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Nothing ventured, nothing gained goes the cliché,
and it’s true. There is a direct correlation between
how much a person is willing to fail and how much they
can possibly achieve.
But on the other side of the coin lies the possibility
for total destruction. So how can a person tell whether
they are embarking on an exhilarating flight of fancy
that will catapult them to a new level of success or
simply diving headlong into an abyss? Perhaps there
is no correct answer. Maybe each of us just has to discern
what success is worth and then balance it with a commensurate
level of risk.
Whatever the answer, Jeff Tweedy, courageous hero and
vanquisher of major-label foes, not to mention front
man and brain trust for Chicago’s alt.this-n-that rockers,
Wilco, has found success, and it has come hand in hand
with major risks.
 Following
up 1999’s ambitious Summerteeth with an even more ambitious
record his former record company (Reprise) ultimately
didn’t want, Tweedy split from longtime collaborator
and friend Jay Bennnett and original drummer Ken Coomer
mid-way through the recording of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
(Nonesuch) amidst creative differences.
Next, the former Uncle Tupelo member tinkered with good
fortune by venturing even farther afield from the roots
rock sound that was formerly his calling card and topped
it all off by snarkily announcing in the Chicago Sun-Times
that Ryan Adams could have his band’s old sound. Dangerous
moves, all.
But it’s a curious thing, what makes one man cower and
another man thrive. And curiouser still trying to explain
it. Nevertheless, on the new album’s fourth track, “War
on War,” Tweedy gives listeners insight into his thought
process, when he sings “You’ve got to lose/You have
to learn how to die/If you wanna be alive” Tough talk
to walk, Tweedy acknowledges, but the alternative is
none too pleasant either.
“I think somehow you need to get to a certain point
in your life where the notion of failure is absurd,”
explained Tweedy regarding his lyrics and personal philosophy
from his home in the Chicagoland area. “I feel like
doing this [making music], and if I don’t do it I won’t
feel as good as when I am doing it. Really, what’s the
worst that can happen? You play the worst rock ‘n’ roll
show ever played?”
As if anyone could. But don’t be mistaken. This is not
merely the pretentious rambling of some dilettante jackass,
but rather the honest opinion of a man who has been
involved in more than a decade’s worth of artistic success.
Who better to judge what it takes to be artistically
successful and personally fulfilled?
Yankee Foxtrot Hotel, for the uninitiated, is a fantastic
record. It unfolds like the dog-eared chapters of an
old novel, with each song working back and forth against
the psychic terrain of the record’s exposition, foreshadowing
climaxes and hinting at greater truths. In stark opposition
to many of today’s popular records, it doesn’t sound
like two singles surrounded by a bunch of filler. Neither
does it sound like some sprawling ode to Brian Wilson
aching to tinkle a few sleigh bells.
More remarkable still, is the fact that Tweedy said
that the version currently sitting on record store shelves
is just one of several possible versions that lay between
the faders prior to avant-composer Jim O’Rourke’s work
during the mixing process.
“I think Jim made an enormous contribution to the record,”
lauded Tweedy, “and I don't think it’d be what it is
without Jim’s involvement. We were excited about our
record. We were happy with the material and we felt
confident that we could make a good record mixing it
ourselves or with any number of people. But at the same
time, I think the best record that was there is what
we excavated through our collaboration with Jim.”
When asked how he viewed his contribution to the record,
the itinerant O’Rourke said he simply tried to find
what each song “was” and then let that feeling guide
him. Where necessary, additional piano or percussion
parts were recorded to strengthen songs, but always
with an eye toward how they would affect the record
as a whole, he said.
“Many people who have never worked on a record or been
privy to how they’re done, don’t usually know how much
a mix can radically change what a song is,” contended
O’Rourke. “We had quite a few possibilities with each
song once we decided how to approach them. For example,
in "Hot in The Poor Places" we radically restructured
the song and rerecorded the opening piano part many
times using a coil mounted to a magnet bolted on a neck
to resonate a guitar tuned to the same chords as the
piano. So the end result was just the resonance of the
chords, because we felt any instrumental attack that
early in the song would be distracting to the next section.”
Technical innovations, however, were not the only unique
factors guiding the album’s creative arc. Influenced
by such experimental and surrealist authors as Italo
Calvino, Gertrude Stein and André Breton, Tweedy said
he filled notebooks with free-writing and, then, once
he’d forgotten what it was he wrote, usually months
later, he would edit the books into poems. From the
poems, he said, he took individual lines, which then
eventually became songs.
“In a lot of cases I’d have a lyric that just became
really linear or came across as a very story-based song,”
Tweedy explained. “Then I’d start taking lyrics away
and see how the story changed or if it stayed the same.
I like to edit until I feel like it’s good the first
time we perform it in the studio. Then I try to sing
the songs without looking at the lyrics, and if I forget
them I’ll free-style. I just try to get inside the song
and imagine what comes next.”
A grand as Yankee Foxtrot Hotel is, there were a number
of excellent songs that didn’t make the cut. Adhering
to a sort of internal logic to decide, Tweedy said that
any song that was intrinsically important to the record
which didn’t fit the sonic criteria was worked on diligently
until it did. Any song that didn’t find its way onto
the album, he said, was left off because there was either
another song that represented the same idea, it was
“goofy” or because it was just plain sombre. “There’s
a couple of songs that I think we’re all happy aren’t
on there,” he admitted.
Live, the band doesn’t seem to be having any problem
listeners might expect fleshing out the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink
sound they recorded in the studio. In fact, Tweedy reported
that he feels they’re doing a better job than ever of
not just presenting the band’s last two records, but
also putting more effort into performing the older material.
Everything sounds truer, he said. Likewise, he also
noted that he’s found it to be rewarding to put the
time in to learn the more recent albums’ arrangements
and to figure out how to present as many of their textures
as possible as a four-piece.
Nevertheless, it all comes back to risk. The success
of the music Tweedy and his mates have made and the
pleasure others derive from it bears an inverse relationship
to their collective desire to please themselves—and
in that equation success is not always a foregone conclusion.
But as for how he arrived at that noble position between
self-indulgence and artistic restraint, Tweedy replied,
“Maybe it’s not your job to know if you suck or not.”
Allan Martin Kemler for Crud Magazine© 2002
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January 2001
July - August 2001
September - October 2001
November - December 2001
January - March 2002
April - July 2002
August - December 2002 | |
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