What do you think?
Rate this book
Wilco: Learning How to Die
The intimate story of one of the great American bands of our time, creators of the controversial masterpiece Yankee Hotel FoxtrotWhen alt-country heroes-turned-rock-iconoclasts Wilco handed in their fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, to the band’s label, Reprise, a division of Warner Brothers, fans looked forward to the release of another challenging, genre-bending departure from their previous work. The band aimed to build on previous sales and critical acclaim with its boldest and most ambitious album yet, but was instead urged by skittish Reprise execs to make the record more “radio friendly.” When Wilco wouldn’t give, they found themselves without a label. Instead, they used the Internet to introduce the album to their fans, and eventually sold the record to Nonesuch, another division of Warner. Wilco was vindicated when the album debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard charts and posted the band’s strongest sales to date. Learning How to Die traces the band’s story to its deepest origins in Southern Illinois, where Jeff Tweedy began growing into one of the best songwriters of his generation. As we witness how his music grew from its punk and alt-country origins, some of the key issues and questions in our culture are How is music of substance created while the gulf between art and commerce widens in the corporate consolidation era? How does the music industry make or break a hit? How do working musicians reconcile the rewards of artistic risk with the toll it exacts on their personal life? This book was written with the cooperation of Wilco band members past and present. It is also fully up to date, covering the latest changes in personnel and the imminent release of the band’s fifth album, A Ghost Is Born, sure to be one of the most talked-about albums of 2004.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2004
38 people are currently reading
1157 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 115 reviews
October 30, 2007
Wilco is one of the most important yet understated bands of our time. This book is a great overview of frontman Jeff Tweedy's career, starting way back in his junior high days, coming up through Uncle Tupelo, Loose Fur, Wilco, etc etc. You learn so much about Tweedy, from his favorite music to his lifetime struggles with migraines and depression to his personal philosophy about the creation of music. Author Greg Kot's many hats as a journalist, Wilco fan, Chicagoan, and music critic all blend together to create a great narrative that is part history of the band, part making of the albums, and part rock critic description of the music. Being extremely familiar with Wilco, this worked perfectly for me. I'm not sure how people who are looking for a typical band biography would handle this, as it references the music and even a documentary about the band (I Am Trying To Break Your Heart) extensively and makes a certain amount of assumptions about the reader's familiarity with the Wilco catalog. Still, it is possible to read this book without being a Wilco superfan; but like any book about a band, you get more out of it if you are already familiar with the music.
My one regret about this book is it ends in 2004, just after Pat Sansone and Nels Cline joined the band, just after Tweedy entered rehab, and just before A Ghost Is Born really made its mark on the world. My hope is that a few albums down the line, Kot will write an updated edition of this book. So much has happened to the band since this book left off, which gives it a very To Be Continued feel. Sky Blue Sky (2007) is already a radical departure from A Ghost Is Born, and with the way Wilco is constantly reinventing itself and its music, there remains plenty to be said and explored.
My one regret about this book is it ends in 2004, just after Pat Sansone and Nels Cline joined the band, just after Tweedy entered rehab, and just before A Ghost Is Born really made its mark on the world. My hope is that a few albums down the line, Kot will write an updated edition of this book. So much has happened to the band since this book left off, which gives it a very To Be Continued feel. Sky Blue Sky (2007) is already a radical departure from A Ghost Is Born, and with the way Wilco is constantly reinventing itself and its music, there remains plenty to be said and explored.
October 15, 2011
I have heard stories that some of Kot's methods for getting interviews from people like Jay Farrar weren't exactly on the up-and-up (he reportedly told Farrar he was writing a book on the early alt. country scene instead of one about his ex-bandmate's highly successful band). Interesting also that Brian Henneman and even Jeff Tweedy himself were pretty down on Kot and the final product. Still a very good book, though feels a tad bit padded towards the end. The Warner Bros./Yankee Hotel Foxtrot incident always comes off as more interesting to Kot and other journalists than fans or even Tweedy. If you've seen the Sam Jones doc, there's not a lot new here in regards to that story, but Kot spends a good chunk of time on it anyway. However, the stuff on Uncle Tupelo and the rough transition to Wilco is all gold, with lots of telling quotes about Tweedy's personality from Jay Farrar, Jay Bennett, Ken Coomer, John Stirratt and even his wife, Sue Miller. All in all though, a very quick and informative read and I do give Kot credit for getting nearly everyone in Tweedy's musical and personal life on the record (even if he sometimes did it through less than ethical means), even if his prose is a bit "wet" at times. Would like to see this book get an update in another five years or so to address Bennett's death and the creation of the more recent albums (especially A Ghost Is Born, which got short shrift here compared to the other albums, probably because it was just coming out as Kot's book was being published). Would also be nice to see an unbiased account of the early years of Uncle Tupelo (i.e. one without the narrative of Tweedy eventually triumphing over Farrar).
