Unreleased Wilco – I Wish I Were Ian Dury
MP3: Wilco – “I Wish I Were Ian Dury” (live, 1995) (link removed)
We’ve got a few reasons to post this old song now. First of all, it’s just great to hear some of Jay Bennett‘s guitar again. Secondly, with a new Wilco album coming up, it’s fun to remember Jeff Tweedy as a snotty young singer fronting a raucous rock and roll band. And also, there’s an Ian Dury biopic on the way. So hey…timely even.
But not a lot is known about the song. I downloaded it back in the halcyon days of Napster, Audiogalaxy, et al. Wilcobase refers to it as “Turn Around and Come Back to Me”, and shows it only ever being played four times, all between July and September, 1995. It’s not included in the Wilco lyrics archive. But someone posting on Via Chicago claims that Tweedy’s wife Sue Miller said it was “a jeff original that he started writing (probably AM or Anodyne era), but didnt finish. and every performance had different lyrics that were made up as he went.”
My attempt to decipher the lyrics after the jump…
Wilco – “I Wish I Were Ian Dury”
She left home in a hurry
She had to make it to the show
In Malmo* with Ian Dury
Nineteen seventy-four
Now she’s livin’ on the streets
She can’t take it anymore
She’s a-hurtin’ for me
She can’t take it anymore
Honey, won’t you be
My turn around and come back to me
Turn around and turn to me
‘Cause I won’t ever let you be
I know she’s just a kid
It doesn’t hurt anymore
She didn’t mean what she did
It don’t hurt no more
Honey, won’t you be
My turn around and come back to me
Turn around and turn to me
‘Cause I won’t ever let you be
Now her cheeks, they’re in a chunk
She can’t take it anymore
Why’d she leave me for some punk?
I don’t care anymore
She left home in a hurry
She had to make it to the show
Malmo* with Richie Furay
Nineteen ninety-four
Honey, won’t you be
My turn around and come back to me
Turn around and turn to me
‘Cause I won’t ever let you be
* Wilco played Malmo, Sweden on 1995-06-26.
Doh! GLONO got its first-ever takedown notice. We never post questionable MP3s, so this is weird for us. We had thought Wilco was cool with live taping, trading, sharing, etc.
URGENT – NOTICE OF INFRINGEMENT AND DECLARATION: NONESUCH RECORDS | WILCO [gloriousnoise.com]
NOTICE OF INFRINGEMENT AND DECLARATION
TO: GLORIOUSNOISE.COM
jake@xxxx.com
dphillips@xxxx.com
HostRocket Web Services
21 Corporate Drive – Suite 203
Clifton Park, NY 12065
Phone: +1-518-xxx-xxxx
abuse@xxxx.com
REGARDING: http://gloriousnoise.com
IMMEDIATELY REMOVE THE FOLLOWING LINKS AND ALL UNAUTHORIZED MATERIAL IN CONNECTION WITH
THE ARTISTS WILCO:
http://www.gloriousnoise.com/articles/2009/wilco_i_wish_i_were_ian_dury.php
http://www.gloriousnoise.com/mp3/Wilco_-_I_Wish_I_Were_Ian_Dury.mp3
Nonesuch Records, a division of Warner Communications Inc.
I, the undersigned, do solemnly and sincerely declare and CERTIFY UNDER
PENALTY OF PERJURY that:
1. I am the owner or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the owner of
certain intellectual property rights, said owner being named Nonesuch
Records(“IP Owner”).
2. I have a good faith belief that the materials identified in the addendum
attached hereto are not authorized by the above IP Owner, its agent, or the
law and therefore infringe the IP Owner’s rights according to the laws of
the (check all that apply):
United States
Australia
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Canada
EUR
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Netherlands
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All of the above X
Please act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material or
items claimed to be infringing.
3. I may be contacted at:
Printed Name: Dorothy Sherman
Title: Consultant
Company: Nonesuch Records, a division of Warner Communications, Inc.
Address: 75 Rockefeller Plaza, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10019
Attn: David Bither, Esq.
Email (correspondence): GrayZone@xxxx.com
www.grayzone.com
Telephone: 718 xxx-xxxx
Fax: 718 xxx-xxxx
Date: 27 MAY 2009
blureu
1093 days ago
Can you check the link for the file?
Page not found – /mp3/Wilco_-_I_Wish_I_Were_Ian_Dury.mp3
blureu
1093 days ago
link removed? why?
Jake
1093 days ago
Update. Sorry, blureu.
sab
1093 days ago
It looks like others have been asked to pull live recordings: http://www.muzzleofbees.com/2008/10/29/wilco-unveil-two-new-songs-bridge-school-benefit/
Wayne Curr
1093 days ago
Not that hard to find: google.com/search?q=wilco+ian+dury
Daviso
1093 days ago
Does this pertain to all live wilco or just ian dury related? they should stop letting people tape their shows then… duh
Tim
1093 days ago
gotta love the Aquarium Drunkard:
http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2009/05/26/wilco-yhf-the-engineer-demos/#more-4473
vitas
1093 days ago
instead, enjoy some jay bennett music through rockproper without the lawyers getting involved…
http://rockproper.com/jay-bennett/whatever-happened-i-apologize.html
it’s a bummer that wilco isn’t allowing live music to be shared. especially when it’s old music with jay playing on it. especially given the spirit in which the music is being shared. sad, really.
Derek Phillips
1093 days ago
Well, we don’t know WHY we received this notice. It could be an overzealous third-party hired to scour the net looking for leaks of the new album and just hit anything referencing “unreleased Wilco song” and we were along the way. We have emails into the band to see what gives and will keep you posted.
jonas
1092 days ago
The stuff from Aquarium Drunkard is fun, thinks for posting that!
eris
1091 days ago
the stuff on aquariumdrunkard was pulled off too