment. It lands with a splash of feedback.

2:02: Jeff's singing about still loving rock and roll. Staying up late in the night, staring at a picture of me in the dim light of the alarm clock.

2:39 Here, he quotes "Amphetamine" by Peter Laughner, from early punk band Rocket from the Tombs. The feedback noise has returned, shifting and shaping the mood of the song with tension. Wilco would go on to use some of the same techniques one album later in "Via Chicago".

4:13 Jeff moans with the self-pity of the angsty artist, singing about being a "mama's boy", "unemployed", and of course, "so misunderstood". He can't get out what he needs to express - the "fortune inside his head". It "turns to lead" like a reverse Midas.

4:22 ::involuntarily drums on desk::

4:35: Oooh! That screechy upper register rips your ears off as the cymbals and guitars crash all around you, as if to say "THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT ALT-COUNTRY!"

5:10: Jeff's eerie high-pitched scream sounds even weirder in unison with his low, laconic, whatever-dude slacker-singing. I get excited every time I hear him shriek NOTHIN' NOTHIN' NOTHIN' twenty times on the live record, Kicking Television. So good.

6:28: What a weird fade-out. The backwards cymbals aren't in time with the guitar, there's no sense of finality, it just hangs there. But somehow it all ends on the same conclusive cymbal crash.

And now, some parting thoughts: This song is a clear statement of purpose. Tweedy is stepping out from under Jay Farrar's shadow, casting off the yoke of "country", and deliberately breaking boundaries (drummer Ken Coomer recalls, "Jeff was a bigger punk-rock fan than a country fan. It led to things like us all switching instruments on 'Misunderstood,' where I'm playing guitar"). It sets the tone for the rest of the band's efforts.

On top of being a perfect album-opener for Being There, this song contains many elements that would feature prominently in Wilco's unique sound. Jeff introduces his audience to the upper register of his voice, a technique he'd use to great dynamic effect throughout the rest of his career. As noted above, the squalls of noise would appear in "Via Chicago" and many other incarnations, while the song structure is very similar to "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart". Finally, as a testament to the lasting quality of the song, it's still a barn-burner when performed live.

Passenger Side

2007-08-02T19:08:00.001-07:00

SONG: Passenger Side
ALBUM: A.M.
TRACK: 10

Fresh off the breakup of Uncle Tupelo, Tweedy's country roots are evident in this song's twang, but his wry humor and ear for melodies are already evident. I think this tune is utterly hilarious, largely due to Tweedy's laconic backcountry delivery and deadpan tone. The lyrics are simple and unpretentious, expressing Tweedy's anger at not being able to drive his own car around town. You can't get much more direct than "I don't like ridin' / on the passenger side". His voice sounds so young here. Funny how it would take him five albums to return to this straightforward lyrical approach.

Simple couplets like "you're gonna make me spill my beer/if you don't learn how to steer" drip with frustration and sarcasm. Tweedy sipping a brew in his seat while cursing whoever's at the wheel makes me chuckle, but the real punchline isn't until the very end: "I got a court date comin' this June/I'll be driving soon". All his anger at his designated driver is a projection of his anger at himself for losing his license (probably due to a DUI).

The bridge seems half-finished at first glance, but it provides a huge layer of depth to the song:

I coulda been the driver
I shoulda been the one
I coulda been your lover
But I hadn't
Seen...

While Jeff appears to trail off, you slowly realize that the person in the driver's seat is romantically linked...possibly an ex-girlfriend, or "the one that got away". This makes his acid-tongued tone seem like a front for how he really feels - powerless, regretful, ashamed. But the character in the song would never admit that; he would just let the conversation die out, or change the topic (the next line is "can you take me to the store/and then the bank"). Even in a simple song like this, Tweedy tells us a story with some lyrical depth.

I'm A Wheel

2007-07-30T19:54:00.001-07:00

SONG: I'm A Wheel
ALBUM: A Ghost Is Born
TRACK: 9

While most of A Ghost Is Born takes itself very seriously, this weird little rocker begs to be taken with a grain of salt. The lyrics are random, nonsensical, and don't seem to be "about" anything. Tweedy toys with rhymes like a tenth-grader in lines like "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven-eight-nine/ once in Germany someone said 'nein' ". I can't help but chuckle when I hear one of America's finest songwriters sing, clearly and with great emphasis, "Umm...". It reminds me of Pavement's carefully-crafted I-could-care-less slacker vibe. When he grunts "uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh", I get the feeling he just ran out of words - but then, as if to prove it was an intentional choice, he repeats the line.

The tension of the music, felt in the chromatic riffs and screechy, raspy vocals, is reflected in the venomous lyrics of the chorus:

I'm a wheel
I'm a wheel
I'm gonna turn on you

The song propels with a chugging intensity for about two and a half minutes before stomping to a close. Despite the tension and grit, it provides a nice upbeat break between the the mellower, more lyrically dense tunes "Company In My Back" and "Theologians".

