Wilco docu

Saw a documentary on BBC 4 the other night (yes, I watched a programme on BBC 4, shock horror), about Wilco and the making of their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. It was very good, compellingly watchable, like Let it Be, only without Yoko.

It was the usual story, pages torn from the Band in Crisis book of cliches. I was flicking through the channels as a prelude to switching off and going to bed, and it was on, and I thought I'd give it five minutes and ended up watching till the bittersweet midnight end.

Starts off, they're recording their record in their loft, being paid to do it by a record company (Reprise) that apparently trusts them so much that they don't need to hear any work-in-progress. It looks like the creative juices are flowing, but what else is going on? Oh yes, the singer, the egoist, obviously thinks he's the most important person on the planet, and he's a Tortured Artist, with his whingeing and his headaches and his puking. He goes off at one point to play some solo gigs with his guitar and harpmonica. What's this about?

So then the scene switches to the studio they booked for the mixing, and it's costing them, and they can't agree on anything. This is where you see the seams starting to come apart. The singer and the clever instrumentalist fellow have one of those blazing rows that isn't one. It's the George Harrison, "Whatever you want me to do I will do it," argument, as they fundamentally disagree on some aspect of mixing/segeuing into the next song. Singer wants it to just stop, instrumentalist thinks it sounds cool as a segue. It's one of those, "Oh, I thought you meant... no listen, I just want to explain, I thought you were saying..." arguments. Neither of them listening to the other, wanting to scream and rips strips of skin with fingernails.

You see the seeds of this at a gig rehearsal when they play through a song in a good rockin' way, and the singer is saying they shouldn't use two guitars on it, and the instrumentalist is saying he thought it sounded cool as it was.

Seeds of doom. Instrumentalist leaves band, record company rejects album. Instrumentalist claims he was squeezed out because he was getting too much attention. Singer says, it's a relief that he's gone, but ask him why he had to leave. Band tours as a 4-piece, record in hiatus, fans already know all the words. Sign with new record company, same parent company, the world and capitalism are stupid and wasteful. Conclude.

Halfway through watching I was almost seduced. People are always recommending Wilco to me, because they think they are "a bit country" and that therefore I must like them. But what they really mean is that they play songs, proper songs, with words and traditional structures. Except they were trying to do away with all that with YHF. (And except that in country they don't go in for all the rock-ist experimentation, they just let the song stand, or fall, on its own merits.)

So I will not, probably, buy the album, unless I see it for £4.99 or something. But I would watch the documentary again, because there aren't enough documentaries about musicians working on records and splitting up.

Top documentaries about bands making music whilst breaking up, a.k.a., the Film Of Our Demise

1. Let it Be
2. The Last Waltz
3. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart