Some thoughts about Jay Bennett

sad iron · Post by **sad iron** » Mon May 25, 2009 6:16 pm

I feel like I have to say a little more about Jay's passing. He was one of those rare people that came into my life at a time when I was ready to learn and he taught me more than I can say about recording, music and how to be an open, giving, presence in life. He taught me how to hear and record music in ways I'd never imagined. And now I'll never have the chance to properly thank him. I am profoundly grief stricken.

I got the chance to record with Jay back in 2002-2003. I was just coming out of my band of six years and Jay was not long out of Wilco. I needed to do something on my own, but I felt I needed a guide. Jay and I had met several times before and when I had a batch of songs together I got in touch with him and went out to Chicago for a week to work on the songs, just the two of us. When I got to the studio I came up the stairs to the loft space and found the door open, a pile of stuff in the stairway, an acoustic guitar with a throw rug duct taped to it and a trail of blood leading into the studio. What the hell was going on? I called out. There was no answer. I ventured into the space, following the trail of blood until I found Jay asleep on an air mattress in a back room. I woke him up and he told me he'd been recording the night before and was trying to get a mic flown as high as he could in the stairwell when the mic stand broke and the mic fell and smashed him in the face. That explained the blood.

I tell this story because, to me, that's what Jay was all about. He was willing to try anything to get the sound, anything at all, sometimes at his own peril. In the course of those sessions we hung an amp from bungee chords in the same stairwell at its highest point and blasted a drum loop through them so we could have the natural reverb of that space. We cranked a Vox AC30 about as loud as it would go at 5am with all the windows open to get THE guitar sound we needed for that song. I learned so many other little tricks from him I can't catalog them all here. Generally we would work from about 1pm to 6am, sleep a few hours and then get back to it. One morning, about midway through the week I crashed and Jay kept working. I woke up hours later to find him in the control room, working on a bass part for one of the songs. He said, "I just finished three bass parts for this song: one's crazy, one's in the middle and the last one's simple. Listen to them and decide which one you like." Then he went off to sleep. He was so bleary that he could barely keep his eyes open as he wandered away, but it was clear that nothing had been more important to him than getting those bass parts out. He had to get them. And as soon as he did, he was released.

Jay was a unique musician and recordist, but not simply because of what he could do. On my project it was what he wouldn't do that stood out to me. I expected to go out there, play him my songs and then he'd work his magic on them, play a ton of the instruments and that would be that, but we got a couple of days in and he hadn't played a single note. I kept trying to get him to do stuff and he was reluctant. Finally he just said, "Look, I could do that, I could play a bunch of stuff and I could Wilco all over your record, but then it wouldn't be you. You know what you want and I know that you can do it. I'll step in when I need to." I was floored. I can't tell you how much it meant to me at that time in my life to have someone say that to me. After that moment we were equals in the project. I had confidence in what I was doing. There are not a lot of folks as gifted as Jay was who could step away and let someone else do their thing and trust what was happening.

That's the Jay Bennett that was absent from "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" and largely from the public eye, the enigmatic artist willing to try anything at all to get the sound, including letting someone else make it if that's what was right. Toward the end of that week we were listening to what we'd done, talking about mixes and the rest of what need to happen to get the project completed. Sitting there in the control room he turned to me and said, "I'm really glad you came out here to make this record with me, but you know, you didn't have to. You knew what you wanted these songs to be. You had the vision. You didn't need me." It meant so much for him to say that. But he was wrong. I did need him, even if it was just to give me that confidence to know I could do it myself. That was his gift, to me and I'm sure countless others who had the privilege to work with him. That's why he was a very special man.

Thank you, Jay. You meant a lot to me. You did everything you could to get the sound, now rest in peace.

mjau · Post by **mjau** » Mon May 25, 2009 6:42 pm

Man, thanks for sharing. Great stuff.

