Chit-Chat Check-In #112 Transcript

Hello, this is your Captain speaking. I lost a dear friend this past week. I'm sure a lot of you are aware that the great songwriter Bill Fay passed away. It was sort of sudden. I think he hadn't been well for a while. And it was sort of sudden based on the fact that we were gearing up to do so more collaborating. And that got put on the back burner, and then it went away pretty quickly. And it was really sad.

If you aren't familiar with Bill Fay's music, you should definitely spend some time listening to him when you have a chance, and in his honor. Really one of my favorite songwriters of all time. I still remember the moment Jim O'Rourke played Bill Fay's record Time of the Last Persecution for me at his apartment in Chicago, and just immediately feeling like I couldn't believe that this record wasn't already in my life. And it quickly felt like it had been in my life my whole life. And his first record is so beautiful also. We listened to both--just incredible records. Very, very unique phrasing. Really hard--it's deceptively simple, a lot of the lyric writing is just so precise and economical. It's actually kind of hard to recreate.

Over time, Wilco got in touch with Bill Fay. And over three different trips to the UK, we eventually talked him into getting on stage with us and playing "Be Not So Fearful." I believe it was his first time on stage in 30 years at that point. He said he didn't quit the music industry, but the music industry quit him. And that's where he landed on how he ended up in somewhat obscurity for a long period of time.

I think Bill was the highest ratio of beauty and talent and artistry to humility of anybody I've ever met. One of the most gentle humans I've ever met. To illustrate that, I always tell the story of when he came for soundcheck, the time that we got him to jump up on stage with us in London, when he walked on stage and he had a ladybug on the lapel of his jacket. And I pointed it out to him and he said, "Oh, she made it." Because he had taken the train into London, and I guess it was from his garden. That sums up Bill pretty perfectly, I think. He didn't want to hurt anybody, physically or even with his ego. I think he wanted his ego to be out of the way of everybody else's.

Just beautiful to have gotten to know him. He covered "Jesus, Etc." on one of his records, which was an incredible honor. He was always very generous in his assessments of the music I put into the world. He always let me know what he loved, and he supported a lot of songs that a lot of people weren't that into. One in particular, "Everlasting Everything." Bill was very, very deeply moved by that song, and he let me know. Which is one of the things I learned from Bill. That feels so good. You should let people know. Let people know when you've ... give it everything you've got. Don't hold that shit back.

Interestingly enough, Bill was so humble, yet he was unabashed in this knowledge of what was written about him, and what people were saying about him. It meant a lot to him, because that's how he found out who was listening to him. And I thought that was really sweet, and kind of the way it should be. I don't think you should be embarrassed by wanting to know some acknowledgment. Wanting to ... he needed the ego strokes. He put this thing out into the world that was so beautiful, and he wanted to know that it found people. I don't see how that could ever be wrong.

I think there is, obviously, a danger when you get to a certain point of navel-gazing, when you're just spending a lot of time narcissistically pursuing compliments, and things written about you. And getting bent out of shape about things written about you that are negative. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just talking about being sincerely appreciative of being appreciated. And that's what I think Bill really illustrated for me at a younger age. This was a while ago now.

We'll miss Bill. This is a song from his record Countless Branches that came out in 2020. I just played last night and Spencer and I did a version of "Filled with Wonder Once Again" for a little bit of a promo campaign when they had different artists cover songs from off of the record. I think they were put out as singles. We're going to share that here also.

Otherwise, you know, hang in there (laughs). There's a lot going on. But there's no lack of wonder to be filled with.

Take care. Carry on.