December 20, 2007
Wilco is one of the most important yet understated bands of our time. This book is a great overview of frontman Jeff Tweedy's career, starting way back in his junior high days, coming up through Uncle Tupelo, Loose Fur, Wilco, etc etc. You learn so much about Tweedy, from his favorite music to his lifetime struggles with migraines and depression to his personal philosophy about the creation of music. Author Greg Kot's many hats as a journalist, Wilco fan, Chicagoan, and music critic all blend together to create a great narrative that is part history of the band, part making of the albums, and part rock critic description of the music. Being extremely familiar with Wilco, this worked perfectly for me. I'm not sure how people who are looking for a typical band biography would handle this, as it references the music and even a documentary about the band (I Am Trying To Break Your Heart) extensively and makes a certain amount of assumptions about the reader's familiarity with the Wilco catalog. Still, it is possible to read this book without being a Wilco superfan; but like any book about a band, you get more out of it if you are already familiar with the music.
My one regret about this book is it ends in 2004, just after Pat Sansone and Nels Cline joined the band, just after Tweedy entered rehab, and just before A Ghost Is Born really made its mark on the world. My hope is that a few albums down the line, Kot will write an updated edition of this book. So much has happened to the band since this book left off, which gives it a very To Be Continued feel. Sky Blue Sky (2007) is already a radical departure from A Ghost Is Born, and with the way Wilco is constantly reinventing itself and its music, there remains plenty to be said and explored.
My one regret about this book is it ends in 2004, just after Pat Sansone and Nels Cline joined the band, just after Tweedy entered rehab, and just before A Ghost Is Born really made its mark on the world. My hope is that a few albums down the line, Kot will write an updated edition of this book. So much has happened to the band since this book left off, which gives it a very To Be Continued feel. Sky Blue Sky (2007) is already a radical departure from A Ghost Is Born, and with the way Wilco is constantly reinventing itself and its music, there remains plenty to be said and explored.
May 21, 2025
I really liked this. I’ve listened to these guys for years and in the last few especially they’ve become one of my favorite bands. It was fun to learn about their tumultuous history, in shockingly frank detail for a band with such animosity in its past.
March 4, 2020
I had started reading this book years ago (and never finished it) around the time the book came out in 2004. Now over 15 years later, it still stands up as a history of Wilco and Uncle Tupelo from that time period. This is a nice companion piece to the documentary film "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart".
March 8, 2021
Published in 2004 by the respected music author and journalist Greg Kot, he was the rock music critic at The Chicago Tribune from 1990 – 2020. He accepted a buyout and had a good thirty year run and was able to get out just in the nick of time. He currently co-hosts (along with fellow music journalist and writer Jim DeRogatis) the radio program Sound Opinions, which introduces itself as “the world’s only Rock ‘N’ Roll talk show,” nationally syndicated through Chicago Public Radio, WBEZ.
Wilco: Learning How To Die initially covers, rather briefly, the childhoods of both Jeff Tweedy & Jay Farrar in Belleville, IL on the windswept American prairies of Nowheresville USA, with the main focus of the story placed on the history of Uncle Tupelo/early Wilco up until 2004 and the release of the A Ghost Is Born record.
Both the boys were born late Boomers/early X’ers and they met in middle school. Tweedy idolized Jay Farrar and his older brothers, as they were already established local rock heroes with their alterna-pop/rock garage band The Plebes. The older Farrars split from the band to get on with their lives and Jay & Jeff formed The Primitives and focused exclusively on high-octane, blues-based punk rock pumped through vintage Vox amplifiers set at 11.
However, the two amigos were drawn to each other by similar musical sensibilities which included all the aforementioned straight-up rock and radio pop of the era, but they also both had a love for the traditional hill music of Appalachia (ironic, as they were smack-dab in the middle of the flat-ass Midwest), early folk and traditional country music.
Jay, Jeff, and Mike Heidorn from The Primitives had bigger plans. Two words the trio had randomly juxtaposed from two columns of nouns on a yellow legal pad: Uncle and Tupelo was the beginning of their new band considered widely as an entity that sparked a roots-oriented musical movement that eventually got labeled as Americana by the corporate music machine, but was actually a return to American-based heritage music that had previously been revisited by everyone from Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Kinky Friedman and Texas Jewboys.
