World Within a Song
Revealing my shiny, new, gold-n-blue book cover
Hello! Here it is. That’s the cover of my new book, World Within a Song, which comes out in November. My THIRD book!1 Who’d a thunk it. Take it in. Get a load of it. I know I’ve talked about it and linked to the online listing before, but I think now is a good time to tell you about what’s inside. It’s a book where I revel in the personal stories and emotions that have been absorbed into 50 songs by other artists. Interspersed throughout I’ve included my Pulitzer-adjacent Rememories, some originally published on Starship Casual, some new.
So… Why am I writing this book now? To quote from the book’s introduction, the truth is, I should’ve written this book first, and I would have if I’d had any wherewithal and confidence from the get-go. This book is the one I probably would have written first if I were more ambitious, and if I had been a little more clear-eyed about what I care most for in this world, and what I’ve thought about the most by far. Other people’s songs. And how much they have taught me about how to be human—how to think about myself and others. And how deeply personal and universally vast the experience of listening to almost anything with intent and openness can be.
And how did I come up with the particular list of songs in the book? I could have easily chosen a thousand other songs to write about. And having finished that book, I would regret the omission of a thousand other songs. Those in World Within a Song are just those that came to me first. Besides, the specifics of the songs themselves isn’t really the point. What’s important to me to convey is how miraculous songs are. It doesn’t matter how many people hear “A Day in the Life”—there is only one version that belongs to you. Mine has little to do with yours. Our appraisals might align but I doubt your relationship to the song includes a memory of waiting for doors to open at an all-ages Jodie Foster’s Army concert on Laclede’s Landing in St. Louis. With a flooding Mississippi River raging down Wharf St. and heaving up onto the steps of the Gateway Arch. Mind melting down on mushrooms watching a husband and wife duo sing “A Day in the Life” while their toddler does laps around you keeping shockingly good time on a tambourine.
Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy the book when it comes out, and I’m glad I got to tell you a little bit more about it today.
This Week In Wilco, Etc.
1990 / June 19: Uncle Tupelo’s No Depression is released on Rockville Records and the band appears on KWUR in St. Louis to play songs from the album live. That night they perform at Cicero’s Basement Bar for the first night of a two-night record release party. The Hilltops open.
1969 / June 21: Happy Birthday, Pat Sansone!
1998 / June 23: Mermaid Avenue by Billy Bragg & Wilco is released by Elektra Records.
2017 / June 23: Wilco’s 30-song performance at Solid Sound is a live performance of the entire Being There double album in the main set, with the entire Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album as an encore. Both are later officially issued as Roadcase #64.
There’s also a what you say? A book of… poetry? Hmmm… doesn’t ring a bell.
I have been holding this comment in my back pocket since the early days of the Starship. During the Sunday set at Solid Sound '22 during The Red Brick/Warm my life changed and I felt it. Visibly my life looks very similar but as I stood barefoot in Joe's Field I realized how important music is to me and that my younger self was right, not about a lot but definitely about music. It IS that important.
I put my TV away and spent WAAAY too much money on 2 channel audio. I haven't been happier in a long time, maybe ever. Good job Captain! Looking forward to the book.
I’m reminded—well, hit over the head is more like it—almost every day how important songs are in my life, and how that sets me apart (not always in a positive way) from so many of my longtime friends and almost everyone in my family. I’ve come to realize that most people, in my orbit at least, don’t relate current events, personal relationships, work experiences, etc. to song lyrics or the feelings evoked by listening to music. So I spent a lot of my life feeling like the weird outsider who always had slightly askew reactions, wondering where my soul brothers and sisters were. Listening to music has always been a priority in my life, from preteen years listening to albums on headphones while reading lyric sheets, to going to concerts throughout my adult years and at some lucky/mysterious/magical point in my life finding Wilco—and you. Something inexplicable about your music reached deep into my soul and captured me, and the magic persists and just grows deeper over time. And the most amazing and unexpected benefit of this soul-deep appreciation is the incredible community of friends—the soul brothers and sisters I craved—who have come into my life through you. I could probably write about this forever, but I’ll restrain myself for now and just say that I feel lucky beyond belief to feel this connection. And the luckiest thing of all is that you are still searching, still vital, still wildly creative and still filled with the urge to connect. Above all, connection. Nobody does it like you. I am so grateful for that and I look forward to every new thing you put into the world. It’s all been so enriching.