Of all the "Lee songs" in the Sonic Youth catalog, "Wish Fulfillment" might just be the most Lee. While it made the cut for Dirty, the band never played it live. For years, however, it earned the honour of closing Lee's solo sets, the lone "song" to cleanse the echoing cloud of noisescapes and drones.

Like "Eric's Trip" or "Mote", I imagine Lee brought "Wish Fulfillment" to the band relatively fully formed. A demo recording that appeared on the Dirty deluxe edition as "Guido" shows them trying out various ideas around Lee's progressions, with interesting yet mostly aimless results. "Guido" refers to director/writer Guido Chiesa, whose Sonic Youth biography Sonic Life was bundled with a disc containing "Little Jammy Thing", which is actually an instrumental demo of "Wish Fulfillment". The 7" dates this as August 8th, 1991 (probably months before "Guido", which was recorded in the band's Hoboken rehearsal space while they refined the Dirty material). In the Dirty deluxe liners, Lee says that Thurston plays the drum machine, the only accompaniment to Lee's guitar. Another demo, recorded by Lee alone ("birds" courtesy of Michael Morley), appeared on the deluxe set. This version features some alternate lyrics and is recorded a half step higher than the album version, in G# rather than G.

Lee performed a few sets in Europe in September 1991, following the Sonic Youth tour documented in 1991: The Year Punk Broke. He toured with the drummer from Kleg, whose album he had produced, and constructed a hypnotic half hour of tapes, guitar drones, spoken word, and glorious noise. Lee continued honing these sets throughout the 90s, establishing the material that would result in his tremendous Dirty Windows LP. Though "Little Jammy Thing" supposedly pre-dates this tour, the only hint of the song is on September 9th in Paris, when he plays the chords that would become "Wish Fulfillment" in passing at the end of a long noise passage. Earlier, on the 5th in Utrecht, he reads his piece "Angels" which concludes with the phrase "wish fulfillment", accented by the remark: "That's right, wish fulfillment. That's what we're all after, right?"

Dirty was recorded in March & April 1992. Including "Wish Fulfillment", Kim played guitar on four songs, an old east German model called the Eterna. She used a weird tuning and a nasty tone, and I can genuinely say I can't replicate her part on this song. I can hear it, I can mostly separate it from the other guitars, but I just can't make sense of it. It seemed often when presented with a very "song" song, Kim would lay it on thick to try and twist it a bit, often to great effect (and sometimes not - the wah bass on "Eric's Trip"?). I'm not sure if she's playing specific notes or just going for a general "feel", but we'll talk more about it below.

There was some notorious discord in the band regarding Lee's presence on Dirty. Lee wanted to include "Wish Fulfillment" and his other song, "Genetic", but the band was unwilling to budge. As a compromise(?), "Genetic" appeared on the b-side of the first single, 100%, and also filled the "Lee song" slot at many of the Dirty tour gigs (with occasional appearances by "Eric's Trip" and "Mote", but never "Wish Fulfillment"). I suspect it helped that "Genetic" shared tunings with the album's centerpiece "Sugar Kane", performed nightly.

Following a brief West Coast tour in March 1993, "Genetic" was retired by Sonic Youth forever (though Lee himself resurrected it during some of his first post-SY shows with what would become The Dust). They did a summer tour in Europe, premiering future Jet Set material, featuring one of my favorite set lists the band ever did (check out the Blastic Scene boot from Lisbon, or its video) aside from one peculiar aspect - it has NO LEE SONG. What! The Lee song was a set list (and album) guarantee beginning with "Pipeline" in '87, but as of this tour and indeed Jet Set itself (which featured no Lee vocal upon its release in May 1994), all bets were off.

Sonic Youth took most of 1994 off from touring, leaving Lee free to do some solo gigs here and there. A couple of February dates in Brussels and Geneva demonstrate how far along some of the Dirty Windows material already was, and closes with a lovely performance of "Wish Fulfillment", sampling the final chords with his 2-second delay for one last loop. By now the set was a full hour long, blending tapes with live guitar, spoken word with sheer noise, all enhanced by Leah Singer's films. A year later in San Francisco, the set has continued to evolve, but still closes with "Wish Fulfillment". In July '96 in Hartford, he plays the song a half step up, like his original demo - I wonder if he sometimes used F since he was also playing his instrumental piece "Here" which is in FFCCAA.

Unfortunately, it seems like once he started tuning up, and playing the song less frequently, he began to stumble a bit. On Halloween night in Stockholm, 1998, he is tuned two full steps up, in B rather than G. This may be a capo situation, but it leads to trouble when he loses the key in the chorus, recovering eventually. He sounds great singing in the higher key, though!