I met Jay outside a now-demolished bar in Virginia Beach not long after Summerteeth had dropped. Wilco had just played a great set to about fifty people, and my friend and I went out back to see if the band was going to hang out, which all but Tweedy did. I remember Bennett and Ken Coomer cracking drummer jokes the whole time, and Coomer used my back to support the posters and shirts and other stuff people were asking him to sign. A homeless guy wandered on to their bus looking for a cigarette, and they invited him to stay and hang out. Really great night.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Mon May 25, 2009 7:16 pm

Yeah, Good story, iron.

Jay and I were both stuck at O'Hare when our plane to TOCon was delayed in '06. I had walked up to him and his friend, saying "looks like you guys are on your way to TapeOp Con." "What tipped you off?" he replied. Honestly, until he spoke I didn't recognize him, I'd just seen two guys my age with longish hair and did the profiling. In any event, we talked for a couple of hours, he was nice enough. When we landed I ran into him again (having in the meantime run into MSE/Scott for the first time) and Scott and I watched as he checked to see if his guitar (a '64 Epi Casino iirc) had survived the flight. It had, we all stepped outside for a minute so those who smoked could have a cigarette, and Scott and I headed for the hotel. That's the last time I spoke to him. Again, seemed like a nice guy. I'm sorry he's gone.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Mon May 25, 2009 9:31 pm

What a lovely tribute SadIron.

I had a few different encounters with Jay over the years. He was always quite nice and often funny. I have a TON of respect for him as a musician and producer. I find his passing quite sad.

Aj · Post by Aj » Tue May 26, 2009 10:05 am

Thanks for posting this.

If anyone's interested, Jay Bennett's final (?) solo album is available for free download here:

http://rockproper.com/jay-bennett/whate ... ogize.html

If you're up to the aural challenge, it's just a devastating listen. Particularly the song "Without the Benefit of Sight". Listening to it now; it's making me weepy... and I was not even much of a follower or fan of Bennett, Wilco, etc. But with all the controversy surrounding the Tweedy lawsuit, etc., this puts the whole thing in perspective to just hear the art he made. So, so sad. An excerpt:

If you want to pull me under / You're pulling the right way
I'm already barely breathing / I won't last another day.
If you want to break my heart / You don't have far to go
It's already barely beating / And that beating's getting slow

And I don't know why I try/ It will only make things worse.
I feel like I'm sliding down / Like ice from the roof
Of that building in Chicago / On the first day of spring
If you're not careful / It will kill you

Do they even know how he died? If it's inconclusive, I fear we may go down that whole, sad Elliot Smith road again. In any case, at least this one song is prophetic, at least to those who feel it that way. That, and the name of the album:

"Whatever happened, I apologize."

Aj

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Tue May 26, 2009 10:54 am

oh man that is sad.

sad iron · Post by **sad iron** » Wed May 27, 2009 8:58 am

Thanks for all the kind thoughts and stories. It's nice to compile a bunch of good memories about Jay. I hope he knew how kindly so many people thought of him.

honkyjonk · Post by **honkyjonk** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 2:13 pm

Another thing that is sad is that there really isn't much sentiment on tapeop so far, outside of a few people. That dude was totally what the forum and magazine are theoretically about. I love that guy. He fucking ruled. Wilco is like Steely Dan now and Jay Bennett the pop genius is dead. Fuck. . . .

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:19 pm

* wonders whether to take issue with the Steely Dan thing *

*fuck it*

I listen to a lot more Steely Dan than post-Bennett Wilco.

That is all.

sad iron · Post by **sad iron** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 6:43 pm

dwlb wrote:* wonders whether to take issue with the Steely Dan thing *

*fuck it*

I listen to a lot more Steely Dan than post-Bennett Wilco.

That is all.

Well, if I can put words in honkyjonk's mouth, or extrapolate from his comments, there's nothing wrong with SD, but it's kind of a shame that, for whatever reason, some of Wilco's recent output has sounded more like SD than Wilco. What portion of that has anything to do with Jay's absence is debatable. Perhaps this is the right venue?

