Wilco – How to Fight Loneliness

I first heard of Wilco from the song Secret of the Sea by Billy Bragg and Wilco for the album Mermaid Avenue Volume II. I started to follow them more closely and learned a lot from bloggers about them. 

Wilco was formed in 1994 in Chicago, Illinois, following the breakup of Uncle Tupelo. The band was founded by Jeff Tweedy, along with former Uncle Toledo members John Stirratt, Ken Coomer, and Max Johnston. Over the years, Wilco evolved from an alternative country sound into a more experimental and genre-blending style. After this album, their sound changed from the alt-country sound they had with Uncle Tupelo.  

What first jumps out with this song is the acoustic in front with a small amount of reverb. It takes me back a little to John Lennon’s version of Stand By Me. I can’t get enough of that sound. The song started with Tweedy at the piano. It was written around a repeating chord pattern and a vocal line that doesn’t try to do too much.

This was on the album Summerteeth, released in 1999. It was their 3rd studio album. From listening to them recently, Wilco had already moved past the alt-country tag that followed them after Uncle Tupelo. Being There opened the door. Summerteeth walked through it and didn’t look back. I really like this album.

From what I’ve read, there was tension during the making of the album. Jay Bennett’s role grew, and he and Tweedy wrote most of the album. So did the friction. Multi-tracking replaced some of the earlier live feel. Drummer Ken Coomer has said parts were built in sections rather than full takes. The band was evolving in real time, and not everyone was comfortable with the shift. Still, the focus was on getting the songs right, even if that meant reworking them again and again, and they did a great job.

The album peaked at #78 on the Billboard Album Charts and #38 in the UK in 1999. 

How To Fight Loneliness

How to fight loneliness
Smile all the time
Shine you teeth til meaningless
Sharpen them with lies

And whatevers going down
Will follow you around
Thats how you fight loneliness
You laugh at every joke
Drag your blanket blindly
Fill your heart with smoke
And the first thing that you want
Will be the last thing you ever need
Thats how you fight it

Just smile all the time
Just smile all the time
Just smile all the time
Just smile all the time

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

17 thoughts on “Wilco – How to Fight Loneliness”

  1. Pingback: Wilco – How to Fight Loneliness – MobsterTiger

  3. I have that album, I should put it on sometime soon, it’s been long enough that I couldn’t remember off the top of my head how this song goes. ‘Summerteeth’ was the first indication they could expand their range beyond alt-country, which is a sound they do well, mind you

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  4. Wilco (Tweedy) are hard to keep up with. I was on board for the first few records but their output got away from me. Cool thing is it’s there when I want to reacquaint and I know it will be worth it. You were lucky to have your first taste with the Guthrie albums . Fantastic stuff.

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  5. This is a sweet’n’sour number, some lovely lines that say more depth of meaning in a few words than a paragraph. ‘Smile all the time / Shine your teeth till meaningless / Sharpen them with Lies.’ Some reckon Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was their big breakthrough moment in easing away from the Alt/Country base. Maybe so, but for me the new road map starts here. ‘Via Chicago’ then ramping up and away to ‘ELT’ back to the flakily fabulous ‘My Darling’ then back up to ‘A Shot In The Arm.’ Or two shots in the arm on this album! Overall, one of my favourite Wilco albums.

    I believe I remember a snippet of this in an episode of ‘How I Met Your Mother?’

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    1. I’m starting to look at them more and more recently. I do like a lot of their lyrics and I know if you like them…they do write well.
      I’ve never seen that but that is interesting. I just start listening to albums…and the first song that catches my ear I do….I love the sound of that acoustic and organ in this one.

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      1. The sound is downbeat and sounds lonely, just not in the usual slow and spare way it’s often used to show. That echoey slow style- it’s not quite the right example but along the lines of Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game.’

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