Heavyweight 140-gram high-performance double vinyl.
Catalog Number: 0075597899047
Color: Black
Format: LP
UPC: 0075597899047
Nonesuch releases a
deluxe edition of Wilco's 2004 Grammy Award-winning album A Ghost is Born. The box set comprises
either nine vinyl LPs and four CDs or nine CDs - including the original album,
alternates, outtakes, and demos, charting the making of A Ghost Is Born
- plus the complete 2004 concert recording from Boston's Wang Center and the
band's "fundamentals" workshop sessions.
It includes 65 previously unreleased music tracks as well as a 48-page
hardcover book with previously unpublished photos and a new liner note by
Grammy-winning writer Bob Mehr.
A Ghost Is Born was released commercially on June 22, 2004,
debuting at No. 8 on the Billboard chart. The album, which Mehr calls 'an eclectic
array of dark ballads, upbeat pop songs, Krautrock chug, noise rock freakouts,
and roots rock abandon,' was widely acclaimed as one of 2004's best, appearing
in year-end lists of Mojo, NPR, NME, the Associated Press, The Wire, Rolling Stone, the Village
Voice, and Uncut, among many
others. The album earned the band its
first Grammy, for Best Alternative Music Album.
The album also won a Grammy for Best Recording Package.
For the A Ghost Is Born recording, Wilco was
Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach, Glenn Kotche, and Mikael Jorgensen; Jim
O'Rourke, who mixed the band's previous release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, co-produced the album with Wilco. Leroy Bach left Wilco at the completion of
the sessions and the band announced the addition of two new members: Pat
Sansone and Nels Cline. Sansone and
Cline toured with Wilco to promote A Ghost Is Born and that lineup has
remained unchanged since 2004. As Tweedy
said to Mehr for his new liner note, "Making that record, and then finding this
lineup, that was the start of something - of having a band that can play
anything. That's why, 20 years later,
we're still here and still going."
Wilco first began
sessions for what would become A Ghost Is
Born in early 2002 at Chicago's Soma E.M.S., where they had mixed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Much
of the album was tracked live in the studio with O'Rourke and engineer Chris
Shaw. They also reunited there with
engineer and soon-to-be-bandmate Mikael Jorgensen.
At Soma, the band began
sketching out music using Tweedy's notebooks of lyrics, poetry, and prose. Mehr notes: 'In between more traditional song
tracking, the group would engage in a series of conceptual improvisations in
the studio. These musical experiments,
broadly known as 'Fundamentals'... were part of what Kotche said was 'an attempt
to search for a new group identity. To see what we could make this band into.''
In the fall of 2003, the
band relocated to New York to finish recording at Sear Sound. "It seemed like the band needed to get out of
Chicago, get out of the working mode they'd been in, and only be thinking about
making a record," O'Rourke told Mehr.
There, playing together in the corner of a large studio, the album began
to take its final shape.
Emerging from a period
of addiction and rehab, Tweedy discussed how he feels about A Ghost Is Born in
retrospect. As he told Mehr, "I was worried the album was
going to feel like something dark and not me anymore. But the album was
ahead of me as a person. It was the part of me that I was trying to
preserve - enthusiastic and furious about the world, as well as open and
loving. I reached that in the music,
before I could get there emotionally on my own."
A Ghost Is Born was the second Wilco release on Nonesuch
Records, preceded by the landmark Yankee
Hotel Foxtrot. The relationship with
Nonesuch would last nearly a decade and include two more studio albums - Sky Blue Sky and Wilco (the album) - along with a live album and a live DVD, plus
reissues of earlier records, before Wilco began its own label, dBpm.
9LP/4CD Set
LP Disc 1: a gHOST IS BORN
Side
A:
1.
At
Least That's What You Said
2. Hell Is Chrome
3.
Spiders
(Kidsmoke)
Side
B:
4.
Muzzle
of Bees
5. Hummingbird
6. Handshake
Drugs
LP Disc 2: a gHOST IS BORN
Side
C:
7. Wishful Thinking
8. Company in My Back
9. I'm a Wheel
10. Theologians
Side
D:
11. Less Than You Think
12. The Late Greats
LP Disc 3:
dBpm: Outtakes/Alternates 1
Side E:
13. At Least That's
What You Said (8/13/02 SOMA-Chicago)
14. Hell Is Chrome
(10/5/03 SOMA-Chicago)
15. Spiders
(Kidsmoke) (9/28/03 SOMA-Chicago)
16. Muzzle Of Bees (7/15/03
SOMA-Chicago)
Side F:
17. Hummingbird
(2/8/02 SOMA-Chicago)
18. Handshake Drugs (11/13/03
Sear Sound-NYC)
19. Wishful Thinking
(11/1/03 Sear Sound-NYC)
20. Company In My
Back (2/8/03 Hothouse-St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia)
LP Disc 4:
dBpm: Outtakes/Alternates 1
Side G:
21. I'm A Wheel
(August 2002 SOMA-Chicago)
22. Theologians
(3/19/03 SOMA-Chicago)
23. Less Than You
Think (11/11/03 Sear Sound-NYC)
24. The Late Greats
(7/19/03 SOMA-Chicago)
25. Kicking
Television (3/18/03 SOMA-Chicago)
26. The High Heat
(2/5/02 SOMA-Chicago)
Side
H:
27.
Panthers
(March 2003
SOMA-Chicago)
28.
Diamond
Claw (3/21/03
SOMA-Chicago)
29.
