Two songs in a row with a sleepy/woozy chorus, but while I like "(Was I) In Your Dreams" mainly for the way Jeff slurs, "whuzz-I," this is a more interesting song because of the shifts in tempo and tone... which you have articulated very well. It's kind of a bipolar song--I suppose that was the idea--and I tend to enjoy it when a band can effectively put contrasting moods into a tune. Funny, when you look at the lyrics, there isn't a lot there--you've seen it and done it all, you've paid your dues, you've seen the news--and yet the song can imply so much.
That struck me as well this morning, looking at the lyrics. They are very minimal but the song itself has almost a kitchen sink approach. As you say, the lyrics imply more than anything and it's the arrangement and performance that help them do so. Cool song.
As we wind down on BT, do we think we are delving into Mermaid or just briefly discussing before going on to Summerteeth. I'm gonna be scarce this weekend, so however it works I'll have some catching up to do
I highly recommend we add the Chelsea Walls soundtrack, since we're covering other Jeff Tweedy material as well.
I'm not familiar with it. Is it just score? My plan was to just do the "main" Jeff Tweedy projects--Together Through Life, Warm/Warmer and Tweedy. Once we get into all the side projects, it gets a bit overwhelming for me.
My copy of Learning How to Die by Greg Kot finally arrived this evening! I'll be reading that over the next few days.
Nothing will keep me from my schedule! I'm looking forward to the section on Mermaid Avenue as we head into it...
Incredibly said. I agree too that this little song presages a lot of what’s to come. It still feels like old-timey Americana, yet it pushes so far beyond what its instrumentation belies. Pieholden, yes, but also something like Hummingbird. Two signatures of Tweedy’s music, IMO, are the meta-narrative of the healing power of music, and a drive toward minimalism. On the latter point, it’s interesting that the longer songs on this album are minimal in their musical complexity (Misunderstood and Sunken Treasure evolve in intensity, but repeat the same chords as nauseum), while gems like this pack many changes into a minimal length.
We come to the penultimate song on the album... The Lonely 1 This beautiful song means the world to me. Let me try to put it into words... Music is intensely special to me. I have often described it as my best friend. It has been the shoulder I needed to lean on at many times in my life. I think this is one of the reasons I connect so strongly with Jeff Tweedy's work. He is like that too. He loves music with all his might and he lived a long time on the same side of it as me--"just a fan." He knows what it is like when a song, an album, an artist comes to mean more to you than just something you like to hear. It becomes a part of who you are. It helps you get through. And, as I think he expresses so brilliantly in this song, it can help you feel like you aren't the only one who has felt the way you are feeling. Great music is all about empathy and a shared human condition. We've talked over and over again about how this album is all about music. Jeff writes from the perspective of the musician often--the pains and pleasures of touring, of writing, of recording. But he never forgets the other side of it. Being the fan who gets the album, cracks the seal in a room alone and lets the music take them away. 'The Lonely 1' is a love letter to every person who has ever loved music. I cried just playing it now, eight o'clock in the morning and drinking my coffee. I've heard it hundreds of times before and will hear it hundreds of times again and it never fails to get me. The string arrangement is absolutely stunning. Ordinarily, something like that might infringe upon the intimacy of a song like this but it works beautifully here. It makes the song even more enchanting. This is a late, late night song and Jeff's vocal performance is one of his best on the whole album. He is right on the microphone and singing just for you, his voice human and fractured. We start out in the cold, waiting for a glimpse of the star that means so much. (Refer to that story about Jeff trying to see the Ramones when he was a teenager that I quoted earlier in the thread...he has lived this). The second verse is more intimate and more isolated. The fan writes in defense of his favorite artist (something I know we've all done). He listens to the music in a solitary room and feels kinship with the musician. It's that human connection and that understanding of the fact that the musician is a person too. And Jeff has lived both sides of this. As the fan, he senses that the musician is all alone up there (even with a band). And the real kicker line: I play your song Just to hear you say That you're the lonely one He plays the music to hear and understand the pains and longings of someone else. Even if the songs aren't explicitly about being lonely, that's not the point. It is the connection with another person's human experiences. Because, at the end of the day, we are all lonely ones. Music is a bridge. This song is perfection.
The Lonely 1 Achingly beautiful and melancholic, the lyrics are written as if by a fan but certainly is describing how Jeff Tweedy must have felt with his band counting on him to deliver: “When the band came out They stood behind you Cymbals crashed The lights went blue You stood alone In the halo's haze Shining guitar hung on Gold lame” And how agonizing it must be to bare all in your music: “When you perform It's so intense When the critics pan” It’s an intense listening experience, as well. Jessy Greene is on the violin. Per Kot’s book, both Jeff and Jay were dissatisfied with Max Johnston’s playing on this track and brought Greene in instead. I am guessing that this was devastating to Max and that he knew the writing was on the wall in terms of remaining a part of the band.
Then again, maybe we're not… (14 years later, this sequel of sorts showed that Jeff never stopped trying to figure out what music means to him and advocating its consoling power, from both ends of the experience, as a performer and as a listener.)
Gorgeous. The moment when she messes up a little and they grin at each other is the sweetest. Mavis' voice has aged really well.
I can't add anything to Parachute Woman's discussion of The Lonely 1. Great song with a surprising depth of feeling, and a great, personal analysis.
Lonely 1 The only song on the album that I think is outright bad. Weepy, whiny cloying setimental crap that means nothing to me and which I skip every time. You're better than this, Jeff.
Wow. There's no way to follow up that beautiful description. Just about as gorgeous as the song itself, @Parachute Woman, well done. I agree this song is just perfection. One of the single most emotional, evocative songs in the catalog. The crispness and clarity of the recording, starting first and foremost with Jeff's vocal and down through the whole arrangement of acoustic guitar, pedal/lap steel, orchestral flourish, everything, is — again — perfect. One of the things I miss about modern Wilco/Jeff Tweedy is vocal performances like this. The recordings nowadays are a little hazier/muddier, specifically the vocals, which I think takes away from the richness of the songwriting sometimes. But on The Lonely 1, it's all there, achingly perfect. I can't help but get a little wistful when I hear this song.
The music is lovely; the guitar figure and the string arrangment just makes me want to cry with it's beauty; and Jeff's voice is typically pretty yet totally inimitable. I think it is easy to dismiss the lyrics as whiny, though personally, I don't get that: I think there's a deep understanding and sympathy there: I see the character as another Jim Anchower type albeit without the slight tragic-comic alcoholic skew that "Passenger Side" had;, a lonely and slightly pathetic fan who finds comfort in the loneliness of the singer, and confuses it for his own; or maybe even uses the singer's emotion to avoid facing his own emotions and his reality of loneliness and loserdom. For all that depth, it is pretty succinct and if we were rating, this one would be a 5.
