{"id":20303,"date":"2021-02-04T05:30:46","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T10:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20303"},"modified":"2021-02-05T08:24:40","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T13:24:40","slug":"the-making-of-wilcos-summerteeth-part-1-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/04\/the-making-of-wilcos-summerteeth-part-1-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Making of Wilco\u2019s ‘Summerteeth’ (Part 1 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"
An edited version of this feature was published previously in<\/em> Goldmine.<\/span><\/h6>\n

Looking to the past pointed the way to the future<\/b><\/p>\n

Released in 1999, Wilco\u2019s third album Summerteeth<\/i> represented a turning point for the band. The first album from the group to sell in excess of 200,000 copies, Summerteeth<\/i> \u2013 a musical departure from the band\u2019s original alt-country origins \u2013 ended up on many publications\u2019 best-of lists for that year. Pitchfork<\/i> ranked Summerteeth<\/i> #31 among all albums released in the final decade of the 20th<\/sup> century. And the album\u2019s success spurred the band onto more critical successes and even greater commercial heights.<\/p>\n

In celebration of the album\u2019s importance, Rhino Entertainment is releasing a significantly expanded 4CD version of the landmark record. Available November 6, Summerteeth Expanded Edition<\/i> appends the original album with related studio outtakes, alternate versions, demos and a complete recording of a 1999 concert.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The CD configuration of the expanded ‘Summerteeth’<\/p><\/div>\n

By the time Wilco began work on its third album in late 1997, the band had undergone significant shifts. Begun in 1994 from the ashes of alt-country band Uncle Tupelo, Wilco was led by guitarist and songwriter Jeff Tweedy, and originally featured the entire Uncle Tupelo lineup minus songwriter Jay Farrar. Wilco\u2019s 1995 debut album, A.M.<\/i> didn\u2019t represent a major departure from the style of Tweedy\u2019s previous group. Wilco\u2019s second album, Being There<\/i> (1996) found Tweedy writing more finely-tuned songs, and \u2013 in contrast to the band\u2019s debut \u2013 the arrangements featured keyboards, trumpets, saxophones and violins in addition to the kind of standard acoustic and electric instrumentation most readily associated with alt-country.<\/p>\n

As Wilco convened to begin recording Summerteeth<\/i>, the band looked very different from two years prior. In fact, only Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt remained from the lineup that had made A.M.<\/i> And according to reports at the time, the balance of power and influence within the band had shifted as well: multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett \u2013 who had joined the band shortly after A.M.<\/i> was released \u2013 took on a larger role in the making of what would become Summerteeth<\/i>.<\/p>\n

But Stirratt \u2013 who, along with Tweedy, remains a member of Wilco today \u2013 suggests that reports of the band\u2019s rhythm section being frozen out of sessions are a bit overblown. All four musicians were involved when initial sessions began. Stirratt recalls that two members of the band had recently discovered just how good Willie Nelson\u2019s studio in Spicewood, Texas was. \u201cJay Bennett and [Wilco drummer] Ken Coomer had done a session there with a songwriter named Jeff Black,\u201d Stirratt says. \u201cSo we told Jeff [Tweedy] about it, enthusiastically.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Stirratt says that the \u201ccore\u201d of Summerteeth<\/i> was made in that studio. \u201cWe started fleshing out songs and [doing] basic tracking sessions,\u201d he explains. A number of demo recordings had already been made, and those provided at least some direction regarding how the finished songs would sound. Eleven of those demos \u2013 including songs that didn\u2019t make it onto Summerteeth<\/i> \u2013 are featured on the second disc of Rhino\u2019s new expanded release.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the arrangements being tight going in,\u201d Stirratt says. \u201cJeff and Jay really [had] a good grasp on that.\u201d He says that some tweaking of the songs was done during those sessions, but recalls there wasn\u2019t \u201ca lot of just flat-out writing going on in the studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"And Stirratt recalls that some of the album\u2019s signature sounds had their beginnings at the Texas sessions. \u201cWe were digging around the studio, looking at what they had,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd they had a few pieces of gear there that were inspiring. I remember in particular the Maestro Rover guitar effect that Jay used on \u201cShe\u2019s a Jar.\u201d<\/p>\n

An early \u201870s effects box, the Rover was an attempt by musical gear manufacturer Maestro to replicate the \u201cspinning speaker\u201d Doppler Effect sound often used with electric organs (the massive Leslie speaker cabinet) in a smaller package for guitarists. \u201cIt was this big bird cage of an effect,\u201d Stirratt recalls with a chuckle. \u201cIt was basically a small rotating speaker in a cage.\u201d In those days, the band was buying up all manner of interesting instruments and effects. \u201cWe were buying a lot<\/i> of stuff,\u201d he says. Gear \u201cwas a lot more available than it is now, and a more affordable price. So it was exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rover effect was more the domain of guitarists like Pink Floyd\u2019s David Gilmour; it certainly wasn\u2019t in keeping with the country-flavored sounds of Wilco\u2019s earliest work. But its use on the early Summerteeth<\/i> sessions was a hint of things to come. But first, there would be a detour.<\/p>\n

In early 1998, Wilco collaborated with British musician Billy Bragg on a musical project based on previously-unused lyrics by American songwriting legend Woody Guthrie. Those sessions in Boston, Chicago and Dublin, Ireland, took all of the band\u2019s focus. Twenty-plus years on, specific dates are lost in the mists of time, but Stirratt does recall that the band was \u201cin Dublin for so long that early part of the year.\u201d As a result, the Summerteeth<\/i> material was set aside. The product of those often contentious sessions with Bragg were released over time as 1998\u2019s Mermaid Avenue<\/i>, Mermaid Avenue Vol. II<\/i> in 2000, and eventually a 2012 three-disc set \u2013 Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions<\/i> \u2013 combining both albums and adding a third disc of songs finished later.<\/p>\n

With much of Summerteeth<\/i>\u2019s basic tracks long since completed, the remaining work on the album would consist of overdubs, done mostly at Kingsize Studio in Jeff Tweedy\u2019s hometown, Chicago. \u201cA lot of the overdub sessions on that material took place with Jay and Jeff,\u201d Stirratt says. Unfortunately, the rhythm section \u2013 he and drummer Ken Coomer \u2013 lived elsewhere. So there were times when sessions and other work on the album went on without them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a fair amount of project work that Jay and Jeff \u2013 or Jay alone \u2013 worked on,\u201d Stirratt says. A great deal of that work centered around the Mellotron, a classic instrument most closely associated with the late \u201860s and early 1970s psychedelic and progressive music of bands like the Moody Blues, King Crimson and Yes. The Mellotron \u2013 often considered the first sampling keyboard thanks to its use of tapes featuring pre-recorded violins, flutes, choirs and the like \u2013 would impart a distinctive character to Summerteeth<\/i>, one that set it apart from its predecessors, threatening to leave Wilco\u2019s alt-country roots in the dust.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An edited version of this feature was published previously in Goldmine. Looking to the past pointed the way to the future Released in 1999, Wilco\u2019s third album Summerteeth represented a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,62,64],"tags":[4410,2370],"class_list":["post-20303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-rawk","category-reissue","tag-summerteeth","tag-wilco","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20303"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20484,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20303\/revisions\/20484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}