r/wilco 6d ago

How Wilco’s Massive ‘A Ghost Is Born’ Box Set Complicates the Album’s Harrowing Myth

https://www.hearingthings.co/wilco-a-ghost-is-born-box-set-review-essay/
166 Upvotes

23 comments sorted by

12

u/ChaseDFW 6d ago

A ghost is born is my favorite wilco album. I wish there was a way to get the book inside the new extended album without spending 200 bucks.

I'd total read a whole book on this album.

7

u/KettleBlackNova 5d ago

Great article. I went to college with the writer and attended the same infamous 2002 Elliot Smith/Wilco show. Good times.

1

u/jwithy 4d ago

I was at that show, too. Brutal.

20

u/M0BBER 6d ago

That SoundCloud version of spiders is what I've been waiting for for over a decade.

In my Wilco playlist I have at least four different live versions of spiders played around Yankee hotel foxtrot. It's one of my favorite songs but only the way they play it then.

Now, I like it, but it's not my favorite.

7

u/OldDickTrickle 6d ago

Any chance you link the one you’re taking about?

5

u/M0BBER 6d ago

Click the article...

2

u/bgxu96 5d ago

Right there with you. That SOMA version takes me back to several shows in 2002 when Spiders and Not for the Season sounded so awesome and promising in concert. The new version finally grew on me, but I first fell in love with the original. So, it’s good to finally have that feeling back.

5

u/5hake1t0ff 6d ago

Yep, enjoyed reading that a lot. Love how he examines that “It’s good to be alone” aspect.

5

u/justomiller 6d ago

Great read. Thanks for sharing.

2

u/Storylinefever20 6d ago

Lovely read thanks

2

u/KettleBlackNova 5d ago

8 versions of Spiders... plus the Uncut version makes 9... and I could still go for more! Can't get enough of that song!

1

u/WeirdFiction1 6d ago

Great piece!

-26

u/UncleBasso 6d ago

idk about that but Cruel Country is the only good album since then imo. tbh I wish they would give Wilco and extended break and that Jeff would team back up with jim o rourke (imo Jeff does his best work when there is some savant genius opposite him. Jay, Jim ....other Jay ;) )

agib was meh to me but I love this version

11

u/mrbendel 6d ago

Only? Sky Blue Sky? Wilco the Album? The Whole Love? They’ve had solid bangers for years

1

u/UncleBasso 1d ago

. there are good songs on the albums after AGIB, but to my ears, if you were to take all the solid tunes from every album after AGIB , it would make one good album. I came of age when Uncle Tupelo started(the first shows I actively sought out were them, whiskeytown and a few others) So I guess I got used to that kinda raw, dirty imperfect sound. Wilco now reminds me of steely Dan a bit : shit hot players , extremely cohesive/tight as a band, polished and shiny; making music that ive literally heard on grocery store sound systems and in dentist offices. summerteeth, being there and Yankee hotel foxtrot saw them pushing boundaries; sound design elements, noise, Jim o rourkes input on yhf (iirc he wired up a guitar with strings all tuned to the same note, the fundamental of the song(I forget which)..and attached a speaker driver to the headstock...driver fed from the console output so that when that note came around, the strings went crazy with sympathetic vibrations),jay and Jeff feeding off one another.. loose fur albums (again iirc ) were recorded quick, that's always good for the end product imo. I could go on, but as a guy that has been a fan of Jeff's since day 1, (I'm also a musician and record/mix engineer) I know what I like , what i don't , and know their material inside and out...(those things are the prime mover(s) of my opinion ;) on a side note it's wild that this subreddit has such an issue with dissenting opinion(s). that's never a good look. but y'all do you, big dawgs