Levon Helm. The master at work. 1940-2012. Photo: John Storey
Levon Helm died on Thursday and I'm still trying to process this fact. I think I'm in denial. He was the heart (and balls) of The Band, a loose, funky timekeeper who possessed a glorious redneck howl. Helm's genius was that his rock 'n' roll singing was totally rooted in country, and yet his drumming was straight up Memphis-New Orleans R&B. In that sense, he was the living embodiment of rock 'n' roll, a one-man bridge between southern black and white culture.
Beyond his musical ability, though, Levon Helm was one of the coolest, most genuine people who ever lived. He was everyone's best friend, humble and gracious to a fault, with a croaky drawl of a voice that seemed to welcome everyone to the party. People like this aren't easy to replace.
I'll have a more developed piece on Helm next week, but I felt like I had to address his passing and pay appropriate homage. While I could embed a video from The Last Waltz or the making of "Up On Cripple Creek," I think I'll save that. Besides, this short film from a few years does an excellent job of showcasing the down home, unpretentious appeal of this most southern of gentlemen. Rest in peace, Levon.
Uncle Tupelo, "Sauget Wind" Blue Note, Columbia, MO November 13, 1992
This is for my buddy, Lex, who bemoaned the lack of Blue Note videos in my recent video history of Uncle Tupelo. Fair enough. The Blue Note is a bar in Columbia, Missouri,the"three hour away town" of "Whiskey Bottle" fame, and according to Factory Belt, UT played there twelve times between 1988-94. Inasmuch as a road show could be considered a home-away-from-home, the Blue Note was it. That said, what up with all the chatty Cathys?!?! I call bullshit. Lex, you need to go back in time and fix this.
"Sauget (So-Jay) Wind" was actually cut during the Still Feel Gone sessions, but kept off the album because it sounded too much like "Whiskey Bottle." That factoid is straight from Farrar, who I interviewed for The Stranger in winter 1995-96. I think that's a basically accurate comparison, but how in the hell does sounding like "Whiskey Bottle" turn into a fireable offense? Who fucking thinks that way? I can just see Reprise going to Neil Young during Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, "Neil ... babe ... you can have 'Down By The River' or you can have 'Cowgirl,' but you CANNOT have both. The last thing your fans want to hear are 9-10 minute guitar jams. Now, how about writing something peppy that my 10-year-old granddaughter will like."
"Sauget Wind" may have been left off SFG, but it was released as a single in spring 1992 on badass, light blue/gray vinyl (pictured left). I think it's one of three songs where Uncle Tupelo showed their total mastery of the quietLOUDquiet musical dynamic. "Whiskey Bottle" was the first, this was next, and their cover of Creedence's "Effigy" is the third.
"Sauget" is basically a folk song with a catalog of social ills: unchecked capitalism, industrial pollution, prescription drug abuse (a decade before that went mainstream), possible cancer and bankruptcy, and if all that wasn't bad enough, the goddamn weather guy is lying to us! Of course, we also get Jay Farrar's periodic guitar squalls, or as I like to call it, Farrarmageddon. Think about how great Still Feel Gone is, then add this to it. You're encroaching on all-time territory with that offering.
Industrial wind It blows from the west It'll burn out your eyes And suck out your breath It's waiting in the wings For damage down the line Save your tears for the soaps Leave your money behind
WATCHIN' THE LABEL SPINNIN' ON MY TURNTABLE
If you're an Uncle Tupelo fan and vinyl collector you probably already know this. But, you can preorder the long-waited vinyl reissues of No Depression, Still Feel Gone, and March-16-20, 1992, as well as a box set reissue of their three singles and a new single, “That Year” b/w “Pickle River (pictured right). Next Monday, April 23, is the official release date, so I suppose all this stuff will be readily available after than.
In my opinion, these are the three main options for any real Uncle Tupelo fan. You can get the albums or get the singles, but why the hell wouldn't you just buy it all???
Jim Marshall, creator of the Marshall stack, died Thursday morning at the age of 88. Of all the men who pioneered rock music between 1964-67, including fellow innovators like Leo Fender and Les Paul, and musicians like Pete Townshend and Jimi Hendrix, it was Marshall who fathered LOUD.
