Jay Farrar (L) and Jeff Tweedy of Uncle Tupelo in 1990-91
This is for my buddy, Lex, who bemoaned the lack of Blue Note videos in my recent video history of Uncle Tupelo. Fair enough. The Blue Note is a bar in Columbia, Missouri, the “three hour away town” of “Whiskey Bottle” fame, and according to Factory Belt, UT played there twelve times between 1988-94. Inasmuch as a road show could be considered a home-away-from-home, the Blue Note was it. That said, what up with all the chatty Cathys?!?! I call bullshit. Lex, you need to go back in time and fix this.
Uncle Tupelo, Sauget Wind
Blue Note, Columbia, MO
November 13, 1992
“Sauget (So-Jay) Wind” was actually cut during the Still Feel Gone sessions, but kept off the album because it sounded too much like “Whiskey Bottle.” That factoid is straight from Farrar, who I interviewed for The Stranger in winter 1995-96. I think that’s a basically accurate comparison, but how in the hell does sounding like “Whiskey Bottle” turn into a fireable offense? Who fucking thinks that way? I can just see Reprise going to Neil Young during Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, “Neil … babe … you can have ‘Down By The River’ or you can have ‘Cowgirl,’ but you CANNOT have both. The last thing your fans want to hear are 9-10 minute guitar jams. Now, how about writing something peppy that my 10-year-old granddaughter will like.”
“Sauget Wind” may have been left off SFG, but it was released as a single in spring 1992 on badass, light blue/gray vinyl (pictured left). I think it’s one of three songs where Uncle Tupelo showed their total mastery of the quietLOUDquiet musical dynamic. “Whiskey Bottle” was the first, this was next, and their cover of Creedence‘s “Effigy” is the third.
“Sauget” is basically a folk song with a catalog of social ills: unchecked capitalism, industrial pollution, prescription drug abuse (a decade before that went mainstream), possible cancer and bankruptcy, and if all that wasn’t bad enough, the goddamn weather guy is lying to us! Of course, we also get Jay Farrar’s periodic guitar squalls, or as I like to call it, Farrarmageddon. Think about how great Still Feel Gone is, then add this to it. You’re encroaching on all-time territory with that offering.
“Industrial wind
It blows from the west
It’ll burn out your eyes
And suck out your breath
It’s waiting in the wings
For damage down the line
Save your tears for the soaps
Leave your money behind.”
WATCHIN’ THE LABEL SPINNIN’ ON MY TURNTABLE
The Uncle Tupelo singles box
If you’re an Uncle Tupelo fan and vinyl collector you probably already know this. But, you can preorder the long-waited vinyl reissues of No Depression, Still Feel Gone, and March-16-20, 1992, as well as a box set reissue of their three singles and a new single, “That Year” b/w “Pickle River (pictured right). Next Monday, April 23, is the official release date, so I suppose all this stuff will be readily available after than.
In my opinion, these are the three main options for any real Uncle Tupelo fan. You can get the albums or get the singles, but why the hell wouldn’t you just buy it all???
No Depression + Still Feel Gone + March 16-20, 1992 + 7″ Box – $105
No Depression + Still Feel Gone + March 16-20, 1992 Vinyl Bundle – $50
”Farrarmageddon” so awesome.
Thanks, Lance, I'm humbled. I've now had roughly 7.5 of my 15 minutes of (cyber) fame (or do we only get 7.5 min. of cyber-fame?) and could now happily disappear into obscurity. Perhaps, I'll achieve further notoriety if I can pull off that time-travel trick, but I digress … Where is my DeLorean anyway?
Much as it will bring down scorn upon my head (only covered in one of Mizzou's natty new alternate football helmets), I'd never heard of UT when I arrived on the University of Missouri campus in the fall of 1990, though I can vividly recall seeing a poster promoting an upcoming gig of theirs at the Blue Note shortly thereafter. By the time “Farrarmageddon” had ceded the Blue Note's stage to dueling dates by Wilco & Son Volt (seriously, I can recall each playing multiple consecutive nights there in the year immediately following their nearly simultaneous nascence) and I graduated (events occurring at roughly the same time), I'd seen them, perhaps, a half a dozen times, almost all of those shows taking place at the 'Note. It is on the strength of that acquaintance with their live sets, with the 'Note, and, above all, the “three-hour-away-town,” that I can offer an explanation (albeit not an excuse) for all those “chatty Cathys (sp? Cathies?):” Fall of '92 would've been just about the time that their general repute and, more importantly, their repute in the 3HAT had grown to the point that their appeal had broadened to folks who neither worked for nor even listened to the local college station, KCOU. So, as I saw sometimes, at the 'Note, with acts enjoying similar arcs of popularity, I think the crowd captured herein features quite a few who were attending their first UT show and who were, thus, perhaps not as respectful as they ought to have been of a phenomenon that had become sufficiently familiar to be taken somewhat for granted.
Well, thanks to the long-half-life enjoyed by anything published online, I suppose this and, I hope, that special but also very familiar and comfortable happening that was UT visiting the 'Note, is not just “just for now” …
Hi fellas, greeting from across the pond. I’m putting on a UT show 28th April 2014, nearly 20 years after the guys split. Got some great London acts to play together for this. Have put together my very own songbook which is loosely based on the gumbopages tab section, but is more reader friendly. I chanced upon a web page a few weeks ago that was about all the place names in Uncle Tupelo songs, odd references and where they are, now I can’t find it. Any ideas?
https://www.facebook.com/events/675196139190837/?fref=ts
Cheers f’now
Jason
Here in the Midwest, we have a longstanding tradition of grossly mispronouncing words borrowed from continental European languages. I hold forth the particularly aggregious pronunciations of the towns of Milan, Vienna, and San Jose, Illinois, repectively pronounced (and I’m not making this up) my-lan, vy-ena, and san joes. My guess is that this was likely a deliberate attempt to anglicize what was originally French territory. I mention this because your helpful pronunciation of Sauget, while close, is not quite exact. Sauget, Illinois, which if the world were truly fair would be world famous for the song Sauget Wind but is instead notable largely for being the designated home for St Louis area strip clubs, is actually pronounced “saw-zhay.” Funny that the name actually stays much closer to a French pronunciation than so many other towns in Illinois, but I expect that is largely due to its close proximity to St Louis and its large French-speaking population in the early 19th century. Having said all that, kudos to you for your encyclopedic knowledge of one of my absolute favorite bands of well over twenty years.
Ha thanks Jerry! Love Uncle Tupelo so much. I remember getting that clear Sauget Wind single many years ago and just playing that sucker over and over. What was Jay then? Maybe 24 years old? Amazing that he had such depth and vision.