This week, the Song Spotlight shines on the lead-off track, and first single from their third studio album, Summerteeth:
“Can’t Stand It” (Jay Bennett, Jeff Tweedy)
Jay Bennett piano, keyboards
John Stirratt bass
Ken Coomer drums
This shiny, XTC-ish rocker was written at request of Reprise after Wilco turned in the first mix of Summerteeth. In an echo of Tom Petty’s line from his 1991 song “Into The Great Wide Open” (“The A&R man said, I don’t hear a single”), Jeff Tweedy went off and wrote this song and recorded it with Wilco, before department head David Kahne remixed it in hopes of getting radio airplay.
“Well, we really wanted to make a pop record,” Tweedy told Rolling Stone’s Richard Skanse in 1999. “Warner Bros didn’t think we had a single until we recorded ‘Can’t Stand It.’ They didn’t think we had anything that could be played on the radio, and we were like, But these are our idea of pop songs. We think they should all be on the radio.
Even with its added bells (literally) and whistles, however, ‘Can’t Stand It’ peaked at #4 on the Triple-A Modern Rock chart, and failed to crossover to the Alternative charts.
However, the song peaked at #67 on the UK Singles Chart, which remains their highest charting single on that chart. This actually isn’t a bad ranking for a song that’s key line is “no love’s as random as God’s love,” and “your prayers will never be answered again.”
Despite being made to order, the song is one of Wilco’s reliable rockers; they’ve played it on every tour, resulting in over 150 individual performances.
A primo live version from the Riviera Theatre in Chicago on May 7, 1999, was released on the compilation CD, On XRT From The Archives Volume 5, and later found a home on the 2014 box set, Alpha Mike Foxtrot: Rare Tracks 1994-2014.
This is an edited excerpt from Wilcopedia by Daniel Cook Johnson, published by Jawbone Press (www.jawbonepress.com). Order your copy here.
More later...
No comments:
Post a Comment