But something about Uncle Tupelo’s (UT) sound and vibe lit a match that still burns bright. While still living in small-town Belleville, IL, UT became the de facto house band at a dingy basement bar below a pizza joint on Delmar Boulevard called Cicero’s, a few hundred feet from the Washington University campus on St. Louis’ west side. The home of the MLB Cardinals was only a 30-minute drive from Belleville.
Nightlife in the “Gateway to the West” was dominated in the late 80’s by a string of bars on a cobblestoned nine-block stretch on the riverfront known as The Landing. “Living in St.Louis was like being stuck in that movie Groundhog Day, where the guy keeps reliving the same day over and over. Every day for thirty years you’d turn on the radio in St. Louis, and it’s still the 70’s,” according to Jay’s older brother Wade.
The Landing was The Enemy. Cicero’s would be Uncle Tupelo’s proving ground and the battle lines were drawn. The 150 pp capacity club became part of a circuit of clubs throughout the Midwest that catered to indie rock: Gabe’s Oasis in Iowa City; the Blue Note in Columbia, MO; Lounge Ax in Chicago; Jake’s in Bloomington, IN (been there!). They also paid their dues touring constantly and schlepping in the van.
I had the distinct pleasure of seeing them at a club in Louisville called Uncle Pleasant’s in the early 90’s. Kind of the meeting of the Uncles so to speak!
They released their seminal debut album entitled No Depression (in honor of the classic Carter Family tune), and they kick-started more than simply their own long-term careers — by fusing the simplicity and honesty of country music with the bracing fury of punk, they ignited a revolution which reverberated throughout the American underground.
The album lent its name to the influential alternative country periodical. Due to the influence of the album and periodical, the term “No Depression” became a byword for alternative country—particularly for bands with punk rock influence. This movement influenced and played an important role in the success of future traditionalist country acts henceforth – from Whiskeytown, the Old 97’s, the Bottle Rockets, to Robbie Fulks, Shelby Lynn, et.al.
Over the course of four excellent and influential albums, Jeff and Jay began to drift apart and the addition of John Stirratt on bass and Ken Coomer on drums following original drummer Mike Heidorn’s departure, added to the tension. Jeff had always looked up to Jay as the undisputed band leader, but that began to change as Mr. Tweedy found his own creative voice and became more confident.
Both men were bandmates of few words and the expression of feelings was not part of the band’s vibe. Backstage at an UT show was more like the reading room of the library than sex, drugs, and the specific removal of all brown M&M’s.
The band’s collaboration with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck showed them a different way that music could be created and was a crossroads for the band. After the release of their final record, the seminal Anodyne, loaded with classics such as “Chickamauga,” “Acuff-Rose,” “Fifteen Keys,” etc., they were on Sire’s label roster, and eventually would sell more than 150,000 copies with zero radio or MTV support.
Of course, the next step for the band was breaking up. Sire’s dream of nurturing a commercially successful ascendancy for UT was doomed. Jay called the band’s manager Tony Margherita, and with one phone call: pissed off Jeff Tweedy, torpedoed the band as it was rising, and ruined Christmas 1994 for everyone.
According to Joe McEwen, their Sire/WB A&R guy, “The dynamic had been cast years before with Jay as the older brother, but Jeff wanted to break out of the mold. Jay wanted the relationship to stay as it had been, but Jeff didn’t. There was nowhere to go with it except to have bitterness and resentment toward each other.”
UT limped through a 1994 tour and ended the band’s run with two sold-out shows April 30 & May 1, 1994 in St. Louis. After the final show ended, with audience members in tears as the rift and the disappearing magic was apparent, drummer Ken Coomer said, “I walked to my car, and I see Jay and Jeff. I watched Jay walk by Jeff and Jay just gave him a nod, like ‘See ya.’ But that’s how it ended. With a nod.”
Brian Henneman,* UT roadie and confidant who was just starting his own excellent roots band, The Bottle Rockets,* summed it up best: “They were set to pop; they were doing good work and getting good results from it. They were in a position that any band would love to be in. I had no personal stake in it at that point, but I was pissed at Jay for a long time, because he derailed it. Jeff was hurt, and why shouldn’t he be? His band was destroyed. And for what? Some internal fashion-related shit boiling underneath the surface for years? I still don’t really know why he did it. No one does.”
