i watch the clock a lot

I just got back from watching Wilco's Jeff Tweedy perform a solo acoustic show at the North Carolina Museum of Art. It's a nice natural ampitheater, and they float these wonderful lighted balloons that look like moons. It's a wonderful atmosphere, and it was a beautiful night for a show. Tweedy was sarcastic and a bit snippy at first, but seemed to warm up as the show went on. Man, that guy is a talent. What a songwriter. Hearing some of the songs from "A Ghost Is Born" performed acoustic was really a treat; they're so weird and amped up on the album that it's nice to hear kind of where they came from. He played "New Madrid," which was a special treat. (That's from the fantastic album "Anodyne," which, I can't belive you don't have that, John.) But the hightlight of the evening for me (and that's what this blog is all about), was "Blasting Fonda." It's a b-side to some song from "Being There," I think. But it's probably my favorite song he's written, and I've never heard it played live before at any of the multitude of Wilco shows I've seen before.

I got to thinking at one point about Bob Dylan. Granted, Dylan's been at this game a lot longer than Tweedy, but I think Tweedy's put out songs and albums that are of such a consistenly high quality, that you've just got to think that he's a singular talent. I read once that Dylan had criticised The Beatles (to their faces!) that they didn't pay enough attention to lyrics. The Beatles shot back that Dylan didn't pay enough attention to the music. I think this was before "Rubber Soul." So, fair shots on both sides, I think. But I think Tweedy consistently has highly poetic lyrics, and challenging music. A large part of it is due to the other Wilcos, obvs, but still, the guy has the ultimate say, and he's chosen to keep pushing boundaries of pop music. Which, pop's been around for 60 years now, and that he's still able to do something new is quite a feat, I think.


Y'ALL BE NICE TO THE CRACKHEADS