Bob
Dylan's 49th Beard (June
2002 SOMA-Chicago)
30.
More
Like The Moon
(2/8/02
SOMA-Chicago)
31. Improbable
Germany (10/7/03
SOMA-Chicago)
LP Disc 5: Unstitched: Outtakes/Alternates 2
Side I:
32. Handshake Drugs (First Version) (6/26/02
SOMA-Chicago)
33. Hummingbird (February 2002 recorded live
during tracking at SOMA-Chicago)
34. The High Heat (2/4/02 SOMA-Chicago)
35. Spiders (Kidsmoke) (February 2002
SOMA-Chicago)
Side J:
36. Diamond Claw (March 2003 SOMA-Chicago)
37. Muzzle Of Bees (October 2003 Sear
Sound-NYC)
38. Like A Stone (11/10/03 Sear Sound-NYC)
39. Leave Me (Like You Found Me) (6/26/02
SOMA-Chicago)
40. Losing Interest (11/11/03 Sear Sound-NYC)
LP Disc 6: Unstitched: Outtakes/Alternates 2
Side K:
41. Old Maid (6/26/02 SOMA-Chicago)
42. Spiders (Kidsmoke) (August 2002
SOMA-Chicago)
43. Panthers (October 2003 Sear Sound-NYC)
44. Muzzle Of Bees (7/16/03 SOMA-Chicago)
45. Diamond Claw (10/9/03 SOMA-Chicago)
Side L:
46. Losing Interest (7/20/03 SOMA-Chicago)
47. Spiders (Kidsmoke) (October 2003
SOMA-Chicago)
48. The Thanks I Get (6/26/02 SOMA-Chicago)
49. Two Hat Blues (March 2003 SOMA-Chicago)
50. Improbable Germany (January 2002
Pre-Production Loft session-Chicago)
LP Disc 7:
The
Hook at The Wang (Live October 1, 2004 at the Wang Center-Boston, MA)
Side M:
51. Muzzle Of Bees
52. Company In My Back
53. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
54. A Shot In The Arm
Side N:
55. Hell Is Chrome
56. Handshake Drugs
57. Jesus, Etc.
58. Hummingbird
LP Disc 8:
The
Hook at The Wang (Live October 1, 2004 at the Wang Center-Boston, MA)
Side O:
59. I'm Always In Love
60. At Least That's What You Said
61. Ashes Of American Flags
62. Theologians
Side P:
63. I'm The Man Who Loves You
64. Poor Places
65. Spiders (Kidsmoke)
LP Disc 9:
The
Hook at The Wang (Live October 1, 2004 at the Wang Center-Boston, MA)
Side Q:
66. She's A Jar
67. A Magazine Called Sunset
68. Kingpin
69. The Late Greats
Side R:
70. I'm A Wheel
71. Via Chicago
72. California Stars
73. Christ For President
CD 1:
Fundamentals 1 & 2
74. Fundamental 1
75. Fundamental 2
CD 2:
Fundamentals 3 & 4
76. Fundamental 3
77. Fundamental 4
CD 3:
Fundamentals 5 & 6
78. Fundamental 5
79. Fundamental 6
CD 4:
Fundamental 7
80. Fundamental 7
2CD
CD
1: A GHOST IS BORN
1.
At
Least That's What You Said
2. Hell Is Chrome
3.
Spiders
(Kidsmoke)
4.
Muzzle
of Bees
5. Hummingbird
6. Handshake
Drugs
7. Wishful Thinking
8. Company in My Back
9. I'm a Wheel
10. Theologians
11. Less Than You Think
12. The Late Greats
cd 2:
dBpm: Outtakes/Alternates
13. At Least That's
What You Said (8/13/02 SOMA-Chicago)
14. Hell Is Chrome
(10/5/03 SOMA-Chicago)
15. Spiders
(Kidsmoke) (9/28/03 SOMA-Chicago)
16. Muzzle Of Bees (7/15/03
SOMA-Chicago)
17. Hummingbird
(2/8/02 SOMA-Chicago)
18. Handshake Drugs (11/13/03
Sear Sound-NYC)
19. Wishful Thinking
(11/1/03 Sear Sound-NYC)
20. Company In My
Back (2/8/03 Hothouse-St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia)
21. I'm A Wheel
(August 2002 SOMA-Chicago)
22. Theologians
(3/19/03 SOMA-Chicago)
23. Less Than You
Think (11/11/03 Sear Sound-NYC)
24. The Late Greats
(7/19/03 SOMA-Chicago)
25. Kicking
Television (3/18/03 SOMA-Chicago)
26. The High Heat
(2/5/02 SOMA-Chicago)
27.
Panthers
(March 2003
SOMA-Chicago)
28.
Diamond
Claw (3/21/03
SOMA-Chicago)
29.
Bob
Dylan's 49th Beard (June
2002 SOMA-Chicago)
30.
More
Like The Moon (2/8/02 SOMA-Chicago)
31. Improbable
Germany (10/7/03
SOMA-Chicago)
2LP
LP Disc 1: a gHOST IS BORN
Side
A:
1.
At
Least That's What You Said
2. Hell Is Chrome
3.
Spiders
(Kidsmoke)
Side
B:
4.
Muzzle
of Bees
5. Hummingbird
6. Handshake
Drugs
LP Disc 2: a gHOST IS BORN
Side
C:
7. Wishful Thinking
8. Company in My Back
9. I'm a Wheel
10. Theologians
Side
D:
11. Less Than You Think
12. The Late Greats