In any case, UT was DOA. Now the competitive race was on! Jay formed Sun Volt and Jeff formed Wilco. Mr Tweedy brought Stirratt and Coomer with him and Jay convinced Mike Heidorn to get behind the skins again and they both formed their respective units.
Wilco released A.M. in 1994 and shortly thereafter the following year Son Volt released their debut Trace; an accepted roots classic. A.M. peaked at number twenty-seven on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, while Trace actually topped many critics’ Best Of lists for the year.
A.M. was met with modest reviews, critically and commercially paling in comparison to the reception of Son Volt’s debut, and caused the Wilco members to perceive A.M. to be a failure. Shortly after the release of the album, multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett joined the band, providing the guys with a keyboardist and another guitarist.
Personally, I love the looseness and jangly rootsiness of A.M. (“Casino Queen,” “Box Full of Letters,” “I Must Be High,” “Passenger Side”). Their debut is somewhat simplistic compared to the multi-layered and musical growth of their later catalogue, but it may still be my favorite.
The book covers the following albums and the increasing musical expansion and experimentalism of Tweedy and his close collaborations with Bennett, Billy Bragg, and Jim O’Rourke while releasing Being There, Summerteeth, the Mermaid Avenue Woody Guthrie tribute sessions, up to the release of the game-changer – 2001’s Yankee Foxtrot Hotel.
Much space is also given to Tweedy’s bouts with mental illness, substance abuse issues, and marital challenges. Ironically, Mr. Kot expertly covers Wilco’s unexpected ascendancy during Son Volt’s coinciding slide.
Also explained in concise detail is the band’s misfortune of flowering at the time of mega corporate mergers and acquisitions in the music business in the late 90’s. They had been signed to Reprise/WB, which for decades had been known as an artist’s label that was dedicated to artistic vision and the slow-build of worthy bands and musicians (Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, etc., etc.).
The band was swept up in the disastrous WB/America On-Line corporate merger which created an entity obsessed with radio friendly pablum that sold millions of units and sounded like everything else. Needless to say, Wilco was not going to fit into this commercial box.
Reprise unsurprisingly rejected their in-the-works album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, dropped the band, and sold them back their completed masters for a paltry $50,000. The band subsequently signed to Nonesuch Records and the album was released in the spring of 2002. When the album hit the streets, it reached number thirteen on the Billboard 200, Wilco’s highest chart position to that date.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot went on to sell over 590,000 copies, and to date remains Wilco’s best-selling album. It was met with wide critical acclaim: it topped 2002’s Pazz & Jop critics’ poll, and was named one of the 100 greatest albums of all time by O Magazine. Rolling Stone rated it at 493 of their 500 Greatest Albums of all Time, in May 2012. The book ends with the release of 2004’s LP A Ghost Is Born.
Among many more future musical missteps, WB achieved the humiliating designation as the label that passed on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Revenge is sweet!
If you find yourself a Wilco fan, or a fan of alternative music (country, folk, rock, ear-worm pop and experimental jams) or just a lover of well-written rock literature and the origin story and early years of two immensely important American bands, don’t pass on Mr. Kot’s Wilco: Learning How To Die.
*The Bottle Rockets went on to have a near 30 year career and I saw just the other day that Brian Henneman has hit 60 and is retiring from the road. A really good band and a really good run!
Wilco: Learning How To Die initially covers, rather briefly, the childhoods of both Jeff Tweedy & Jay Farrar in Belleville, IL on the windswept American prairies of Nowheresville USA, with the main focus of the story placed on the history of Uncle Tupelo/early Wilco up until 2004 and the release of the A Ghost Is Born record.
Both the boys were born late Boomers/early X’ers and they met in middle school. Tweedy idolized Jay Farrar and his older brothers, as they were already established local rock heroes with their alterna-pop/rock garage band The Plebes. The older Farrars split from the band to get on with their lives and Jay & Jeff formed The Primitives and focused exclusively on high-octane, blues-based punk rock pumped through vintage Vox amplifiers set at 11.
However, the two amigos were drawn to each other by similar musical sensibilities which included all the aforementioned straight-up rock and radio pop of the era, but they also both had a love for the traditional hill music of Appalachia (ironic, as they were smack-dab in the middle of the flat-ass Midwest), early folk and traditional country music.