How to Fight Loneliness

2007-07-24T22:57:00.000-07:00

SONG: How to Fight Loneliness
ALBUM: Summerteeth
TRACK: 8

Lots of critics like to call Wilco the "American Radiohead". While that's certainly debatable, I do like to imagine the lyrics to this song written out like one of Thom Yorke's little half-poetic rants...

How To Fight LONELINESS:
1. smile all the time
2. shine your teeth til meaningless
3. sharpen with lies

See? Anyways. This haunting minor-key tune evokes a mesmerising melancholy. Tweedy tells us that the best defense against loneliness is to "laugh at every joke" and "smile all the time", but he sings it with such a resigned weariness that you doubt he'll ever crack a genuine grin again in his life. How sad is that? The spooky tone carries on as the song fades through an outro of very Beatlesque backwards-Mellotron and hushed "doo doo doots" in harmony.

While it's full of bad advice, this song is a great, moody piece that sets the stage for the darkest, most twisted song on the record: "Via Chicago".

Hotel Arizona

2007-07-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

SONG: Hotel Arizona
ALBUM: Being There
TRACK: disc 1, track 10

As best I can decipher, this odd little tune is an abstract expression of the weird feelings that can accompany nascent rock & roll fame. At this point in their career, Wilco was getting a rush of support and attention for their sophomore alum. But Jeff Tweedy - a private person, not an outsized celebrity - feels uncomfortable with the pressures of being a "frontman", and as for "the interview/ that's not something I'm gonna get used to". The hotels that make Tweedy & Co. "wanna feel like stars" are big fun, but the "rental cars/with tinted windows" put a layer of distance between the band and its audience. The song reflects the anxiety Tweedy feels as his audience grows larger - and the fear that as he becomes a "rock star", people won't really listen to him. "Hello," he moans, "can you hear me?"

The last two lines sum it all up:

- "I guess / all this history / is just a mystery to me": his new life is difficult to figure out, and...
-"One more / worried whisper / right in my ear": ...now that he's begun to succeed, he's started to fear failure.

While that might just be one particular interpretation of these rather abstract lyrics, there's no denying how different this song sounds from anyting on their debut record, "A.M." In the context of the whole album, it definitely falls on the "experimental rock" end of the spectrum, the opposite side being their "alt-country" roots. Jay Bennett's influence can be heard in the noisy feedback shrieks and layered keyboards. These aspects would pay a major part in the band's next record, my personal favorite, Summerteeth.

Kamera

2007-07-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

SONG: Kamera
ALBUM: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
TRACK: 2

A neat trick of the opening line "I need a camera/to my eye" is that it doesn't specify whether the narrator is peering through the camera's viewfinder, or whether he's got the lens pointed at his own pupil. If the eyes are windows to the soul, taking a picture of your own eyes should give you a true, objective image of your inner self. It will remind you "which lies [you've] been hiding". This song's narrator needs just that - he's lost touch with himself, and he regrets the disconnection.

Not only that, but he feels far removed from his family, his home, and his own history. The sense that he's left everything behind is clear in lines like:

I'm counted out
And no one knows how far
I've driven in the dark
With echoes in my heart

These "echoes" are the voices calling from his past, and they play a vital part in the song. He feels them reverberating in his heart, and he knows the key to regaining his identity is not in figuring out which lies he's been hiding, but "which echoes belong". A camera is appropriate here, too: memories of our past are preserved in photo albums and scrapbooks, and life without those keepsakes can seem like a "war/where memories distort".

The chorus ties everything together in three lines:

"Phone my family" - his plea to reconnect with his lost past
"Tell 'em I'm lost on the sidewalk" - his separation has left him alone and adrift in an unfamiliar city
"And no, it's not okay" - pretty much sums up how he feels about it.

Musically, this song is crucial within the context of "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot". The smooth guitar strums and conventional drumbeat take the edge off the noisy, weird, abstract sounds of "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart", and they open up the album's "pop" side. Also, I love the irony of pairing a happy melody with the lyrics "No, it's not OK". And Wilco scholars should appreciate all the transformations this song has gone through (like the rocking, distorted version in the documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart).

As for the letter "K" in the title? I think it's just a silly, arbitrary thing, like "The Lonely 1" or "Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again)" or "Walken". Wilco's got a weird sense of humor.

