Monthly Archives: August 2016

Song of the Week – Can’t Stand It, Wilco

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IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

Back in the early 80s I was a fan of Uncle Tupelo – the brainchild of Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar. When they split to form new bands – Tweedy with Wilco and Farrar with Son Volt – I was going to follow both.

Since then, Tweedy has come out on top. Wilco has been a hugely successful, critically acclaimed band and Tweedy has had further success as a producer and collaborator.

Wilco started covering the same alt-country terrain that was staked out by Uncle Tupelo. They would eventually record the adventurous Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and other innovative albums. The bridge between was Summerteeth (1991).

On Summerteeth, the band changed their recording style from “live in the studio” to more heavy reliance on overdubs and post production. Today’s SotW is “Can’t Stand It”, the lead off track from Summerteeth.

In fact, “Can’t Stand It” was originally recorded in a simpler form. But the record company suits at Reprise intervened and persuaded the band that it needed to be remixed to make it a more suitable single for a broader radio audience. I’ve never heard the original (I can’t believe it wasn’t included in the “expanded” reissue of Summerteeth along with the other bonus cuts) but I’ve read that they shortened the bridge and added bells. (Other than Naked Eyes version of “Always Something There To Remind Me”, who puts bells on a rock song?)

The lyrics tell the age old story of a broken relationship. This time it seems to center on the lies or misunderstandings between the couple.

The way things go
You get so low
Struggle to find your skin
Hey ho
Look out below
Your prayers will never be answered again

Phones still ring
And singers sing
Speakers are speaking in code
What now
Well anyhow
Our prayers will never be answered again

Depending on when you became aware of Wilco might affect how well you like this song. Fans of the later albums might find this too poppy. But I think the song has soul and the spirituality of the line “prayers will never be answered again.”

Enjoy… until next week.

Compare and Contrast: For the Love of Money

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Live at Daryl’s House is this oddball show. The idea. Musicians go to Daryl Hall’s house and record songs with Daryl Hall.

When it started Daryl Hall seemed to be bankrolling these video casts, which were available on his website, and it was hard to see how this was a sustainable program. But the quality was always exemplary, the pairings interesting, the musicians great.

I came upon this O’Jays show tonight. Here’s For the Love of Money at Daryl’s House:

It’s not my favorite O’Jays song, it’s kind of a Temps’ rip, but there’s lots to like in that live version. Including Daryl Hall’s vocals . Here’s the much-more restrained original:

 

Song of the Week – Johnny Come Home, Fine Young Cannibals

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I’ve always found the history of the Fine Young Cannibals to be very strange and confusing – at least the ending.

The band came together in 1984 when The English Beat (“Mirror in the Bathroom”, “I Confess”) broke up and two of its members, Andy Cox (guitar) and David Steele (bass) struck out on their own to form a new band. They auditioned hundreds of singers before they found the unique voice of Roland Gift.

A year later they released their first album which contained a clever reworking of Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” and their own “Johnny Come Home” which is today’s SotW.

That album and those songs were big hits around most of the world but received little attention in the US other than on alternative rock radio.

It took the band another 3 years to release their second album, The Raw and the Cooked (1989). All they had to show for the time between was a bunch of songs they recorded for the soundtracks to the films Tin Men and Something Wild, a few of which later ended up on The Raw and the Cooked.

That album was huuuuge! It reached #1 in the US, UK and Australia and spawned #1 singles hits with “She Drives Me Crazy and “Good Thing.” (I remember spinning both continuously when I was a club DJ in Boston.)

But this is where the story goes off the rails. The band never recorded a follow up. How could that happen? Was there tension among the band members? Did someone become ill? Were they trying to get out of a bad recording contract? The answer to all of these questions is no.

In a 2014 interview with the Sunday Express, Gift explained:

“I fully expected the band to carry on and make a few more albums, but to be honest, I’m not sure what happened. We just stopped functioning as a band. It was sad, really. There was a lot of pressure from people around us to sell more and more records, but music doesn’t work like that. It has to evolve naturally.”

That’s not a very satisfying explanation but it’s all we have. Too bad, because the band showed so much promise especially on the first disc. Now they’re little more than a footnote in the rock history of the 80s.

Enjoy… until next week.