Jay, Jeff, and Mike Heidorn from The Primitives had bigger plans. Two words the trio had randomly juxtaposed from two columns of nouns on a yellow legal pad: Uncle and Tupelo was the beginning of their new band considered widely as an entity that sparked a roots-oriented musical movement that eventually got labeled as Americana by the corporate music machine, but was actually a return to American-based heritage music that had previously been revisited by everyone from Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Kinky Friedman and Texas Jewboys.
But something about Uncle Tupelo’s (UT) sound and vibe lit a match that still burns bright. While still living in small-town Belleville, IL, UT became the de facto house band at a dingy basement bar below a pizza joint on Delmar Boulevard called Cicero’s, a few hundred feet from the Washington University campus on St. Louis’ west side. The home of the MLB Cardinals was only a 30-minute drive from Belleville.
Nightlife in the “Gateway to the West” was dominated in the late 80’s by a string of bars on a cobblestoned nine-block stretch on the riverfront known as The Landing. “Living in St.Louis was like being stuck in that movie Groundhog Day, where the guy keeps reliving the same day over and over. Every day for thirty years you’d turn on the radio in St. Louis, and it’s still the 70’s,” according to Jay’s older brother Wade.
The Landing was The Enemy. Cicero’s would be Uncle Tupelo’s proving ground and the battle lines were drawn. The 150 pp capacity club became part of a circuit of clubs throughout the Midwest that catered to indie rock: Gabe’s Oasis in Iowa City; the Blue Note in Columbia, MO; Lounge Ax in Chicago; Jake’s in Bloomington, IN (been there!). They also paid their dues touring constantly and schlepping in the van.
I had the distinct pleasure of seeing them at a club in Louisville called Uncle Pleasant’s in the early 90’s. Kind of the meeting of the Uncles so to speak!
They released their seminal debut album entitled No Depression (in honor of the classic Carter Family tune), and they kick-started more than simply their own long-term careers — by fusing the simplicity and honesty of country music with the bracing fury of punk, they ignited a revolution which reverberated throughout the American underground.
The album lent its name to the influential alternative country periodical. Due to the influence of the album and periodical, the term “No Depression” became a byword for alternative country—particularly for bands with punk rock influence. This movement influenced and played an important role in the success of future traditionalist country acts henceforth – from Whiskeytown, the Old 97’s, the Bottle Rockets, to Robbie Fulks, Shelby Lynn, et.al.
Over the course of four excellent and influential albums, Jeff and Jay began to drift apart and the addition of John Stirratt on bass and Ken Coomer on drums following original drummer Mike Heidorn’s departure, added to the tension. Jeff had always looked up to Jay as the undisputed band leader, but that began to change as Mr. Tweedy found his own creative voice and became more confident.
Both men were bandmates of few words and the expression of feelings was not part of the band’s vibe. Backstage at an UT show was more like the reading room of the library than sex, drugs, and the specific removal of all brown M&M’s.
The band’s collaboration with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck showed them a different way that music could be created and was a crossroads for the band. After the release of their final record, the seminal Anodyne, loaded with classics such as “Chickamauga,” “Acuff-Rose,” “Fifteen Keys,” etc., they were on Sire’s label roster, and eventually would sell more than 150,000 copies with zero radio or MTV support.
Of course, the next step for the band was breaking up. Sire’s dream of nurturing a commercially successful ascendancy for UT was doomed. Jay called the band’s manager Tony Margherita, and with one phone call: pissed off Jeff Tweedy, torpedoed the band as it was rising, and ruined Christmas 1994 for everyone.
According to Joe McEwen, their Sire/WB A&R guy, “The dynamic had been cast years before with Jay as the older brother, but Jeff wanted to break out of the mold. Jay wanted the relationship to stay as it had been, but Jeff didn’t. There was nowhere to go with it except to have bitterness and resentment toward each other.”
UT limped through a 1994 tour and ended the band’s run with two sold-out shows April 30 & May 1, 1994 in St. Louis. After the final show ended, with audience members in tears as the rift and the disappearing magic was apparent, drummer Ken Coomer said, “I walked to my car, and I see Jay and Jeff. I watched Jay walk by Jeff and Jay just gave him a nod, like ‘See ya.’ But that’s how it ended. With a nod.”
Brian Henneman,* UT roadie and confidant who was just starting his own excellent roots band, The Bottle Rockets,* summed it up best: “They were set to pop; they were doing good work and getting good results from it. They were in a position that any band would love to be in. I had no personal stake in it at that point, but I was pissed at Jay for a long time, because he derailed it. Jeff was hurt, and why shouldn’t he be? His band was destroyed. And for what? Some internal fashion-related shit boiling underneath the surface for years? I still don’t really know why he did it. No one does.”
