Filed under: Mermaid Avenue Vol. II | Tags: Billy Bragg, Butcher, Feed of Man, Mermaid Ave., Mermaid Avenue, Volume 2, Volume II, Wilco, Woody Guthrie
Oh Mermaid Avenue, Volume II… Like I say in every post about a song on this album, I really appreciate the different direction Wilco took the songs, but I feel like they all fall a little short with the exception of “Secret of the Sea” and a few others. This one has a really nice, dark groove to it, but it seems that they could have really expanded upon it. For example, I always wished “Feed of Man” would have been given a semi-punk treatment. Imagine how intense this song would have been if it was a little faster and more rocking! Or maybe they could have made it way slower and really play with the dynamics (moreso than they do already).
I didn’t intentionally save this song for last in my posts about the Mermaid Avenue projects, but I feel that it’s still a fitting place…
Filed under: Mermaid Avenue | Tags: Another Man's Done Gone, Folk, Mermaid Ave., Mermaid Avenue, Nora Guthrie, Piano, simple, Wilco, Woody Guthrie
I feel like this song should have been the final track on the album. I guess I can understand why it wasn’t, since it’s so sad and slow (and really short). But I like the idea of the album closing on a quieter note than it started. Mermaid Avenue is a journey the listener takes from “Walt Whitman’s Niece” to “Hoodoo Voodoo” to “Another Man’s Done Gone.” There’s so much ground covered, it’s one of Wilco’s most impressive accomplishments. They worked on lyrics they didn’t know that much about, and it’s not like they could ask the author to clarify anything for them…
This song benefits from the simplicity the band applied to it. Yes, I really like it when they modernize the music to with the old lyrics (proof that they’re timeless), but these songs were never made for complex music. This lone piano is able to express more than any wall of guitars, synths and mellotrons could.
Filed under: Mermaid Avenue Vol. II | Tags: Alternative, Being There, Billy Bragg, Blood of the Lamb, Country, Folk, Mermaid Ave., Mermaid Avenue, Mermaid Avenue II, Summerteeth, Wilco, Woody Guthrie
It’s interesting to hear Wilco performing songs with religious Woody Guthrie lyrics. You know Jeff Tweedy would never write something like “Airline to Heaven” or “Christ For President.” I mean, he’s mostly concerned with theologians who don’t know nothing about his soul… While the other songs have a sense of humor, this is absent in “Blood of the Lamb.” The lyrics sound a bit preachy sometimes, but that’s a lot better than sounding ingenuine, I suppose.
One thing I really like about this song and the rest of Mermaid Avenue Vol. II is how Wilco got bolder with their musical compositions. I posted about “Secret of the Sea” the other day and mentioned how it was a lot like the material found on Summerteeth. “Blood of the Lamb” is a much different sound, almost like something that could have been found on the second disc of Being There. There’s definitely folk influence, but there are definitely those alternative rock tendencies the band had started to embrace around the time of the recording of this installment in the Mermaid Avenue series.
Filed under: Mermaid Avenue | Tags: Acoustic, Billy Bragg, California Stars, Country, Delivery, DVD, Folk, Jeff Tweedy, Kicking Television, Live, Man in the Sand, Mermaid Ave., Mermaid Avenue, Nora Guthrie, Solo, Wilco, Woody Guthrie
The songs from the Mermaid Avenue albums don’t get the attention they deserve when it comes to Wilco’s live shows. I guess it’s understandable, since they aren’t original songs. Still, if there’s one song that the band has successfully made its own, it would have to be “California Stars.”
I can remember talking to a girl who sat by me in high school about music when Wilco came up. I asked if she was a fan, and she said she only knew one of their songs. I expected “Jesus, Etc.” or “Heavy Metal Drummer”, but was shocked when she said “California Stars.” I guess it had been used in some TV show she watched, and she had never listened to anything else by the band. I made a few suggestions about where to start, but she wasn’t too interested…
This was the first song on the album that truly grabbed me. It managed to say so much while keeping it pleasantly simple. On the Man In The Sand DVD, I found the early version of the song interesting. The delivery and phrasing of the song was slightly different and wasn’t quite as smooth as the final take. The music is nice in that it manages to capture an old folk feel while sounding modern at the same time.
Filed under: Mermaid Avenue | Tags: Billy Bragg, Driving, Fog, Memory, Mermaid Ave., Mermaid Avenue, One by One, Wilco, Woody Guthrie
I have a really fond memory of this song… I was playing a set of Christmas songs a few Decembers ago, and had grown completely sick of listening to holiday music. On the ride to the place where I was performing, my friends and I hit what is, without a doubt, the worst fog I’ve ever driven in. Sure enough, I was listening to Mermaid Avenue I drove. Because of the low light and easy-going music, both of my friends fell asleep as I missed the turn again and again and again and again…
The song is a somber reflection on the passing of time. It isn’t unlike “Older” by They Might Be Giants. That song puts it less eloquently: “You’re older than you’ve ever been/And now you’re even older/And now you’re even older/You’re older than you’ve ever been/And now you’re even older/And now you’re older still.” Woody Guthrie managed to use a lot of really pleasant imagery that makes the passing of time a romantic thing. It doesn’t only look at the end of someone’s life, but also the end of a relationship. It begins with the narrator tearfully writing a letter to someone and ends with him joining that person forever. When you die, there are people you inevitably leave behind. But there’s that hope that, in the end, you’ll get to spend eternity with them after you die…
Such a nice song…