Walken

2007-07-23T23:27:00.000-07:00

SONG: Walken
ALBUM: Sky Blue Sky
TRACK: 10

What's not to like about this one? From the jangly piano opening to the toe-tapping beat, "Walken" is a walkin' tune. The lyrics are a little nonsensical, and not Tweedy's most insightful work. But let's face it - with the guitar onslaught mid-song, this track is all about licks, not lyrics. Check out Nels' soaring lap steel slide work. Or the boogie-woogie double-time break in the bridge. And last but not least, that killer, epic outro. You call this "Dad rock"? Only if Dad doesn't mind some headbanging.

Note: this song is not actually about Christopher Walken. Sorry. But it does feature a great little McCartney-ish bass lick towards the big ending. Geek out!

Shake It Off

2007-07-23T23:22:00.000-07:00

SONG: Shake It Off
ALBUM: Sky Blue Sky
TRACK: 6

Two words, Glenn:

MORE COWBELL!

:)

Seriously, this one's just a novelty rocker full of odd meters and warm, distorted Pink-Floyd-like breakdowns. Love it! Just ain't got much to say about it...

Please Be Patient With Me

2007-07-23T22:58:00.000-07:00

SONG: Please Be Patient With Me
ALBUM: Sky Blue Sky
TRACK: 7

My fingers are tired, so I'm just gonna focus on one line of this song that I really, really like:

I'm this apple, this happening stone

The immediately appealing part of this line is the way Tweedy phrases the word "ha-a-appening". It highlights the minor-key chord that moves the verse along, and it hangs in the air with a singsong quality. The internal rhyme is fun, too. But the most interesting part in my opinion is the concept conveyed in the lyric: we are no different than an apple, both made of atoms and molecules, simply existing (one might say "Being There", ha ha) like a chunk of carbon - but also alive too, undergoing changes, breathing, ripening, dying, decomposing - a "happening stone". This has no bearing on what Jeff Tweedy probably meant to say, but I think it's nice.

Also, I'm not a big fan of the minimalist arrangement. The track feels like it belongs on a Golden Smog record. And the chorus is a little too pitiful and ingratiating: "You're gonna need to be patient with me"??? Come on, Jeff.

Impossible Germany

2007-07-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

SONG: Impossible Germany
ALBUM: Sky Blue Sky
TRACK: 3

This one's certainly direct: it's nothing more than a sweet and tender love song from a rock star on a world tour to his faithful wife back at home. Specifically, Tweedy hones in on the way his long-distance expressions of love can only bring so much comfort: "I'll say what this means to me/I'll do what I can". It's difficult to really communicate with his wife when he's out on the road, and that can frustrate both of them and strain the relationship.

But midway through the song, he states that "if this was still new to me/I wouldn't understand". He acknowledges that they've been over this before, and he knows it's hard to feel loved when you're sleeping in an empty bed...yet he concludes,

but this is what love is for
to be out of place
gorgeous and alone
face to face

It's a quiet comfort that even when they're alone and apart, husband and wife are dreaming of each others' faces, and this shared vision gives them both comfort. Knowing this, phone calls from far away are more reassuring because, as Tweedy sings, there's "nothing more important/than to know someone's listening".

As for me, I'm listening to that awesome three-guitar outro. Pat Sansone and Jeff Tweedy hammer out some tasty Steely-Dan-esque harmonies while Nels Cline spazzes out on his Fender Jaguar. It's a nice, satisfying rock-n-roll ending - Tweedy's way of reminding us that even tender-hearted songwriters can crank it up to eleven if they wanna rawk.

Sky Blue Sky

2007-07-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

I know I just started this project today, but I've been blessed with a perfect opportunity to get a buncha tracks out of the way, and fast. A friend cancelled post-work plans at the last minute, and I was left at home with a free evening, a half-bottle of wine, and the DVD from the Deluxe Edition of Wilco's most recent studio album, Sky Blue Sky. In it, Jeff and the band talk in great detail about the making of the record in between footage of the album's recording sessions from the band's Chicago loft. It's great - and not only do I get to enjoy it, my blog gets a quick couple of songs crossed off its list. Woohoo!

First up...
SONG: Sky Blue Sky
ALBUM: Sky Blue Sky
TRACK: 4

Tweedy makes this one easy. He admits in his DVD interview that the whole song is a snapshot portrait of a moment from his teenage years. In recent press, he's stated that he tried to be more "direct" and less "impressionistic" with Sky Blue Sky than with previous records. He aimed to tell send simple stories with plain language. This track is his attempt to convey a memory of being stuck in small-town traffic on a rainy day, forced to wait as a homecoming parade slogged through the drizzle. From a subtle past-tense perspective (in likes like "The old buildings downtown, empty so long ago"), he describes the scene in great sensory detail.