As fundamental as Gibson and Fender guitars were, they still needed something to plug into. Similarly, those feedback-laden soundscapes by The Who and Hendrix required Marshall amps to become fully realized. Once musicians learned to stack the stacks, stadium concerts and festivals became possible. Add lawyers, cocaine, and millions of dollars, and the rock 'n' roll industrial complex, for all intents and purposes, was born.
Previously on the Adios Lounge, I talked about Jay Farrar emulating the guitar playing of J Mascis. "The Wagon" is my favorite Dinosaur Jr. song in part because of its unassailable catchiness, and in part because of J's guitar heroics. Here he is wailing in front of his signature Marshall stacks at the 1991 Reading Festival, pointing a way back to Hendrix, but also pointing a way forward for Farrar.
Thank you, Jim Marshall. May you (ironically) rest in peace.
Uncle Tupelo L-R: Jay Farrar, Mike Heidorn (stooping behind drums), Jeff Tweedy (with beer and bass and all like, "Yo, where's the drink tix, bro?")
If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: One man's lazy embedding of YouTube videos is another man's history of Uncle Tupelo. Consider it a documentary, minus all the boring interviews, montages, and the Ken Burns move where a voice intones dramatically as a camera slowly pans across a black and white photo, and a lonesome banjo picks underneath. Here all you're getting are videos and my liner notes. Don't act like you don't love it.
There are several behind the scenes heroes in this post. One is the fella who uploaded nearly all of these clips, a mysterious wanderer by the name of PantsElderly. I believe I once knew him as the man of Constance sorrow and he was friendly with Farrar, Tweedy, and Heidorn way back in the early days. Another hero is Shayne Stacy, a fellow Californian and a bona fide UT documentarian, who attended and filmed a number of these shows. BE THANKFUL for their giving spirit! If it weren't for these two guys, we'd have jack fucking shit for Uncle Tupelo videos. The final heroes are all the people who contributed to and help maintain Factory Belt, the unofficial Uncle Tupelo archives. Setlists, flyers, stories, it's gold, Jerry! GOLD!
"We got to the point where, during our senior year, we'd rent a local hall, the Liederkranz, on a Saturday night for $100 and cram about 500 high school students in there at $2-3 a pop. We'd have Jeff's mom, Jo, collect money at the door, usually with friends Kong and Chuck nearby to make sure thing went OK. (We'd) play and sweat for 3-4 hours, and load out, usually with friends Kong and Chuck nearby to make sure thing went OK. We'd split the money up on Sunday and have a bunch of new albums, instruments, and stories on Monday."
--Mike Heidorn from the No Depression liner notes
PRIMATIVES - MUNSTERS THEME
Liederkranz Hall, Belleville, IL October 31, 1985
How awesome is this??? It's Halloween 1985, which you can tell because Farrar is dressed as Future Slash, Tweedy is rocking the Laura Ingalls, and Heidorn appears to be Aloha Moe Tucker. Great look, good drummer. Can you believe these guys were 18 years old? I feel ancient.
PRIMATIVES - PSYCHO
Liederkranz Hall, Belleville, IL October 31, 1985
Same Halloween show, with a full complement of Primatives, including Wade Farrar (yes, Jay's brother) on lead vocals. This is the old Sonics classic rendered pretty damn well by a bunch of midwestern kids. Gotta love Tweedy's awesome shrieks beginning at 1:35. Yeah, that was there from the start.
PRIMATIVES - SMOKING GUN
Mississippi Nights, St. Louis July 28, 1986
This sounds like a combination of The Standells' "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White" (which Uncle Tupelo later covered) and circa '86 Soul Asylum. I'm curious if Farrar and Tweedy were/are Soul Asylum fans. Surely they have to be fans of the 1986-90 period, right?
Within a few months of this show, the Primatives would become Uncle Tupelo, Wade would leave the band, and Jay and Jeff would take over (mostly Jay).
UNCLE TUPELO - GOOD TIMES
Corner Tavern, Edwardsville, IL June 30, 1987
Terrible video quality, terrible audio quality, but punk as fuck, and HOW COOL IS IT THAT THIS EXISTS?!?! Think about it. This is the first song Uncle Tupelo ever played. Imagine if we happened to have the last song Uncle Tupelo ever played as a bookend. How cool would that be? But come on, what are the odds of that happening?