September 5th, 2000 was the last date of Sonic Youth's month-long tour opening for Pearl Jam. Unfortunately, a family emergency meant Kim and Thurston were unavailable for the last 2 dates, so the remaining members got a little creative for the final show, resculpting current Lee songs like "Mote" and "NYC Ghosts & Flowers" with assistance from tech Eric Baecht, and playing some covers with Jim O'Rourke or Eddie Vedder on vocals. Lee also slipped in an increasingly rare solo performance of "Wish Fulfillment", back in its regular key, but stumbled again at the chorus ("It might be simple, it might be true..."), stopping to find the chords and actually changing key in the process. As far as I'm aware, this is the last known performance of the song, at least during SY's lifetime.

Lee has remained relatively quiet regarding the subject matter, revealing that it may be about "friendships and how they change once fame enters the picture" in must-read biography Goodbye 20th Century. Before that final performance at the Post Gazette Pavillion in front of 23,000 Pearl Jam fans, Lee introduced the song as follows: "This is an older song I wrote to a dear friend of mine at a time when we weren't really seeing eye to eye about things." I have my own theories, but part of the song's magic is the mystery behind the lyric and its unique place in the band's history.

One last note before we (kinda) discuss how to play the song...an early press release for Dirty was written by Thurston in typical Thurston fashion, and various copies are floating around out there. I was comparing these two when I noticed a single difference - it would appear Thurston forgot the name of the song! Hmm...

Lee's part is effectively the entire melodic skeleton of the song - any solo version is just as satisfying as the Dirty cut. Like "Lee #2" or even "Eric's Trip", Thurston and Kim seem intent on sabotaging the beauty of the song by sculpting abstract parts that don't necessarily enhance things harmonically. Kim more than Thurston on this particular track, but Thurston's 'pick scrapes + long slides' bassline on "Lee #2" is a fine example of thinking extremely far outside the box (so far that it didn't make the final mix of the song, which didn't actually make the record, so...).

On "Wish Fulfillment", Thurston provides very nice bursts of whammy bar noise sprinkled throughout the verses, and does a half-chord/half-lead take on the chorus that's pretty well structured. Kim, on the other hand, I just don't know what she's doing! To be honest, I always assumed she played bass on the song, until I got my hands on some sonic tech notes that revealed her guitar usage on four songs. As I mentioned above, I can hear her part, but I still struggle to replicate the general sound she is making. I even tried running the song through one of those websites that uses AI to split a song into its individual tracks - I did not have high hopes at all, particularly since the song doesn't actually have a bass track, but it did spit out something that at least matched the basic undertone of her part. You can listen to it if you want (obviously there are giant gaps where the verses are). I'd love to hear from anyone who thinks they have an idea of what she's doing.

Having said that, I'm not going to tab her part. I actually tried the first chorus based off of the AI split, but when I compared it to the second chorus, she seems to be straying from what she played the first time, which makes me think it's fairly random. Having said that, she does seem to stick to certain notes for the beginning and end of the chorus. So...huh. Help!

Thurston's tuning has always been cited as EGDGED for this song - in Guitar Player November 1992, and also in the aforementioned sonic tech notes, which are rarely wrong. However, based on tell tale open strings in his part on "Guido", I am pretty sure he is in F#F#F#F#EB. The "chorus" sound of his chords on the chorus also make me lean this way. Of course, he could have changed his tuning for the album - "Guido" is certainly not set in stone - but I've gone with F#F#F#F#EB for the tab. I went back and forth on this but I hear the open F#s when he's picking behind the bridge at the end of the album version of the song, which I think seals it.

Speaking of "Guido" - I'm not positive when it was recorded but it sounds like Lee knows how the song goes, even though it's not a direct take on the finished structure. The band may have been playing around with it to try to deconstruct the framework he'd created, and then decided to stick to the layout established in the demos. It's also possible that Lee brought the song to the band less finished than I thought. Either way, Thurston seems to have struck pretty close to his final chorus part, but is playing something totally different during the verses which he abandoned for the noise stings on the album. Also, Kim might be playing bass? Regardless, the album version crushes the exploratory curiosity of "Guido", so I'm glad they went with a relatively straight take.

There are at least two tracks of Lee's guitar, one panned left and one more centered. There may also be additional noise tracks buried deeper in the verse. Like I've said - Lee's part is the critical element. I've had a pretty accurate tab for Lee on the site for a long time now, and original site contributor madsun offered his take on Thurston's part in EGDGED, but this is just a bit closer to what's on the album. I'm sorry to cry defeat over Kim's part - I would be very curious to hear from anyone who can tackle it.

UPDATE: Riley Ponce accepted the "figure out what the hell Kim is doing" challenge and worked out her part based on the AI separation file above...thanks again Riley!!

