Wilco – Alpha Romeo Tango |

Wilco
“Alpha Romeo Tango”

A Yankee Hotel Foxtrot companion box-set compiled by David Sadowski in an attempt to trace the creative evolution of Jeff Tweedy, Wilco, and their music from the release of Summerteeth to the release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Source: various
Extracted and converted using EAC (secure) and FLAC Frontend

Disc 1:
01 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot transmission*
02 Can’t Stand It (Wilco, NYC – 4/21/1999)
04 Cars Can’t Escape (Tweedy & Bennett, KCRW – 5/23/1999)
06 I’m The Man Who Loves You (Tweedy & JP, Chicago – 6/15/1999)
07 Good Chinese Apple (Tweedy, Chicago – 6/15/1999)
09 Kamera (K-Settes, Chicago – 9/11/1999)
11 That Wind That Blows (Tweedy, Chicago – 1/4/2000)
13 I’m The Man Who Loves You (Tweedy, Chicago – 1/4/2000)
15 Ashes Of American Flags (Tweedy, Chicago – 1/4/2000)
16 Heavy Metal Drummer (Tweedy, Chicago – 1/4/2000)
18 Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard (Tweedy, Chicago – 1/4/2000)
20 Pecan Pie (Tweedy, Chicago – 1/4/2000)
22 No Church Tonight (Wilco, Chicago – 1/9/2000)
24 Not For The Season (Tweedy & O’Rourke, Chicago – 5/14/2000)
26 Good Chinese Apple (Tweedy & O’Rourke, Chicago – 5/14/2000)
*Plus audio samples from clandestine “Numbers” Radio Stations

Disc 2:
02 Rock Salt And Nails (Tweedy & O’Rourke, Chicago – 5/14/2000)
04 Organ Song (T-Rex) (Tweedy & O’Rourke, Chicago – 5/14/2000)
06 Ashes Of American Flags (Wilco, Camden – 7/3/2000)
08 Ashes Of American Flags (Wilco, Columbia – 7/23/2000)
09 I’m The Man Who Loves You (Wilco, Columbia – 7/23/2000)
11 Ashes Of American Flags (Wilco, San Francisco 7/31/2000)
13 I’m The Man Who Loves You (Wilco, Chicago – 8/12/2000)
15 I’m The Man Who Loves You (Tweedy, Chicago – 9/12/2000)
16 Alone (Tweedy, Chicago – 9/12/2000)
18 Lost Love (Tweedy, Chicago – 9/12/2000)
20 This Ain’t No Lounge Ax (Tweedy, Chicago – 9/13/2000)
22 Magazine (Tweedy, Chicago – 9/13/2000)
24 I’m The Man Who Loves You (Wilco, NYC – 9/19/2000)
25 Ashes Of American Flags (Wilco, NYC – 9/19/2000)
27 Reservations (Wilco, Chicago – 11/22/2000)
29 War On War (Tweedy & Kotche, Chicago – 12/17/2000)
*Plus audio samples from clandestine “Numbers” Radio Stations

Disc 3:
02 Heavy Metal Drummer (Tweedy & Kotche, Chicago – 12/17/2000)
04 Cars Can’t Escape (Tweedy & Kotche, Chicago – 12/17/2000)
06 Not For The Season (Tweedy & Kotche, Chicago – 12/17/2000)
08 Ashes Of American Flags (Tweedy & Kotche, Chicago – 12/17/2000)
10 I’m The Man Who Loves You (Tweedy & Kotche, Chicago – 12/17/2000)
12-49 clips from the film “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” (filming began 1/19/2001)
51 Not For The Season (Tweedy, NYC – 2/26/2001)
53 War On War (Tweedy, NYC – 2/26/2001)
55 I’m The Man Who Loves You (Tweedy, NYC – 2/26/2001)
57 Heavy Metal Drummer (Tweedy, NYC – 2/26/2001)
59 I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (Tweedy, NYC – 2/26/2001)
*Plus audio samples from clandestine “Numbers” Radio Stations

Disc 4:
02 Ashes Of American Flags (Tweedy, NYC – 2/26/2001)
04 Monkey Mess (Tweedy, Seattle – 3/4/2001)
05 Pecan Pie (Tweedy, Seattle – 3/4/2001)
07 Kamera (Tweedy, Portland – 3/5/2001)
09 Not For The Season (Wilco, Chicago – 5/2/2001)
11 Reservations (Tweedy, Chicago – 5/4/2001)
13 Heavy Metal Drummer (Tweedy, Chicago – 5/4/2001)
15 I’m The Man Who Loves You (Wilco, Chicago – 5/4/2001)
16 War On War (Wilco, Chicago – 5/4/2001)
18 Kamera (Wilco, Chicago – 5/4/2001)
20 War On War (Wilco, Milwaukee – 7/2/2001)
22 Ashes Of American Flags (Wilco, Milwaukee – 7/2/2001)
24 I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (Wilco, Chicago – 7/4/2001)
25 War On War (Wilco, Chicago – 7/4/2001)
27 Kamera (Wilco, Chicago – 7/4/2001)
28 Ashes Of American Flags (Wilco, Chicago – 7/4/2001)
30 I’m The Man Who Loves You (Wilco, Chicago – 7/4/2001)
*Filled out with samples from “numbers” spy radio stations