UNCLE TUPELO - GOOD TIMES/PICKLE RIVER
French Village Drive In, East St. Louis, IL July 5, 1987
From Uncle Tupelo's second show, at an East St. Louis drive-in of all places. Same song as before, but here it sounds AWESOME. No Depression is three years away, but "Good Times" sounds like it could fit right in. Meanwhile, "Pickle River" is an instrumental that sounds like it was smuggled in from the Fables Of The Reconstruction rehearsals.
UNCLE TUPELO - SCREEN DOOR
Lincoln Theater, Belleville, IL July 1987
Probably the first performance of this tune, I like the giddyup flavor here in contrast to the back porch version on No Depression. Tweedy supposedly hates this song, but it's too good to hate. Besides, a songwriter has to start somewhere and there are a million early songs worse than "Screen Door." If the artistic tension between Farrar and Tweedy was barely palpable in 1987, to his credit Jeff brought to Tupelo an honest, spazzy energy, a great voice, and more talent than he's usually credited with having.
UNCLE TUPELO - GRAVEYARD SHIFT
Mississippi River Center Benefit, St. Louis May 1989
Uncle Tupelo's first TV appearance was apparently on the set of A Different World. UT are loose in the best sense of the word, Heidorn and Tweedy have a nice, heavy swing, and Farrar shows how he extended the violent guitar tradition of J Mascis and Bob Mould, men whose own guitar playing invariably works in the context of a power trio. HUGE sound, nasty, heavy, biting tone, and designed to fill in the gaps between the bass and drums with thunderbolts and lightning, very very frighteningly.
UNCLE TUPELO - FORTUNATE SON
Mississippi River Center Benefit, St. Louis May 1989
From the same Mississippi River Center benefit, this is a song Uncle Tupelo should be covering. When talking about the late '60s/early '70s templates for the mid-'90s alt.country semi-revolution, it's easy to get caught up in The Byrds, The Band, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young. That's a murderer's row of country-rock royalty. Thus, it's easy to overlook Creedence. But we shouldn't, because they were badasses, and quite possibly the greatest American rock 'n' roll band ever.
"Fortunate Son" was a regular part of UT's sets in this era and even appeared on their 1988 cassette, Live And Otherwise.
UNCLE TUPELO - FACTORY BELT
"Critical Mass" TV show Recorded in Belleville, IL December 1989
"Critical Mass" was a St. Louis cable access show and this was recorded a month before the band went to Boston to record No Depression with Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade at Fort Apache South (January 21-31, 1990). Yeah, I guess this song is pretty good.
It's funny how it all works out Mad Men in suits walking about I'd like to change their point of view someday But I feel my patience slipping away
Looks like it's time to lay this burden down Stop messing around Don't want to go to the grave without a sound Give the soul a place to rest Not to ride on the factory belt
Farrar's genius here is twofold. In the first verse he's totally anticipating annoying Mad Men Mania 20 years before it happens, and how he knows it's secretly terrible and he's tired of hearing about it, but bOObs and suits and obvious political subtext and Jon Hammyum and fuck it, we need an excuse to drink on Sunday nights, so bOObs let's drink fuckyeahhammboOOobs!!!!
The second verse is an honest evocation of working class escape, kinda Minutemen in the verses, REM in the chorus. So good. And I don't know what you were doing at 22-23 years old, but Farrar was writing this. What a dick, right?
UNCLE TUPELO - GUN
Toad's Place, New Haven, CT February 26, 1991 Opening for The Replacements
It's totally appropriate that the band was opening for the Replacements here. The Mats inspired pretty much every no bullshit indie rock 'n' roll band of the era and Uncle Tupelo was no exception. This show (and short tour) can certainly can be seen as a symbolic passing of the kickass Midwestern indie rock band torch.
Jeff Tweedy's first undisputed grade A anthem is as good a Westerberg homage as you're gonna find, with the line "Climbing up the ladder/Breaking my shin on the very first rung" an explicit nod (as good as a wink) to the opening lines of "Bastards Of Young": "God, what a mess on the ladder of success/When you take one step and miss the whole first rung."
On a related note, how good was 1991 for great opening songs on classic albums? Here's my Top 5, with 1-3 virtually interchangeable, and the same for 4-5. FYI, this was originally a Top 4, but somehow I overlooked my favorite Dinosaur Jr song on my favorite Dinosaur Jr album, Green Mind. Unacceptable, had to be corrected.
