WEST revisited

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the list has those artists on it as the one thing they all have in common is that they are fearless when it comes to their art. They are all risk takers and when you have that element you are going to have some experiments that might not work at times. But that risk taking also leads to greatness also. Lucinda is obviously particular about what she puts out but she is also very brave in that aspect. (i’ve always wanted to write a piece on why I think World Without Tears is one the riskiest records put out in a long long time-maybe ever) I think Wrap My Head underlines her fearlessness. Did we know it was potentially a “divisive” track, to use Popmatters word–yes definitely we knew it was something really different -we viewed it a talking blues done by the Velvet Underground. Could it have been left off-I suppose but we wanted some variety and the record felt different without it. The irony is that i’ve always been disappointed that we actually had a longer version where at the end Bill Frisell goes really psycho on the guitar -think Jimi Hendrix goes to mars-and Doug is right there dueling with him. Somewhere along the way most of that got edited out and I think now that that big crazy payoff at the end really needed to be there. With a track like that you gotta have that payoff but of course at that point is would’ve been about 12 minutes long. One of the greatest studio memories I personally have is summoning up the courage to tell one of our greatest living musicians, Mr. Frisell to “just go for it” at the end of Wrap My Head and he said “ok” and proceeded to play some of the most ferocious guitar I’ve ever heard. Unfortuntely it all didn’t make the cut, but probably just as well as it was pretty out there. But it was noting compared the completely off the hook version of Bone Of Contention that we tried during the Little Honey recordings -now that was really out there, but that’s another story.

I wish I could -but it’s buried somewhere in the multitracks -I don’t think we never printed off a copy of the 12 minute version-but I might go back and see what i do have.

i really, really love this album. i wasn’t sure at first, and it was a slow burn, but it has stayed with me and had hundreds of listens since its release, especially in darker times.

i think a lot of the negative reviews at the time were unfair and kind of missed the point. there seems to be this critical viewpoint that since car wheels lucinda’s songwriting has become “lazier”, which doesn’t seem fair at all. the melodies on west fit perfectly with the album’s content.

the title track has to be one of my favourite all time songs.

I have actually come to think that West is the definitely best Lucinda Williams album, it’s movement from rockers to ballads, both sweet and sad, with guitars and orchestrations, is gentle and spacious. The words have a meaning, and you feel it by heart, this is a real piece of not only brilliant music and art, it’s something as rare as a trip along someones road of life.