In any case, UT was DOA. Now the competitive race was on! Jay formed Sun Volt and Jeff formed Wilco. Mr Tweedy brought Stirratt and Coomer with him and Jay convinced Mike Heidorn to get behind the skins again and they both formed their respective units.
Wilco released A.M. in 1994 and shortly thereafter the following year Son Volt released their debut Trace; an accepted roots classic. A.M. peaked at number twenty-seven on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, while Trace actually topped many critics’ Best Of lists for the year.
A.M. was met with modest reviews, critically and commercially paling in comparison to the reception of Son Volt’s debut, and caused the Wilco members to perceive A.M. to be a failure. Shortly after the release of the album, multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett joined the band, providing the guys with a keyboardist and another guitarist.
Personally, I love the looseness and jangly rootsiness of A.M. (“Casino Queen,” “Box Full of Letters,” “I Must Be High,” “Passenger Side”). Their debut is somewhat simplistic compared to the multi-layered and musical growth of their later catalogue, but it may still be my favorite.
The book covers the following albums and the increasing musical expansion and experimentalism of Tweedy and his close collaborations with Bennett, Billy Bragg, and Jim O’Rourke while releasing Being There, Summerteeth, the Mermaid Avenue Woody Guthrie tribute sessions, up to the release of the game-changer – 2001’s Yankee Foxtrot Hotel.
Much space is also given to Tweedy’s bouts with mental illness, substance abuse issues, and marital challenges. Ironically, Mr. Kot expertly covers Wilco’s unexpected ascendancy during Son Volt’s coinciding slide.
Also explained in concise detail is the band’s misfortune of flowering at the time of mega corporate mergers and acquisitions in the music business in the late 90’s. They had been signed to Reprise/WB, which for decades had been known as an artist’s label that was dedicated to artistic vision and the slow-build of worthy bands and musicians (Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, etc., etc.).
The band was swept up in the disastrous WB/America On-Line corporate merger which created an entity obsessed with radio friendly pablum that sold millions of units and sounded like everything else. Needless to say, Wilco was not going to fit into this commercial box.
Reprise unsurprisingly rejected their in-the-works album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, dropped the band, and sold them back their completed masters for a paltry $50,000. The band subsequently signed to Nonesuch Records and the album was released in the spring of 2002. When the album hit the streets, it reached number thirteen on the Billboard 200, Wilco’s highest chart position to that date.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot went on to sell over 590,000 copies, and to date remains Wilco’s best-selling album. It was met with wide critical acclaim: it topped 2002’s Pazz & Jop critics’ poll, and was named one of the 100 greatest albums of all time by O Magazine. Rolling Stone rated it at 493 of their 500 Greatest Albums of all Time, in May 2012. The book ends with the release of 2004’s LP A Ghost Is Born.
Among many more future musical missteps, WB achieved the humiliating designation as the label that passed on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Revenge is sweet!
If you find yourself a Wilco fan, or a fan of alternative music (country, folk, rock, ear-worm pop and experimental jams) or just a lover of well-written rock literature and the origin story and early years of two immensely important American bands, don’t pass on Mr. Kot’s Wilco: Learning How To Die.
*The Bottle Rockets went on to have a near 30 year career and I saw just the other day that Brian Henneman has hit 60 and is retiring from the road. A really good band and a really good run!
July 16, 2007
For the 3-4 days it took me to get through this, I found myself compelled to read more. Tracing the steps from the good ol' Uncle Tupelo days to the baby steps of 2004's A Ghost is Born, Kot gives a nice overview of the story up until that point. That being said, so much has happened in the saga since its hard to leave off just when Tweedy went into rehab at the beginning of 2004. Hindsight being what it is, it's funny to see whether the band's lineup could ever match the Jay Bennett-helmed Summerteeth crew. Well today's Wilco with Nels Cline and Glenn Kotche are infinitely more competent and putting out music just as good. Its funny to see how many people continue to grown as Wilco release albums but eventually catch up 2-3 years down the line. With the recent release of "Sky Blue Sky," the majority of the press has been praising the merits of "A Ghost is Born." As the book suggests, this seems to be exactly what Tweedy's going for. Narrso or not, one thing is for sure: the man can write a hell of a tune.