Disc 5:
02 Retrieval Of You (The Minus 5, Chicago – 9/15/2001)
04 War On War (Wilco, Chicago – 9/15/2001)
06 I’m The Man Who Loves You (Wilco, Chicago – 9/15/2001)
07 Ashes Of American Flags (Wilco, Chicago – 9/15/2001)
09 I Wish I Was Your Mother (The Minus 5, Chicago – 9/15/2001)
11 War On War (Wilco, Chicago – 9/18/2001)
13 I’m The Man Who Loves You (Wilco, Chicago – 9/18/2001)
15 Ashes Of American Flags (Wilco, Chicago – 9/18/2001)
17 I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (Wilco, NYC – 9/27/2001)
19 War On War (Wilco, NYC – 9/27/2001)
21 Ashes Of American Flags (Wilco, NYC – 9/27/2001)
22 Kamera (Wilco, NYC – 9/27/2001)
24 I’m The Man Who Loves You (Wilco, NYC – 9/27/2001)
26 Reservations (Wilco, NYC – 9/27/2001)
28 On A Private Beach In Michigan (Tweedy, Chicago – 11/18/2001)
29 Be Not So Fearful (Tweedy, Chicago – 11/18/2001)
Plus audio samples from clandestine “Numbers” Radio Stations

Disc 6:
01 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sample 1 (NATO Phonetic Alphabet)
02-11 More Wilcofilm Audio Clips
12 NNN (English)
13 Improv (Tweedy & Kotche, Chicago – 10/26/2001)
14 NATO Phonetic Alphabet
15 Radio Cure (Wilco, Chicago – 11/24/2001)
16 Letter NU
17 Pot Kettle Black (Wilco, Chicago – 11/24/2001)
18 German Lady
19 Jesus, etc. (Wilco, Chicago – 11/24/2001)
20 NATO Phonetic Alphabet
21 Venus Stopped The Train (Bennett/Burch 1/31/2002)
22 Frank Young Peter
23 On A Private Beach In Michigan (Wilco, Boulder – 3/19/2002)
24 High Pitch Polytone
25 Not For The Season (Wilco, Boulder – 3/19/2002)
26 High Pitch Polytone
27 Be Not So Fearful (Wilco, Boulder – 3/19/2002)
28 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sample 2 (NATO Phonetic Alphabet)

GENERAL NOTES:
“Explain the Alfa Romeo Tango Discs”
They are a do-it-yourself Yankee Hotel Foxtrot companion box set, really. I’ve attempted to trace, through currently available sources, the creative evolution of Jeff Tweedy, Wilco, and their new music from the time Summerteeth was released until the time YHF comes out.

This includes a variety of live versions of the new songs, but also ones that are as of yet unreleased or destined for other projects. For example, at one of his solo shows Jeff opined that “Pecan Pie” might be the best song he’s ever written. It’s not on YHF or any other record… for all we know it may not ever see an official release. [NOTE “Pecan Pie” actually appears on the Golden Smog release Down by the Old Mainstream.]

Same would be true of other songs, like “Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard.” Jeff seems to think of this as a solo song and not a Wilco song.

Then there are songs like “Not for the Season” (aka “Unified Theory of Everything”) that would make great additions to Wilco’s live act but are destined for other projects, like the completed-but-unreleased Tweedy-O’Rourke record “Nuts.”

It’s interesting to hear the evolution of the YHF songs. “I’m the Man Who Loves You” and “Kamera” were first played live in 1999, in versions that are very much different than on YHF.

“Good Chinese Apple” is another unreleased tune that has been played live a few times, but the middle section of the lyric got transferred over to “Heavy Metal Drummer,” so we may not hear it again.

“Cars Can’t Escape” has been played a couple of times, including a poignant version done by Jeff and Jay at KCRW in 1999. Jeff played it at one of the solo shows, and you can hear about a minute of a studio version on one of the documentary film clips. But it didn’t
make the cut for YHF and remains an unreleased outtake.

It’s interesting, to me at least, to hear live versions of YHF songs featuring Ken Coomer and Jay Bennett, especially in light of some recent discussions about the band’s current lineup.

There are also some curios like “Monkey Mess,” a song Jeff wrote with his son Spencer, and “This Ain’t No Lounge Ax,” which Jeff played at two solo shows and may never play again… a song called “Organ Blues” (aka “Feasties of the Beasties”) which turns out to be an old T-Rex number.