OK, so not a great video. Light is for shit and a fucking balloon blocks sightlines in the last :45, but the sound is good and I believe we have the first Farrar w/Gibson SG sighting. Lyrically, this is untouchable, another visionary, yet heartfelt, drinking class broadside. You may know that I'm not typically a lyrics guy, but song after Uncle Tupelo song is Farrar spinning lyrical gems. At some point, you have to take notice.
this tightwire act leaving us here for dead to news of the world and liquor piles up ahead dodging those with words of power forever on their breath when the quality of life gets tripped up and strangled like death it seems it's getting harder out there especially without time enough to see
In terms of musical continuum, where Creedence and Neil Young were templates for Uncle Tupelo, all three were templates for Slobberbone. I think Brent Best may have heard "True To Life" a time or two. But, this is the way music is supposed to work. Good ideas stay good ideas because new artists add their twist to the formula.
UNCLE TUPELO - PUNCH DRUNK
Toad's Place, New Haven, CT March 2, 1992
Hard to believe this band was two weeks away from recording an all-acoustic country/folk album. Once again at Toad's Place, the band sounds killer, with Farrar on SG, and the Heidorn/Tweedy rhythm section in top form. Sadly, this was one of Mike's final shows with UT, his final gig coming a few weeks later, on April 23 at Mississippi Nights.
"Punch Drunk" is kind of perfect here since it was the last of Uncle Tupelo's great stop-start, Heidorn-heavy punk rockers. That element of the band was so fundamental for so long, and it more or less ended with Mike's departure. Not that Uncle Tupelo stopped rocking, they just learned to rock in a different way. For example ...
UNCLE TUPELO - POSTCARD
Mabel's, Champaign, IL November 11, 1992
Did I mention that Still Feel Gone is my favorite record of the 1990s? That being the case, I have to follow up "Punch Drunk" with "Postcard." It's a rule. Plus, I have to show some love to the Postcard community, the one-time Uncle Tupelo-centric "mailing list," that is now way more catholic in its discussion points. For example, a question to the list now might be, "Why was I programmed to feel pain?" whereas back in the day it might've been, "How was Bill Belzer as a replacement on drums for Mike Heidorn?"
I'm glad you asked that, fictious Postcard member from the past. Bill Belzer was only in Uncle Tupelo for six months, but I think he's excellent here. Nails all the Heidorn fills. Farrar steals the show, though, with his feral guitar tone, especially the solo from 1:50-2:14. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't he playing a 1950s Gibson TV Special a la Johnny Thunders? Also, rhetorical question: If this guitar sound were available to you as a creative outlet, why in God's name would you ever go away from it???
FUN FACT: The Primatives opened for Johnny Thunders at Mississippi Nights on April 2, 1986.
UNCLE TUPELO - WHISKEY BOTTLE
Jake's, Bloomington, IN November 10, 1992
Speaking of alternate history, why not posit the alternate Uncle Tupelo history in which Brian Henneman joins the band following the March sessions as second guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, occasional vocalist, and lukewarm water betwixt Tweedy's fire and Farrar's ice? It's not totally out of the realm of possibility. He was a roadie, second guitarist, and all-around UT fix-it-man anyway, as well as a founding member of Coffee Creek, the Tupelo country-rock side project that played together 4 times. You do Anodyne, but now with Henneman, which can only be a good thing circa 1993. Maybe he extends the life of the band only another 2-3 albums, but that still means another 2-3 Uncle Tupelo albums.
An extended UT inherently means all those early Son Volt and Wilco songs are now Uncle Tupelo songs. Is this necessarily a negative? I know it's strange to contemplate, but how could "Windfall" and "Passenger Side" under the Uncle Tupelo aegis possibly be bad thing? Weird sure, but musically it would have to go out of its way to be anything less than superb. And maybe the Bottle Rockets never happen, which is too bad. On the other hand, "Kerosene" and "Indianapolis" in Bizarro Uncle Tupelo is a pretty decent consolation prize.
UNCLE TUPELO - SATAN, YOUR KINGDOM MUST COME DOWN
Palomino, North Hollywood, CA February 26, 1993
One of the earlyish shows with Ken Coomer on drums and Max Johnston on fiddle, but 3-4 months before John Stirratt joined on bass. Remember from my recent visit to the March album that the recorded "Satan" is led by Henneman's bouzouki. Here, 11 months after the recording, Johnston makes the song his own. Max was the secret weapon of Uncle Tupelo mk 2, the glue guy who held the disparate elements together playing everything with strings, including I believe some sort of Klingon dulcimer. In fact, you could make a strong argument that Max Johnston is the secret weapon of nearly every album he's ever appeared on, beginning with Anodyne in 1993, and continuing through his stints in Wilco, Freakwater, and since 1999, The Gourds.