September 13, 2009
People that know me will look at my 5 star rating of this book and say something close to, "Of course he gave it 5 stars, he is a Wilco freak". While yes that is true, I do LOVE WILCO, this book deserves the 5 stars for much more than just that reason. While Sam Jones' film, I am Trying to Break Your Heart, shows Wilco during that now infamous time period of turmoil, "Learning How to Die" tells the musical story of Jeff Tweedy beginning just previous to his time in Uncle Tupelo, and ending with working on A Ghost is Born and his self addmission into a Chicago rehab facility (2003/04). For any person that LOVES Wilco, this book in my opinion is a MUST read. It is the closest a fan can get to their story without having actually being a part of it.
November 1, 2018
This book helped me change my mind about Tweedy from an arrogant bastard to a musician trying to find himself in a world of booze and drugs. I have always leaned a bit towards Farrar because he writes about issues and his voice is amazing. Also helped me understand the breakup of a band Uncle Tupelo that started it's own musical genre and was a relief at a time when music was struggling. After reading this book I saw Wilco in Madison outdoors and it was a show I will never forget. Highly recommended.
June 12, 2008
Okay, I'm still sticking to my Jay Farrar is better guns, but this has helped me develop a respect for Wilco that was dubious at best before I got my hands on this book...the history of Uncle Tupelo, and the story of the Mermaid Avenue sessions (and Tweedy's subsequent falling out with Billy Bragg, leading to a split tour) are just damn fascinating. That said, the book has still done NOTHING to explain to me how one can assassin down the avenue...
January 17, 2008
It was great reading this for all of the history, but Greg Kot should stay away from writing books. It might work for music reviews in the Chicago Tribune (where he's the music writer), but his style gets seriously tired and trite-sounding the more you read.
I still liked it.
Also, my great-uncle lives in the same little town Jeff Tweedy was born in. Weird.
I still liked it.
Also, my great-uncle lives in the same little town Jeff Tweedy was born in. Weird.
May 18, 2018
I am a Wilco fan so it was a 5 for me. If you are not a Wilco or Uncle Tupelo fan, then a 3.
Kot is a very good rock critic. He knows his stuff. I have heard him on his Sound Opinions podcast many times.
This book is mostly a mini biography on Tweedy up to 2004. Kot covers Farrar and the Uncle Tupelo years in good detail. He covers Tweedy's transition to Wilco. Kot does a great job describing the recording of AM, Being There, Mermaid Ave., Summerteeth and YHF but only briefly mentions A Ghost Is Born.
Kot does a great job in describing the growth Tweedy's music goes through. The evolution is impressive. My experience was greatly enhanced by listening to the Uncle Tupelo and Wilco albums on Spotify while Kot described then.
Lots of ink on band members including Bennett.
I will say it is a must read for Tweedy fans. Kot knows his music. He just has to republish the book after covering the last 14 years.
Kot is a very good rock critic. He knows his stuff. I have heard him on his Sound Opinions podcast many times.
This book is mostly a mini biography on Tweedy up to 2004. Kot covers Farrar and the Uncle Tupelo years in good detail. He covers Tweedy's transition to Wilco. Kot does a great job describing the recording of AM, Being There, Mermaid Ave., Summerteeth and YHF but only briefly mentions A Ghost Is Born.
Kot does a great job in describing the growth Tweedy's music goes through. The evolution is impressive. My experience was greatly enhanced by listening to the Uncle Tupelo and Wilco albums on Spotify while Kot described then.
Lots of ink on band members including Bennett.
I will say it is a must read for Tweedy fans. Kot knows his music. He just has to republish the book after covering the last 14 years.
August 18, 2021
Spoiler alert: I love Wilco.
My number one most formative album was their 2002 "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot". I've seen them 20 times.
Learning How to Die is A very detailed and esoteric history of the band, as it revolves around the leader, Jeff Tweedy. From Jeff's involvement in Uncle Tupelo coming out of small town Belleville IL and then into Wilco's formation and almost-annual reimagination between 1994 and 2002. Why can't Jeff Tweedy get along with guys named Jay?!
This is a fun read for music folks, written chronologically from the late eighties to the YHF release on Nonesuch Records in 2002. Greg Kot leaves no stone unturned - this is a well sourced and enjoyable path chronicling one of America's greatest bands. Or, at least your favorite band's favorite band.
My number one most formative album was their 2002 "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot". I've seen them 20 times.
Learning How to Die is A very detailed and esoteric history of the band, as it revolves around the leader, Jeff Tweedy. From Jeff's involvement in Uncle Tupelo coming out of small town Belleville IL and then into Wilco's formation and almost-annual reimagination between 1994 and 2002. Why can't Jeff Tweedy get along with guys named Jay?!
