Wilco Will Love You, Baby
Aug 27th, 2009 by Jim Kennedy
From whither sprang the music we might call alt.country? Was it some good ol’ boy accidently feeding back his guitar and secretly liking the noise it made? Did that early pioneer of the west get ridden out of Dodge by his horrified, more traditional-minded bandmates? Did he keep his secret pleasure to himself and live a long, albeit unfulfilled, life toeing the party line of three-four time? Could he, in fact, be Kris Kristofferson?
In any case, I postulate that the modern era of alt.country began with the Velvet Underground, specifically the Loaded album. Not them again, you say, wondering how I’m going to sell this flimsy thesis. Well, the Velvets post-Cale and without Mo Tucker, could have sounded like anything at all really, and so why not alt.country? The ‘alt’ part is easy to hear - lots of loud guitars and so on, but there’s definitely a whiff of the country about most of the latter half of the album - “Lonesome Cowboy Bill” obviously, from the name alone, but there’s also the classic country music gambit of ‘the talkin’ bit in the middle that always makes ya cry’ in “I Found a Reason.” Then there’s “Train Round the Bend” - it’s about trains for heavens’ sakes. If you put a song on an album and it’s about trains, then de facto it’s a country album, or in the parlance, a country record.
So, what’s this got to do with Wilco and why am I getting my spurs in a tangle? Well, I’ve been on a bit of Wilco buzz lately, in huge anticipation of Friday’s Vicar Street gig. I’ve been picking my way through the back catalogue and the documentaries these past weeks, and the progression is there to see, and I love it. If the Velvet Underground are a rock band that strayed down life’s lonely highways and onto a country lane, then Wilco are a country band coming the other way.
Wilco seem to be on tour constantly, and reports of gigs on this tour are universally glowing. I’ll be there on Friday and I’d imagine that most people who went to see them last year in the same venue will be back again. The new album is great, a lot more mellow than previous, but still good for it. It sounds like the music of a man growing comfortably into his own skin. And if anyone deserved that, it’s Tweedy who has had the rough times too. If you’re reading this Jeff (I know you’re a huge Dublin Opinion fan), belated happy birthday.
The real point I’m trying to get across here is that I’m very excited to be going to see Wilco on Friday. Did you pick up on that part? If I had a cowboy hat I’d be a fiddlin’ with the brim nervously, just a waitin’ fer the time, yessir.
Here’s a great song - “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” - listen to it all the way through to the squally finish. That’s the Velvet Underground right there. This song takes me way back and far away to long, dusty bus journeys, sharing a pair of earphones with my girl.
If anyone is at the gig on Thursday, let me know how it was. I already know, I just want to hear you say it.
The Wilco picture above is from Thursday’s gig. I stole it from @adam_sullivan while he was still at the gig. I hope that’s OK man.
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Wilco were brillinat last night so they were- getting better with age…
Well, I guess you can say that the Velvet Underground influenced most of the bands playing today, especially the older ones like Wilco. A lot of them started out as punk bands, and when they started listening to more music they discovered country – it seems.
Listen to Conor’s Jubilee Allstars podcast again (or for the first time). They started out as members of a punk band, but went all country as they developed as musicians. Happens all the time. Actually I think the sound of Wilco owes more to the eponymous Velvet Underground album with Pale Blue Eyes and Jesus.
However, in order to support your thesis as a fellow DO person, I noticed this morning that I’m Always in Love from Summer Teeth rips off (or pays homage to) the riff from the VU’s Waiting for The Man.
Wilco - I’m Always in Love
VU - Waiting For The Man
Thanks to musical pairings for the Wilco MP3 and Knox Road for the VU track.
Hey Damien - I heard they played for ages last night. What time did they go on at last night? I don’t want to be late….
Donagh - I think we could probably make a case for VU being responsible for everything good in the world, but wow, I’ve just played both of those tracks side by side. It’s the exact same riff.
Grrr. Gnashes teeth as not in the country for wilco gig. Jim, I want a full report of the gig, although I fail to see how it could surpass the last one.
Welcome back Jim - the last living member of the great Kennedy clan… (now that Ted’s in the ground). Unfortunately, no Wilco gigs anywhere near me in the near future.
alt.country surely dates back from when Big Tom went mainline…
But seriously - do ye not think it’s a bit of a silly term ? There’s always been much more stuff going on (and much more INTERESTING stuff) outside mainstream Nashville than within. Maybe without walls of feedback but you could call it ‘alt’ if you want… if there’s any use in doing so apart from running a newsgroup (do they still exist ?).
Then there’s Gram Parsons slightly pre-dating the VU - when was that Byrds ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo’ album from ??
Apart from that I think everything good can be traced back to the VU - apart from Guinness (sometime in the 18th century) and whiskey (sometime before Big Tom)
Alt.country began with the album Fear and Whiskey by the Mekons. I shall brook no argument.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5208-fear-and-whiskey/
Other Damian - I don’t think you could handle a full review. You would only get upset and it would ruin your Gallic sojourn.
Seán - like all music label, alt.country is silly, yes, but without such labels we would be reduced to fumbling for laboured comparisons - “Wilco are like late era VU, but with Gram Parsons on vocals, if he was channelling the sentiments of the bastard child of a drunken Willy Nelson and June Carter, but with feedback.”
Definitely agree about better music derived from Nashville, rather than in it, sure, but I guess we do owe it a huge debt.
John - Brooking no argument and backing yourself up by linking to pitchfork.com, the most stridently dogmatic music site ever? Fair enough, we concede; the Mekons it is.
No Tom T Hall fans round here I take it. You can’t get more alt.country than Who’s gonna feed them hogs? or Old Dogs Children And Watermelon Wine. (For cred purposes I should point out that Gram Parsons did cover a Tom T Hall song on Grievous Angel). If alt.alt.country is your thing, may I suggest Bobby Womack’s BW Goes C&W? Course that’s not what he originally planned to call it.
Holy Willie Nelson, Hugh - Tom T Hall! - most Tom T Hall fans I ever encountered would’ve had their names in the buke at the door of the Garda Club…
Course in terms of alt.country youse from North of Drogheda have the Rev. William MacRea as well (or whatever his name is…)
Might I meekly advance the name of Eugene Chadbourne while we’re at it ?
Tom T. Hall is the man. I never met anyone I didn’t not like who didn’t not like I Like Beer. I did have a tape of Willie McCrea’s songs some years back, which I lifted from the van of a work colleague. The songs are blood-curdlingly awful. More in a banality-of-evil way than a my-friend-King-Rat way, if you know what I mean.