But I also want to state that I don't want this to degrade into a navel gazing session on this subject. This thread was started as a memorial to Jay, an attempt to round out his legacy beyond the Wilco doc, and I'd love for it to stay that way, perhaps evolve into a discussion about how guys like Jay work in the record/producing world, post-wherever we are. I mean, his studio wasn't exactly a commercial studio. He wasn't exactly a producer, nor was he a straight-up session guy. He wasn't a multi-instrumentalist exclusively. He was a blend. A very potent blend. How do the rest of you see yourselves or other folks like that?

honkyjonk · Post by **honkyjonk** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 11:12 pm

Sorry, I certainly don't want to drag a thread like this into a which Wilco is better or Steely Dan argument.

I guess I just want to forget that stuff and say listen to Jay's folk masterpiece, and the ridiculously awesome stuff he has on his myspace page. I remember 'Hey Darlin' from the documentary and always loved that part, and the other stuff on the myspace page is not bullshit. It's really amazing.

And please make a big deal about 'Whatever Happens I Apologize' because it deserves it. It's not like anything else.

Aj · Post by Aj » Thu Jun 04, 2009 10:05 am

Continuing to listen to "Whatever Happened..." here as we all bust our grief out (anger is the second stage of grief honkyjonk; go ahead, let it out).

Seriously, download his last album, T'OPers, if you haven't already... link is in my previous above post. It's like a modern day Oar (Skip Spence).

Aj

lyman · Post by **lyman** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 11:14 am

Aj wrote: Seriously, download his last album, T'OPers, if you haven't already... link is in my previous above post. It's like a modern day Oar (Skip Spence).

That's what I'm doing when I get home from work. Eager to give it a listen!

JB struck me as a truly talented and driven guy. Too bad to lose him so soon.

honkyjonk · Post by **honkyjonk** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 11:11 pm

Yeah, Oar is pretty amazing, almost untouchable in some ways, but Jay was definitely forging into that quick and scrappy tape hissy Nebraska/Oar territory and keeping some mistakes, going for the unique/character take.

My first though was tape machine, maybe even a lower fidelity machine like a Revox or Teac, but with a fairly bright and sort of high fi mic. Maybe U87ish, but then to round it out it sounds like a sweet old Gibson guitar on a lot of the stuff (not saying I know anything about it, just what I think it sounds like). Pretty cool combination. But the important part is there are some really great songs. Damn it sucks that all we have is what's left.

Jon Nolan · Post by **Jon Nolan** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 7:55 am

i met jay a few times. super nice feller. i still like wilco, but damn did he bring a sensibility to the band that made my day.

coupla rememberances...

my band and i had a cancelled gig in chicago one time, so we crashed farm aid and made it back stage(!). i ended up hanging out with jay and jeff. jay was all excited about a keyboard solo on a summerteeth tune they had just laid down. it was on some cheapie casio keyboard. he had "recorded" a solo in the key of the song - onto the casio that is - and they just played it back, disregarding the fact that the recorded solo wasnt playing in time with the song. sounded funny. i forget which tune it is. i'll check. it's totally funny to know that story and hear the solo in question. he was all excited and starstruck since he had just hung out with neil young on his bus. I was all excited and starstruck to be hanging out with him and jeff.

sidenote: i got neil young's autograph!, met brian wilson, phish (meh), danilei lanois!, willie nelson. the 'Coug is a wank. best cancelled gig ever.

a year or so later we were playing the hideout (chicago club) party at sxsw. jay and coomer were playing with a coupla different bands on the bill. we were in the middle of the worst tour ever, and had just agreed to sell our 1986 B-600 ford school bus touring rig to a meals-on-wheels church program mid tour. the bus had had enough after seven years. that was the last gig our bus, The Bull ever played. Jay hung out on the bus with us. he was all wide-eyed and like "You *CAN'T* sell this thing! you just CAN'T!" I showed him my smokey amp and how you can power a cabinet with it and stuff.

Just a super nice guy. Being such a huge fan of Wilco, I was always so appreciative that he (and the other guys for that matter) were always so laid back and approachable. He was a kindred spirit. Just another dude on the road who was a great hang and who could talk about music endlessly.

I'll totally miss his presence and musical output.

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