Chit-Chat Check-In #156 Transcript

Hello, this is your Captain speaking, from Albuquerque. It has to be one of the only cities with two Qs in its name. Maybe one of the only words? I can’t think of many words like that. I’m sure you’ll remind me in the comments. It’s pretty unusual. I like it. I want to put two Qs in my name somehow. Jeff… Quetwqueedy…

Anyway, this is a request. Thanks for all the requests, that was very nice of you to take the time to request songs. A lot of you want me to sing REM songs, which I tried. And a lot of them, I’m not very good at. Maybe I’ll keep trying.

But I the meantime, this song was right in my wheelhouse. Mott the Hoople, “I Wish I Was Your Mother.” I think I’ve been playing this song since even Uncle Tupelo days. Definitely early Wilco did it a fair amount. I’ve done it with Scott McCaughey. I’d done it with Golden Smog, I think. It’s one of my favorites, just a great song. It’s such an evocative and weird lyric. Beautifully empathetic and sad.

I tried to do an acoustic version, where I don’t really scream it. Because he kind of shouts the song, and it’s great, it’s glorious. But the soft vocal version—I’m not even going to let you hear it. It just doesn’t communicate. So I had to stand up and sing full-throated. The iPhone doesn’t quite record things as well, in my opinion, when you’re bashing away.

But I thought it was worth sharing, since you requested it, with a little bit of an explanation—that I think you really should stand up and sing this song. In the original key, if you can, because that’s where it really lives and breathes. The key of A.

All right, carry on.