A SECTION				00:00-00:49

Lee's verse riff:

F#--------------0--------------------0--------------------0------------------0-------
E--------3--------3-----------3--------3-------------0-------0----------0-------0----
B-----------3-------3------------3-------3-------------0--------0---------0--------0-  use your thumb
B-----3---------------3----3---------------3-----0------------------0----------------    for 3rd fret
E------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E---3--------------------3---------------------0------------------0------------------

Thurston relies heavily on his whammy bar for the verses on this song. During the intro,
he uses these shapes with excessive bar usage:

B-------22-------17--------
E-------15-------15--------
F#------15-------15--------	
F#-------------------------
F#-------------------------
F#-------------------------

After that, he mostly plays E notes - 5th or 12th fret harmonics on the E string, with heavy bar attack.
He also strikes the string behind the bridge (with heavy bar attack). He also flicks his pick-up
switch back and forth after hitting some of these notes (with occasional heavy bar attack).
I considered trying to tab it all but I would be wasting your time and mine, plus I've already set a
precedent of defeat with Kim's part. Speaking of which...

Kim is silent during the first verse.

B SECTION				00:49-01:04
	
Lee's part:

F#--------------------------------------------------------------
E---3-3--X-X-X--3-3--X-X-X-X---2^0-0--0-0-0-0--2^0--0--0-0-0-0--
B---3-3--X-X-X--3-3--X-X-X-X---2^0-0--0-0-0-0--2^0--0--0-0-0-0--  x 2
B---3-3--X-X-X--3-3--X-X-X-X---2^0-0--0-0-0-0--2^0--0--0-0-0-0--
E---3-3--X-X-X--3-3--X-X-X-X---2^0-0--0-0-0-0--2^0--0--0-0-0-0--
E---3-3--X-X-X--3-3--X-X-X-X---2^0-0--0-0-0-0--2^0--0--0-0-0-0--

Thurston plays:

B--------------------------------------------------------------------------
E--------------------------------------------------------------------------
F#--\13-13/--X-X-X--/13-13\--X-X-X---12/10-10-10-10-10--12/10-10-10-10-10--
F#--\13-13/--X-X-X--/13-13\--X-X-X---12/10-10-10-10-10--12/10-10-10-10-10--   x 2
F#--\13-13/--X-X-X--/13-13\--X-X-X---12/10-10-10-10-10--12/10-10-10-10-10--
F#--\13-13/--X-X-X--/13-13\--X-X-X---12/10-10-10-10-10--12/10-10-10-10-10--

Kim:

B---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---2---2-0-0-0-0-2---2-2-0-0-0-0-/16-16-/18-18---18-18-18-16-/18-18-18-18-18-18-\2-0---

B--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---2---2-0-0-0-0-2---2-2-0-0-0-0-/16-16-/18-18---18-18-18-16---16-16-16-16-16-16-14---

C SECTION				01:05-01:40

Lee's part:

F#--9--9--9-9-9-10--10-10-10--10-10-10-- 
E---9--9--9-9-9-10--10-10-10--10-10-10--  
B---9--9--9-9-9-10--10-10-10--10-10-10--  x 3   
B---9--9--9-9-9-10--10-10-10--10-10-10--  
E---9--9--9-9-9-10--10-10-10--10-10-10--  
E---9--9--9-9-9-10--10-10-10--10-10-10--  

F#--\12--12--12-12-12---------------
E---\12--12--12-12-12-0^2-2-2--2-2--
B---\12--12--12-12-12-0^2-2-2--2-2--
B---\12--12--12-12-12-0^2-2-2--2-2--
E---\12--12--12-12-12-0^2-2-2--2-2--
E---\12--12--12-12-12-0^2-2-2--2-2--

F#--9--9--9-9-9-10--10-10-10--10-10-10-- 
E---9--9--9-9-9-10--10-10-10--10-10-10--  
B---9--9--9-9-9-10--10-10-10--10-10-10--  x 3   
B---9--9--9-9-9-10--10-10-10--10-10-10--  
E---9--9--9-9-9-10--10-10-10--10-10-10--  
E---9--9--9-9-9-10--10-10-10--10-10-10--  

F#--\12--12--12-12-12---------------
E---\12--12--12-12-12-0^2-2-2--2-2--
B---\12--12--12-12-12-0^2-2-2--2-2--
B---\12--12--12-12-12-0^2-2-2--2-2--
E---\12--12--12-12-12-0^2-2-2--2-2--
E---\12--12--12-12-12-0^2-2-2--2-2--

F#---------------------
E--9--9---9-9-9-x-0----
B--9--9---9-9-9-x-0----
B--9--9---9-9-9-x-0----
E--9--9---9-9-9-x-0----
E--9--9---9-9-9-x-0----

Thurston plays something like:

B-----------------------------------------------------------12~~12~~--
E---------------------------------------------------------------------
F#--7~~-7~7~7~7~7-8~-~-8~8~8~8~8--8\10~~10~10~10~10~10~\12~-12~~12~~--   hold the trem bar 
F#--------------------------------------------------------------------    and tweak each note hard..
F#-------------------------------------------------------------------- 
F#--------------------------------------------------------------------   this is just a rough idea

B------------------22\\--
E------------------------  trem picking for these notes
F#--17---20---22---22\\--    crazy random slides for the highest notes...
F#--17---19---22----/----      each one correspondents w/ lee's chord changes
F#---/----/----/----/---- 
F#---/----/----/---------  (again, rough idea...)

