yankee

I've always thought the song was about Jeff Tweedy's personal anguish over his lack of connection to the world around him. Actually, I've always thought that was the theme of most of YHF. But the beauty of great songwriting is that everyone can take something different from the songs and make it their own.

yeah, there's definitely a sadness and a disconnected feeling in this song for me. and i agree that part of the beauty of a song like this is that it leaves lots of room for the listener to find personal meaning.

to me, it relates to feeling depressed and disconnected, a state of mind that makes everything seem far away and absurd. but it's also struggling against that feeling and yearning to find meaning, connection and beauty, even the things that seem mundane, tarnished, or destroyed.

Yes, it was written before 9/11, but it still takes on new meaning after the fact. listeners can't help but connect the lyrics and the tone of the song to that event. i suspect that the song took on new meaning for the band too in light of things that happened since it was written.

it's amazing to look at this and think it was written before that event, since it does capture the feeling of that september. things are strange and sad, and there's all this distruction, and still there's the cash machine, the diet coke, all the regular mundane things that haven't changed.

anyone have any tab on this yet? if not, i'm going to have to beg my friend the song-figurin'-out-ninji!