UNCLE TUPELO - THE LONG CUT
Conan O'Brien Show February 21, 1994
It's a shame that Farrar looks like he'd rather be getting dental surgery than playing Tweedy's song on national television. That said, you cannot deny Jay's vicious guitar tone throughout. Dude could release the Kraken. Max's lap steel is a nice touch for the in-between parts when you can actually hear him. Band drama aside, this is a great fucking song and deserved to be foisted on the American public. "The Long Cut" is a first ballot hall of famer.
At this point, UT is on borrowed time. They have about 30 shows remaining and just under 10 weeks left in the tank. Better see 'em while you can.
UNCLE TUPELO - ATOMIC POWER
Mississippi Nights, St. Louis April 30, 1994
Uncle Tupelo's penultimate show and this old Louvin Brothers chestnut brings us nearly full circle. It was this song that Farrar, Tweedy, and Peter Buck bonded over following UT's first show in Athens (at the 40 Watt, 7/10/90), when they opened with it. That meeting, of course, set the stage for March 16-20, 1992. Here "Atomic Power" receives the Max Johnston fiddle treatment, ergo, makes it better.
UNCLE TUPELO - LOOKING FOR A WAY OUT
Mississippi Nights, St. Louis May 1, 1994
The first (and to date only) Uncle Tupelo reunion brings us full circle. Mike Heidorn came back for the final two songs at the final Uncle Tupelo show. I think this is particularly special because "Looking For A Way Out" comes from their best album (in my opinion), Still Feel Gone. Also, the reunion brings out the best in all three band members, especially Farrar and Tweedy, who obviously relish the opportunity to play one last time with their old friend. It's a great moment lucky enough to be caught on film.
Such a stellar song, "Looking For A Way Out" is the obvious precursor to Slobberbone's "That Is All," but I think it also anticipates "Distopian Dream Girl" off Built To Spill's classic, There's Nothing Wrong With Love (1994). This comparison makes sense when you consider that Doug Martsch's role as lead guitarist in his power trio wasn't all that different from Farrar's role in the old power trio version of UT.
I spoke earlier of the musical continuum. It's worth noting that the one song to appear on Uncle Tupelo, Slobberbone, and Built To Spill setlists: "Cortez The Killer." Discuss amongst yourselves.
UNCLE TUPELO/COFFEE CREEK - GIMME THREE STEPS
Mississippi Nights, St. Louis May 1, 1994
And so the Uncle Tupelo story ends here, with a little Skynyrd. Possibly more Coffee Creek than UT proper, it's nevertheless the end of the road. We're exactly a month away from the 18-year anniversary of this final show, can you believe that shit? Actually, if you really want your mind blown, consider this timeline fact.
Uncle Tupelo's first show was June 30, 1987
Uncle Tupelo's last show was May 1, 1994
The duration between those two dates is 6 years, 10 months, 1 day. The current incarnation of Wilco, a band once seemingly fraught with change, has basically been in place since spring 2004. That's almost 8 years, over a year longer than the entirety of Uncle Tupelo. Stupid ravages of time.
If you've come this far, thank you for your patience. Uncle Tupelo is one of my favorite bands ever, and one of the indisputably great, yet tragically short-lived American rock 'n' roll bands that includes Creedence, Nirvana, The Minutemen, and the Velvet Underground. Every now and then it's good to be reminded of how awesome they were.
"No more will I see you No more will I see you No more will I see you."
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About The Adios Lounge
The Adios Lounge began in April 2008 when an old-school record collector came to terms with these new-school webs and tubes. The blog name comes from a Thelonious Monster song. If you don't know who that is, stick around and you'll find out. Some other faves include Sam Cooke, Clarence White, Grand Champeen, Superchunk, Doug Sahm, Uncle Tupelo, Funkadelic, Minutemen, Roger Miller, and Richard Pryor. But hey, enough of my yakkin'. Whaddaya say? Let's boogie.
Contact Me
Please direct any questions, complaints, offers of valuable cash prizes, and critical plaudits to Lance Davis at: pantsfucious@gmail.com.