The turning point comes in the last line of the second verse: "So happy to leave what was my home". This sentiment, expressed with such finality, puts a point on Tweedy's memory of his experience. He's glad he left. But when the chorus kicks in, he begins to reflect and contemplate:

With a sky-blue sky
This rotten time
Wouldn't seem so bad to me now

OK, maybe things weren't so bad, it was just a shitty day. Jeff seems to mellow on it. But he takes it a step further in the second half of the chorus:

I didn't die
I should be satisfied
I survived, that's good enough for now

That's a far cry from "I'd like to thank you all for nothing/I'd like to thank you all for nothing at all" (from "Misunderstood"), and it speaks volumes about how Jeff Tweedy feels these days. But it doesn't always take lyric analysis to figure that out. Like I said, Jeff makes it easy for you. I quote from the opening lines of the DVD:

"The world is so mysterious and so terrifying right now...it just felt weird to write puzzles and disjointed, non-sequitur kinda lyrics. I think now is a good time to sit down and sing people some motherfucking songs. That's what I want. Just someone to sing me a song, y'know?"

Amen, Tweedy.

Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (again)

2007-07-23T14:42:00.001-07:00

SONG: Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (again)
ALBUM: Summerteeth
TRACK: 6

I've chosen this track as my inaugural entry because it was the first Wilco song that sucked me in completely and kick-started my love affair with the band. The tone is upbeat and exuberant (like many tracks on Summerteeth), with a catchy chorus that encourages sing-alongs and syncopated hand-claps. But with all of Jeff Tweedy's lyrics, there's depth and complexity lurking just beneath the surface.

This song focuses on feeling confident and optimistic in the face of tough times in a relationship. Jangly major-key guitars introduce the tune, and the first verse quickly spells it out - Tweedy's need to "make some sense out of this mess" is met by his belief that the conflict is "a test", and the answer is simple..."a kiss is all we need". He's so certain, in fact, that he introduces the whole song with the disclaimer "We'll find a way, regardless".

The second verse contrasts two aspects of love that anyone who's ever been in a relationship can understand. On one hand, love is when you find someone who fulfills all the requirements of your personal "dream guy/girl" checklist (admit it, we've all got one). Tweedy says this in the verse's first two lines: "All the above for being in love/Shouldn't that alone be enough?". The question seems almost rhetorical. But on the other hand, love also lets loose uncontrollable emotions that spring from deep within, and these feelings can be difficult to grapple with. They range from joy to anger, fear to hope, comfort to agony, and they don't always make sense. Tweedy says this when he finishes the verse with "Oh, it's tough when love's a weed/it grows inside of me". Typically, love is compared to a flower, but here, it's a weed - tenacious, prickly, and impossible to eliminate. Which is kinda romantic, in a weird way.

The chorus repeats a fragment of a phrase twice but doesn't complete the thought until its third time around. This makes it feel like both a mantra of pure confidence and the stuttering uncertainty of a man trying to vanquish doubt. As I mentioned eariler, the hand-claps amplify the upbeat nature of this song. Tweedy often performs it solo acoustic, with an auditorium full of joyful fans clap-clapping in unison. It's quite a joyful scene. :)

The bridge is crucial to the song's depth. Tweedy's wristwatch ticks away the seconds, and an alarm clock rings abruptly. This seems to serve as a wake-up call from the cheery optimism of the chorus, snapping him out of his daydream and back to reality. The line "I'm a bomb regardless" implies an explosion. But does he mean a self-destructive detonation or a burst of unbridled happiness? I'd like to think it's the latter, but the wailing background vocals and sharp staccato beat of this bridge might persuade listeners otherwise.

Altogether, this is a great track from an even greater album. You can't help but sing (and clap-clap) along. Also, I would be remiss in failing to mention the humorous title. The squished-together words give the whole song energy and momentum, jamming all the uplifting power of the titular phrase into one blast of syntax. Kudos, too, for the totally unnecessary parentheses. :)

Welcome

2007-07-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

Woo woooooo! All aboard the Geek Train!

Inspired by blogs like Pop Songs 07 and More Than Ten, wherein super-fans analyze all the songs ever recorded by a certain band (R.E.M. and Pearl Jam, respectively), I've created "So Misunderstood" as a place to cover every track by the alt-country/Beatlesque/noise-rock/dad-rock/just plain RAWK band Wilco. Not only because they're my favorite group, or because I could babble for hours about their entire catalog, but because Wilco's twelve-year-plus history contains a vast treasure trove of great music that deserves to be reviewed in-depth.

Bear with me - as the author of "Pop Songs 07" disclaims, this is a side project, and one that I will update rather irregularly. However, I'm committed to writing about every last song, including officially-released B-sides and one-offs (like the band's contribution to the Spongebob Squarepants Movie soundtrack). I appreciate feedback and comments, so feel free to chip in your two cents. Enjoy the ride, and remember:

the best songs don't ever get sung
the best life never leaves your lungs
it's so good you won't ever know
you can't hear it on the radio