Hell Is Chrome (London hotel version)

Chaos reigns

Edinburgh stirring up some ancestral memory. Weird.

Here’s a quick sketch of “Hell Is Chrome.” Wilco recently started playing this song again so it was in the front of my mind. It’s always been such a piano song to me that I’ve very rarely attempted to put it across on acoustic. Trying to mimic the gospel-y climbs reminds me of why this song gets passed over at solo shows. It’s a high-wire act and I rarely make it without a fairly major flub. This recording has a significant flub, but not a major one. I hope you don’t mind.

Lyrically, I have to say this song is holding up a little bit too well over time for my comfort level. A lot of people really craving straight lines and nuance-free horizons. Ain’t gonna happen. Chaos reigns. And it sure gets hellish when people try to impose some arbitrary sense of order on an indifferent universe.

Now, when I sing this song I feel the lyric “come with me” not so much as a solicitation of surrender to the dark, but more as an invitation to walk side-by-side into the not-knowing. Together. Hand in hand. Towards the light.

Thank you for being there. OxO

This Week In Wilco, Etc.

2022 / August 28: Wilco plays the Beach Road Weekend in Martha’s Vineyard, MA and shares the bill with Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, Neal Francis, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, and others. Jason Isbell sits in on electric guitar on “California Stars.”

1993 / August 31: Uncle Tupelo is in Odense, Denmark at the Rytmeposten. Their 21-song set ends with covers of “Suzy Q,” written by Dale Hawkins and “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone,” written by Glenn Martin and Dave Kirby and first released by Charley Pride, later by the Texas Tornadoes.

2023 / September 1: A special blue vinyl reissue of Sky Blue Sky is released by Nonesuch in a limited edition.

Hell Is Chrome (London hotel version)