the passion of wilco

This week has been a period of wilco re-discovery. I'm looking into getting a copy of last year's A Ghost is Born... but all the buzz (and the reviews that I recall from the time of release) was that there was a lot of Jim O'Rourke influenced wanker distortion noise... like, where Yankee Hotel Foxtrot skirted experimental noise -- yet kept it together -- this album spirals out of control.

So, I found this bizarre entry online connecting A Ghost is Born with the movie The Passion of the Christ. As follows:

It wasn't until I read an article that said this CD matches up perfectly with Mel Gibson's The Passion that I was drawn back to it. I wasn't really a fan of the movie but with the CD it was something else. Not everything is perfect but a lot of the lyrics match up. For all of you wondering why Jeff Tweedy included fifteen minutes of drone in Less than You think its because it matches up perfectly with the scene where Christ is beaten up. Without the movie I usually skip that song but it works with the images.

I have a lot of respect for artists that are able to create soundtracks like these that can pass as rock albums without anyone knowing they match up to a movie. Jeff Tweedy must have worked on every minute detail to make this work. Whether you like the album or not you have to marvel at the sheer technical genius of it.

OK, so I think that's a load of shit. I don't think that Jeff Tweedy meticulously deconstructed The Passion of the Christ scene by scene to create an alternate soundtrack. Sounds like a lot of unnecessary work to me.

This whole urban legend thing of matching albums to random movies is a bit of a stretch. I watched The Wizard of Oz to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in college, and admittedly there were some interesting scenes where the movie and the music seemed to fit,.. but I was also very, very high. I read that David Gilmore said that the album was not the movie's alternate soundtrack, and made some crack about being high during the recording, and that the fans connecting the film with the album were convincing themselves of something that was coincidence... and that they were very, very high.

There's even an entry on a message board detailing how to cue A Ghost is Born to The Passion of the Christ (no way!). Read here.

Directions:
Sync up Wilco CD with movie at 00:01 on the CD and the movie at chapter one, with the screen showing the Icon Productions symbol.

Here's what should happen (according to GQ's David Walters)

5 minutes 53 seconds - The song "Hell Is Chrome" begins on A Ghost Is Born. The song's first lines are When the Devil came / He was not red / He was chrome... At this precise moment in The Passion, Satan appears for the first time (and he's not red).

10:35 - Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss in The Passion. Moments later, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy sings the lyric Why can't they wish their kisses good?

18:40 - When a sympathetic Roman guard asks about Jesus' arrest, Tweedy sings There's no blood on my hands / I just do as I'm told.

52:44 - The extended beating scene in The Passion and Wilco's fifteen minute "Less Than You Think" coincide perfectly.

1:13:58 - After Palm Sunday flashback in which Jesus is greeted warmly, Tweedy sings I was welcomed / With open arms / I received so much help in every way / I felt no fear (at this point in the film, the CD is repeating).

1:49:51 - Tweedy's lyric I will always die / So you can remember me (on the song Company In My Back) occurs exactly when Mary asks Jesus to let her die with him.

1:53:08 - The earthquake that begins when Jesus finally dies in The Passion starts right when Tweedy screams on the song "I'm A Wheel".

1:56:01 - When Jesus is taken down from the cross and cradled by his supporters, Wilco plays "Theologians" and Tweedy sings ominously, No one's ever gonna take my life from me / I lay it down / A ghost is born.