Talk:Will Oldham

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I don't know how to add things to a 'to do list', but I think it would be nice if every will oldham-record would get its own page. Especially the more recent (let's say the bonnie "prince" billy-) records. And while we're at it, why don't we use the 'standard' music-album-outline that wiki uses for albums of major artist? You know, the ones with the 'album-information'-box at the right side. Leo44

I'm (very slowly!) doing this. I've just created Lost Blues and Other Songs. The whole Will Oldham article (as well as the albums) could do with a lot more detail but I don't really know enough about the guy.Tdrawler 23:22, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

I've created a stand-alone discogrpahy. His is a bit confusing, but I tried to make it clear (thanks to the info on Leo's page). ikes 19:49, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 Bonnie 'Prince' Billy influences 2 May 2006 cleanup tag 3 Images 4 Lists lists lists 4.1 Acting Section 4.2 Recording Section 5 Album gallery 6 Moniker

[edit] Bonnie 'Prince' Billy influences

It is possible that the historical figure Bonnie 'Prince' Charlie, an 18th century Jacobite pretender to the throne of Great Britain who garnered much support in the Scottish Highlands, played an influence in the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy moniker. It is also possible that Billy the Kid, the 19th century American outlaw, also known as William Bonney, may have been an influence.

This paragraph is pretty horrible at the minute. It is also possible (although extremely unlikely) that Kermit the Frog may have been an influence!. Also, I think that some of the information about Charlie and Billy the Kid is unnecessary. I've replaced it with a more compact version.--Tdrawler 22:14, August 30, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] May 2006 cleanup tag

This section needs clean up per WP's style guide, whose relevant section reads:

In popular music, album titles should be in italics, and song titles should be in quotes (i.e. The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" comes from their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band). (Wikipedia:Manual of Style (music)#Popular_music)

Jonathan F 02:46, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Images

Hi. It seems the images with dodgy copyright status have been removed, which just leaves the GFDL/CC-BY 2.5 one I took earlier this year. So, although these are all fairly similar (and of small size), I've uploaded them in case they can be used somewhere. Cheers, - Gobeirne 06:16, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lists lists lists

In my opinion, this article is getting incredibly dry and consisting almost entirely of lists:

• [he] has recorded under many names including a, b, c ...

• [he] has appeared in the films x, y, z ...

The 'other work' section is also too long and needs trimming (in my opinion). For example, was the 'collaboration' with Johnny Cash any more than singing backing vocals on ISAD? it hardly seems worth noting that.

I know the guy's appeared under many different names and collaborated with many different people, but I'd suggest just keeping the ones that we can write a bit more than "WO has collaborated with X on EP Y" about. Off the top of my head this would include (this list is far from complete) Tortoise, Matt Sweeney, Amalgamated Sons etc.

I'm happy to have a go at re-writing this (when I find the time; may not be for a while) but just thought I'd gauge opinions before making major changes. Does anyone else share my view, or is it better as it is?

Also, does anyone know whether the birthdate is accurate? I always thought it was unknown (to us). Any sources? Tdrawler 21:34, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

i agree with you, especially concerning the collaboration list. as for a re-write, go for it! ikes 21:41, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

---Actually, it IS worth noting that Jonny Cash picked a Will Oldham song, "I See a Darkness" to play on his covers album, it was quite more than Will just doing backup. I mean... in my humble.

[edit] Acting Section

I tried to clean up this section a bit, still think some information could be removed or better placed, such as the Tripping with Caveh stuff. Hope I didn't step on any toes with the small bit I did do, i.e. removing Julien Donkey-Boy. It is only an uncredited role... Worden 17:40, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Recording Section

Moved things around a bit, added the Collaboration subsection. I think we need to combine the Other Work List with this section. That list gotta go! Worden 21:59, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Album gallery

The gallery looks great, but it might be a bit overpowering for the article, particularly when there's already a Will Oldham discography article devoted to the topic. I'd be in favour of taking the gallery format out of this article, and using it to replace the table-based layout currently in the discography article. - Gobeirne 03:10, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

True. I'll change that, since I added it. Snow1215 21:57, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

I also did some overall cleanup to the article, but to me it seems best not to have the 2nd image, so I removed that too... sorry. Thoughts? Snow1215 02:17, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

• Obviously I'm biased, but I think free images are preferable to fair-use where possible, and the second image showed him doing what he does, which is important. However, I've just had a look at the current article, and agree there's no spot where it sits comfortably at the moment, so it can stay out - Gobeirne 21:05, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Moniker

I've removed the bit about the inspiration behind the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy moniker ("According to Oldham, the name draws inspiration from a number of sources, including Bonnie Prince Charlie, Billy the Kid, and Nat King Cole") due to a lack of a reference. If anyone has one, please add it back with a reference. Thanks! Snow1215 14:48, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

Nevermind, I found the source and worked it back into the article. Snow1215 18:12, 9 May 2007 (UTC)