B------------------22\\--
E------------------------
F#--17---20---22---22\\--
F#--17---19---22----/----
F#---/----/----/----/----
F#---/----/----/---------

B----------------------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------
F#---------------------------------------------------------------------------
F#--7-7--7-7-7-8--8-8--8-8-8--10-10--10-10-10--10-10--10\12-12-12--12-12-12--
F#--7-7--7-7-7-8--8-8--8-8-8--10-10--10-10-10--10-10--10\12-12-12--12-12-12--
F#--7-7--7-7-7-8--8-8--8-8-8--10-10--10-10-10--10-10--10--0--0--0---0--0--0--

B------9--9-9-9-9------0-----
E------9--9-9-9-9------0-----   (not sure about this - might be hearing some of lee's part?)
F#--7--7--7-7-7-7--7---5-----
F#--7--7--7-7-7-7--7---------
F#--7--7--7-7-7-7--7---5-----
F#--7--7--7-7-7-7--7---------

Kim:

B-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---14-14-14-14-14-14-14-16---16-16-16-16-16-16-14-/16-16-16-16-16-16-16-16\-0-12-14-14-16-16-14-16---

B------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---16-/18-18---16-14-14-14---14-14-14-16-16-14-14-/16---16-16-16-16-16-16-X-16-16-16-16-16-16---

B------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---16-/18-18---16-14-14-14---14-14-14-16-16-14-14-/16---16-16-16-16-16-16-X-16-16-16-16-16-16---

B-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G--------------------------14-14-14-14-14--------------------------14-----------------
E--------------------------14-14-14-14-14--------------------------14-----------------
D---2---2-2-2-2-2-/14---14-14-14-14-14-14-0-2---2-2-2-2-2-/14---14-14-16-16-16-14-X---

B------------------------
B------------------------
D------------------------
G------------------------
E------------------------
D---2---2-2-2-2-/14-14---

A SECTION				01:40-02:13

Lee repeats his verse riff. The third time, under "I could almost see your face tonight, 
singing simple rhythm and blues", he plays a slight variation:

F#--------------0--------------------0--------------------0--------1---0---0---------
E--------3--------3-----------3--------3-------------0-------0-----------------0-----
B-----------3-------3------------3-------3-------------0--------0----------------0--- 
B-----3---------------3----3---------------3-----0-----------------------0-----------
E------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E---3--------------------3---------------------0---------------------0-------0-------

Thurston continues his whammy bar abuse on random notes/non-notes.

Kim comes in right at the end of the verse:

B-----------
B-----------
D-----------
G-----------
E--0-0-0-0--
D-----------

B SECTION				02:13-02:28

Kim changes it up a bit:

B---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---2---2-0-0-0-0-2---2-2-0-0-0-0-/16-16-/18-18---18-18-18-16-/18-18-18-18-18-18-\2-0---

B---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---2---2-2-2-2-2-2---2-2-2-2-2-2-/16-16-/18-18---18-18-18-16-/18-18-18-18-18-18-18-0---

C SECTION				02:29-03:26

Thurston gets a little wilder, forgoing the chords in the fourth rep for straight up
frantic fretboard sweepin', though he does drop back to the open F# and finish on the 
same 7th fret ending bit shown above.

Kim:

B----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---2---2-2-2-2-/14-/18---18-18-18-18-18-18-0-2---2-2-2-2-2-/14-16-16-16-16-16-15-15-0---

B------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---2---2-2-2-2-/14-/16---16-16-16-16-16-14-16-----16-16-16-16-16-0-0-0-0-/14-14-14-14-0---

B----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---2---2-2-2-2-/14-/18---18-18-18-18-18-18-0-2---2-2-2-2-2-/14-16-16-16-16-16-15-15-0---

B------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D---2---2-2-2-2-/14-/16---16-16-16-16-16-14-16-----16-16-16-16-16-0-0-0-0-/14-14-14-14-0---

B------------------------
B------------------------
D------------------------
G------------------------
E------------------------
D---2---2-2-2-2-/14-14---

Everyone picks behind the bridge or scrapes the strings during the fade-out.


text + tab by Chris Lawrence

special thanks to Riley Ponce for decoding Kim's part!!