When They Was Fab / The Album That Changed Wilco (Video Essay)

Jay was an amazingly talented multi instrumentalist with a very keen ear for melody, a deep knowledge of various styles and knew his way around a studio. That in combination with Jeff’s songwriting created a very fruitful run for the band. But anybody who has ever been in a band knows this is a story as old as time. Personalities clash, artistic ideas clash and the drama gets to a tipping point. These guys were spending more time together than with their own families. But even though you gain calmness and social harmony- that can detract from the push/pull dynamic that can drive the art. Not always but sometimes.

Pre and post Jay are both great.

The band with Jay Bennett that started YHF is not the band that that finished YHF. The YHF boxed set booklet has more details on the departure of Jay and the argument mentioned. He was trying to mix the album and the rest of the band wasn't happy. Jay was layering too many tracks and lacked experience mixing an album this complex. It's pretty clear that the songs weren't working and the band wasn't working. So I don't think the version of Wilco with Jay was Wilco at their most musically relevant. It took bringing in Jim O'Rourke in to make the songs we love today. And Jim's approach was at odds with Jay's ideas of more is more. Looking back at that album the stars really did align and there are many reasons that it came together. One is that Wilco both needed Jay for his important contributions but also needed him to leave the band to make Yankee Hotel Foxtrot the best it could be.

Leroy is the one playing Organ on Jesus Etc. Jay is playing Wurlitzer piano...

Jay is playing the electric piano part on "Jesus, Etc.". The annoying organ is Leroy.

Great video

I actually like the YHF demos and outtakes better. Leaving Not For the Season, Nothing Up My Sleeve, Venus Stop the Train, Rhythm, and Magazine Called Sunset off of the album was a criminal act.

Jay experimented. A genius. He was the powerhouse of music revolution in Wilco.

YHF is easily one of the most unknown and underrated albums of all time. 2002 was loaded with good albums. Interpol, Turn On the Bright Lights. Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Also YHF is a hard listen in some ways.

Just watched IATTBYH for the first time after being a fan of Wilco since 2006? Great film. The first album I got into from Wilco was Sky Blue Sky. Still my fav album.

"If you don't have any sonic landscape behind you, everthing turns into a folk song." Let me translate: "If Wilco doesn't have Jay Bennett, everything they record turns into a folk song."

Im sad for the past with all due respect but I cannot imagine an end to a story as its being so brilliantly told.

Never again after Yankee were they so beloved by critics and fans?? really? Just cheakin'

YHF, A Ghost Is Born and Sky Blue Sky are amongst the best albums ( from end to end) ever made.

I think Jay was playing the Wurlizter on that track.

Interesting assessment. I find the run from AM to A Ghost is Born as good as good as it gets. Despite having a stellar line up of musicians post AGIB the albums have been patchy and to be honest many of the songs are not in Jeff’s top drawer. These days the Wilco albums sound like Jeff solo albums with a crack supporting band. Just my take

eyeroll They're still fab. Jay was talented, but he was alienating the rest of the band, and it wasn't HIS band. I've gotten really tired of YHF worship, too. All worthwhile bands grow and change and they make missteps along the way. Look at Dylan. He's made his share of bad records, but anyone who looks at his great work and says any one album was THE great album sounds like a narrow-minded fool. So it is with any other artists of significance you can name.

Gosh I miss Jay

I don't agree at all with the sentiment of this film. Had Wilco actually been America"s Radiohead i wouldn't have liked them. You can only do the "soundscape (dissonance) as art" so long before tedium sets in (and it sure did). Sure, A Ghost Is Born is a tad too sedate being the follow-up to the much better YHF but I can't imagine a world where Sky Blue Sky didn't exist because it was too folky. I get that people were put off by the polished sound of The Whole Love and Wilco (The Album) but they were still worthy albums. I also get that there's always going to be that contingency of people who were ardent fans at the height of the indy-rock scene that want their music to be noisy, lo-fi and dissonant and in that regard Wilco progressed away from that, i.e abandoned those fans. My gain, i guess.

This is a great assessment. Wilco was my favorite band then. I love the album but I really missed Jay on that tour. (though I did kinda like Leroy). I never really liked the band’s direction after that (I can’t stand Nils Cline) and haven’t really followed them since.