I’ve been listening to his scratchy voice on repeat for months now. From Wilco, to his live performance in a Winnetka living room, Jeff Tweedy blows me away time after time. Every time I listen to a song for a second, third, or twentieth time, I hear something new. My iTunes library says I’ve listened to “Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard” 27 times, “Misunderstood” 12 times (and I know it will be many more), and Woody Guthrie’s “Remember the Mountain Bed” 40 times. Jeff Tweedy’s voice was made to go with these beautiful atmospheric Guthrie lyrics. He brought to life some of the most beautiful lyrics I have every heard. Tweedy sings one of Guthrie’s tale about a lost love. My personal favorite line is “You laughed as I covered you over with leaves/ Face, breast, hips, and thighs/ You smiled when I said the leaves were just the color of your eyes”. I get the chills every time I hear it. I struggle to understand the song “Misunderstood”, and it has been torturing me ever since I first heard it. Some people speculate it is about a Rock star who claims that most of his lyrics are “misunderstood”, and that Tweedy is making fun of himself in a way, and the whole “tortured aritst” act that comes with it. Some say it is about a man who never gave up his Rock star dream. He still lives with his mom, parties, whatever. He has nothing else. A slacker if you will. He may have been somewhat of a celebrity in his younger days and can’t let go of how that felt and where he thought that would lead. The song “Ashes of American Flags” rivals “The Times They Are A-Changin’”. He depicts post-modern America, “We want a good life with a nose for things/ The fresh wind and bright sky to endure my suffering/ I’m a hole without a key if I break my tongue/Oh, speaking of tomorrow, how will it ever come?” Jeff Tweedy is as much of a poet as Robert Frost and as much of a musician as Neil Young or Bob Dylan. If you have not listened to any of Jeff Tweedy’s work, I strongly urge you to do so. You learn something new every time you listen to a song, and it will infiltrate your life like you never imagined.