More recently, now that the band has finally found a new label, Jeff played a brand new song live (“On a Private Beach in Michigan”) and is championing the music of Bill Fay, an obscure singer-songwriter who recorded a couple of albums around 1970.

Discussions about Jeff’s guitar playing ability might be informed by listening to the 25-minute improv piece he did with Glenn Kotche here in October. It’s almost like a Bill Bruford-Robert Fripp type freakout.

As a linking device between tracks, I’ve included some of the same audio samples that inspired the name and some of the themes of YHF, including the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot transmission.

At any rate, I’ve attempted to put all this material together in one place. “Alfa Romeo Tango” is the name of another spy radio station but it is also an acronym for ART.

Some of the important material we don’t yet have includes the actual YHF demos recorded around August 2000 and the two shows Wilco did at First Avenue in late June.
-David Sadowski (12/4/01)

NOTES on Discs 1-3:
I’ve now completed the first three discs in my YHF companion set, Alfa Romeo Tango. This is my attempt to document the evolution of the YHF record and Jeff/Wilco’s new sound and new material all in one convenient place.

The first two got a bit of a makeover correcting some minor errors. I’d originally put the first version of Kamera on the wrong disc as I got the dates of the “K-Settes” Hideout gig wrong. And Feasties of the Beasties turns out to have been a T-Rex cover called Organ Song.

I also recently obtained The Conet Project CD set, the same collection of samples from spy radio stations that Jeff became so fascinated with. Track four on disc one is the very same “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” clip that gave the album it’s name, and was excerpted on the record and at the 7-4-01 Chicago concert. I decided to make that the very first cut on disc one.

Additional audio clips from these “numbers” stations are used as linking devices between tracks.

I also added a performance of Ashes of American Flags from 7-3-00, which seems to be the first time Wilco played it.

The tracks for disc three are listed here for the first time. Among other things, this disc has all 38 of the audio clips from the upcoming documentary film that have been streamed so far.
-David Sadowski (12/3/01)

NOTES on Disc 4:
The tracklists for discs 1-3 were already posted a while back. Disc four finishes up the Tweedy solo tour and the last few Wilco dates with Jay Bennett, ending in the triumphal July 4th show at Grant Park in Chicago.

“Monkey Mess” is a short novelty song Jeff wrote with his son Spencer. This got played a few times during his 13-show solo tour. “Kamera” wasn’t played that often either.

Wilco also turned up at encore time for Jeff’s two solo shows at Abbey Pub in May, resulting in the first band versions of “Not for the Season” (Tweedy/Stirratt/Kotche psych band power trio), “War on War,” and “Kamera.” The 5-4-01 band version of “I’m the Man Who Loves You” is still my all-time fave rendition of this tune, as the band got into a pretty infectious jazzy groove with it that night.

Tweedy’s solo rendition of “Reservations” earlier the same evening was hauntingly poignant, and would’ve made a more suitable ending to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot than the extended version that was used. Here we also have the final “audience participation” version of “Heavy Metal Drummer.”

“Jesus, etc.” and “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” debuted at two Minneapolis shows at the end of June, but unfortunately, no recordings of these shows have yet surfaced.

Disc 5 will take us up to the present with the four-piece band. The emotional rendition of “Ashes” played in New York on 9-27 will be included, as will the 25-minute instrumental improv piece played by Tweedy and Kotche at The Hideout on 10-26, and the new song Jeff played at Metro on 11-18.
-David Sadowski (11/27/01)

NOTES ON DISC 5:
The last disc ended with the new songs played at Wilco’s magnificent July 4th concert here in Chicago. The next disc starts up two months later with the band as a four-piece.

Retrieval of You is a new song co-written by Scott McCaughey and Jeff, destined for the next Minus 5 opus. I Wish I Was Your Mother is an interesting cover that Jeff later sang live with Ian Hunter, who wrote it (NO! this is not a Bob Dylan tune, just sounds like
one). I don’t have that version so you get this.

I’ve included the new songs the band played live on WXRT three days later, including an interesting “unplugged” version of Ashes of American Flags. It would have take forever to edit down the dialogue from this radio show, which in any case is circulating by itself on a coupla discs.

Then there are live tracks from the band’s emotional show in New York City on 9-27, just two weeks after the terror attacks. This also served as a record company showcase, as the band used their trip to NYC to help shop around Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. (This was the show where my tape got confiscated… as you can see, I managed to get a recording anyway.)

Finally, we have the two songs Jeff played at the Stolen Child benefit on November 18th. This included one excellent brand new song and an interesting Bill Fay cover.
-David Sadowski (01/07/02)Wilco
“Alpha Romeo Tango”