This is a fun read for music folks, written chronologically from the late eighties to the YHF release on Nonesuch Records in 2002. Greg Kot leaves no stone unturned - this is a well sourced and enjoyable path chronicling one of America's greatest bands. Or, at least your favorite band's favorite band.
March 13, 2017
This is an interesting overview of Jeff Tweedy's two major bands, Uncle Tupelo and Wilco. I particularly liked the overview of Uncle Tupelo's early days, which I didn't know much about. Tweedy comes across as a bit of a dreamer, who is constantly following his personal muse, no matter what happens to those around him.
There's not much in terms of "tell-all" journalism here, but Kot certainly did his homework, and seems to have interviewed just about everyone involved in Tweedy's musical career.
While it's nowhere near as well-rounded as, say, PLEASE KILL ME, that really wasn't the point of the book. It focuses strictly on Tweedy, warts and all.
There's not much in terms of "tell-all" journalism here, but Kot certainly did his homework, and seems to have interviewed just about everyone involved in Tweedy's musical career.
While it's nowhere near as well-rounded as, say, PLEASE KILL ME, that really wasn't the point of the book. It focuses strictly on Tweedy, warts and all.
July 8, 2024
Does a good job of stemming any future idol worship for Wilco or Tweedy, although 2004 was a weird year for Tweedy (especially from what I recall about that Klosterman piece that came out around the same time as this book) so this may have also provided some damage control during another phase change for the group.
The nods and winks to other artists and albums (both as influential and motivational) that weave through Wilco and Tweedy’s story highlight this text as a great source for recommended listenings!
The nods and winks to other artists and albums (both as influential and motivational) that weave through Wilco and Tweedy’s story highlight this text as a great source for recommended listenings!
January 19, 2025
This is a pretty good bio of Wilco’s early years up to the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album. There’s also a pretty good amount of material on the predecessor band Uncle Tupelo (as much material as I’m going to need). It frustratingly ends just as the current more stable lineup is formed, and although A Ghost is Born gets mentioned it is more as an epilogue almost. There is lots of content on the music as well as the band, and clearly the writer is a knowledgable music lover.
December 26, 2018
More than decently fine. I'm not sure why I avoided it for so long, but I will tell you the only bad take away that I got from it: It needs a sequel. Wilco and Jeff Tweedy have both come so far since this book was written, and the band really has changed. I'd be interested in hearing more from the later period, so I guess I'm going to read Jeff Tweedy's book now.
June 15, 2023
This is obviously a must read for Wilco fans, but I'd also highly recommend it to those people who still buy albums instead of just songs. If you know what I'm talking about, then this book is likely worth it. It's not written from a fan's perspective. It's a warts and all look at the music makers.
May 8, 2024
Originally released in 2004. Traces the origins of the band and specifically, lead singer Jeff Tweedy. Follows them through their start from the ashes of Uncle Tupelo through the turmoil surrounding Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The author has full cooperation of the band and its former members. I enjoyed this.
October 1, 2017
Great read....Amazing how much history can be uncovered on bands that were so non-mainstream, especially mostly pre-internet. Crazy that this book leaves off 15 years ago before A Ghost is Born. Would love to see a volume 2 and see what's been happening since.
August 2, 2018
I've read this before, a good number of years ago by now, but I very much enjoy both the book and the band it chronicles. Finishing this makes me want to go and re-watch the Sam Jones documentary on the making of "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot."
March 19, 2024
This is a good dive into the origins of Uncle Tupelo through Wilco's A Ghost Is Born. If you're a UT or Wilco fan, it's worth your time, especially since it's a quick, relatively fun read. If you're not a fan of either band, I wouldn't bother.
October 10, 2018
Nice detailed history of Wilco up to 2003. Would recommend for any Wilco/Jeff Tweedy/Uncle Tupelo/Alt Country fans
November 6, 2018
It was fine. I learned a bit more about the band and its struggles, but I can't say that I'd recommend it to anyone who isn't a die-hard Wilco fan.
December 30, 2018
Slow start, good read, rather fawning but to be expected
July 22, 2020
A really interesting history of the band, and a nice reminder of how great they are.
June 15, 2021
Quality writing about one of the most interesting bands to take over mid-level indie rock in the last couple of decades.
February 11, 2023
Those guys…
July 10, 2024
I’m the man who loves this book. Even though it feels long winded at times.
May 12, 2025
Not enough about LeRoy Bach
Displaying 1 - 30 of 115 reviews