This captures my feelings about "Hoodoo Voodoo" perfectly. Catchy, fun, goofy...but ultimately not one I ever seek out.
"Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key" Full confession: I am in love with Natalie Merchant...there, I said it. Therefore, it's quite difficult for me to find a downside with either of these tracks. This one has such a homespun feel to it, like snuggling on a cushy sofa by the fireplace in the middle of winter. A song that almost seems like it's been around forever. The chorus is absolutely mesmerizing. "Birds And Ships" I don't have an atom in my body that doesn't shimmer with feel good wonderfulness whenever I hear this track. Uh, I believe that's all I need to say...
"Hoodoo Voodoo" A rousing free-for-all where lyric and music mesh perfectly together. It's goofy, but that's the point. Always a fun listen.
"Hoodoo Voodoo" is good fun. What else can be said? Lyric is cool, and I like Jeff's nearly shot voice, it sounds like it was recorded at the end of a long day.
I'm from Illinois and went to the U of I in Champaign-Urbana, 1972-76. One of my good college friends grew up in Belleville, Illinois, Tweedy's childhood home town. Bernie was going out with Jeff Tweedy's older sister for a while when they were in high school. Jeff was still a baby. In an effort to "get in good" with Mr. Tweedy, he spent a Saturday afternoon helping dad assemble Jeff's new crib. This must have been in 1968 or '69.
Now that's a cool story! Thanks for sharing! She Came Along to Me This one is credited to Bragg, Tweedy, Bennett for the music so it seems to be a true collaboration. It is another very strong song and another highlight of the album for me. This is one of the few songs that features Bob Egan on slide guitar (he does great) and Jeff adds some very tasty harmonica. The music is rich and warm with a really good melody (I assume the vocal melody came from Bragg--more really strong work from him). The lyrics are an excellent and ahead of their time plea for gender equality. And they've not been any too well known For brains and planning and organized thinking But I'm sure the women are equal And they may be ahead of the men In 1942 this was written! I'm not typically a fan of highly political music (I just prefer personal or storytelling lyrics) but these really work because they seem to be from the heart and the music they are paired with is so gentle and loving. The whole song ends up feeling like a really sincere tribute to women from all these guys playing on it. This is why I love a band like Wilco. We aren't just cherry pie to them.
This is excellent, a bit like the first "Secret of the Sea", except for the BB lead vocal. The slide riff and overall feel of the song make it sound like a late seventies George Harrison tune (which is one of the recurring Wilco obsessions, as shown in (the album)'s 'You Never Know'.) More precisely : the start of the song and the verse melody sound uncannily like GH's 1976 cover of "True Love". .
She Came Along to Me is certainly ahead of its time lyrically. "All creeds and kinds and colors of us are blended" in 1942? As Parachute Woman already said, the music works very well with the lyrics, and the result is another winner. That's going to be a theme for this album...
Jay Bennett & Edward Burch’s Puzzle Heart use a very similar slide sound at just past the 2-minute mark:
Hoodoo Voodoo is one of my favorite tracks on the album. I had forgotten about She Came Along To Me - nice track. Dig the Harrison-esque beginning.
Hoodoo -- When I first got this album, probably a few years after its release, I really didn't like this song and would skip it every time. I was in my early twenties, and I think I was still probably too new to adulthood to be able to go backwards and enjoy a 'kid's song'. It's still not my favorite, but I appreciate it for the simple fun that it is. The Eels song Mr. E's Beautiful Blues bears a striking resemblance to it. She Came Along to Me - Love this one, always one of my favorites. I do like highly politicized lyrics, so this one is right up my alley. Billy Bragg was on fire during these sessions.
And all creeds and kinds and colors Of us are blending Till I suppose ten million years from now We'll all be just alike Same color, same size, working together And maybe we'll have all of the fascists Out of the way by then Maybe so Pretty classic socialist sentiment. Woody Guthrie was steeped in this music, of course. Hanns Eisler, Bertolt Brecht, and the like were very familiar to him. I'm sure he'd have been familiar with the anarchist feminism of Emma Goldman, and certainly first-wave feminism, the ideological force behind the suffragist movement, was well known. Of course, Guthrie's lyric is still from a male perspective: "She Came Along to Me," "Ten hundred books could I write you about her / Cause I felt if I could know her / I would know all women." OK, there's still some placing women on a pedestal there that carries some sexist overtones today.
A Mermaid Avenue album interjection (per Kot book): sold 277,000 copies (through 2003, I’m assuming), close to Being There sales numbers. Nominated for Grammy (lost out) and Tweedy was mistaken for an usher by Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs when Jeff was standing in the aisle holding programs for his band mates.
"She Came Along To Me"- My favorite Billy Bragg song on the entire Mermaid sessions and contender for favorite of them all. Wilco elevates the song to something special. Jay's vocal harmony sends it to the stratosphere for me. The playing is fantastic all around and according to Wiki it's all Wilco with Billy only on lead vocal. I always assumed Jay was playing the organ, but it gives the credit to John! Fantastic harmonica and acoustic by Jeff, and great slide by Jay and Bob. It's interesting looking at all the credits for this album. Of course, Billy nails the vocal and wrote a beautiful melody. Topping it off are fantastic heart felt lyrics about equality and a better world with all of us working together. I'm sure Woody would have plenty to say these days! One of those songs that I can play on repeat and sing along with all day long. I never tire of it. An exuberant 5/5!
I guess I'll the the lone voice of (mild) dissent here. "She Came Along To Me" is one that I've just forgotten about. It's not one of the tracks on Mermaid Avenue that has stayed with me. It's good enough, for sure, but I don't feel it to the extent that some of you do. I do hear the George Harrison references and, as many have said, the lyrics were of a quite advanced consciousness for 1943. While I certainly don't consider it a "bad" song (there are none of those here), it's likely my least favorite on the album so far (and this has nothing to do with its political content - I love political content in music as long as it is well done).
I kind of agree. I mean, it's a fairly good upbeat tune and performed well, but not one I ever really think about
It kind of sounds like he's making up the melody as he goes along. I like the content, but the song does seem half-formed to me.
Craziness! A beautifully written song. I’ll have plenty to disagree about in the future! This is why I love these threads though. It’s always surprising what everyone loves or dislikes. On a side note, I just ran across this article. Good job Jeff! Jeff Tweedy Pledges To Donate 5% Of His Songwriting Revenue To Racial Justice Organizations
So, all of you do know, whether Billy Bragg fans or not, that the best song of the Mermaid era will come at the very end, when we finish this first album, right?