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JT's newfound health


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Just because Tweedy is healthy and drug free doesn't mean he doesn't remember what it felt like to be in that sort of pain. Where as a lot of artists get wasted and stoned and write their songs in a haze of pain and numbness, I think Jeff Tweedy is unique in that as he has gotten healthier he will be able to write even more meaningful songs with his lyrical mind. He truly does have a gift for lyrics and the merging of language to song, and I don't think that's going to go away anytime soon.

 

If there is one man I have faith in to keep putting out high quality music, it is Jeff Tweedy through Wilco. His new health and happiness only gives him more leverage in his songwriting. Who is to say that happy songs can't be artistic and at the same level as his previous songs?

Edited by jackelpdw
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I would argue that Stevie Ray Vaughan's very brief clean period was better than his drug-addled years.

Good call :thumbup I saw SRV a dozen times & he got better imo after he got off the stuff

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If your art doesn't make you feel better, then what's the point? Or, is any song worth singing if it doesn't help?

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The same with "Wanted". Besides sounding exactly like Hummingbird, it's got just as much pain in it.

 

Well some of the lyrics from "Wanted" are in "Adult Head" so thats pre-clean-Jeff, but it's still a killer tune!!!

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The Ruling Class is about some of the people in the Rehab clinic Jeff was in, so I'm not sure if Born Again in the USA technically counts as far as being out of the woods with drugs.

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If you are making a mafia movie and hire a former mafia hit-man as a consultant, does his opinion mean less because he's not out there offing people? Jeff has the advantage of having been there (pardon the pun) and having a new, fresh perspective that sobriety, quitting smoking, and running now bring. Sure, the running also comes with a stress fracture, but maybe he can turn that into a new song - "Holy shit, there's a fracture in my fibula!"

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Miles Davis was pretty much clean as a whistle when he did "Bitches Brew", and that album was one of the most bold and experimental statements in music. So anything's possible, really.

 

In the Neil Young biography he says he thinks the crash of classic rock at the end of the seventies was fueled by cocaine. He said cocaine was responsible for his lousiest performances and that the main reason the Band's Last Waltz isn't quite what it should have been was cocaine. Granted, its not Heroin or OxyCotton but theres one drug a musician says sucked.

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Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Richard Thompson, David Hidalgo, Louie Perez, Cesar Rosas, Elvis Costello all doing brillant work later in their lives...I think it gets better and better for many artists. And being clean adds a pretty intense punch to some peoples work.

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If the new songs are any indication of what he is writing drug-free, then I am happy that Jeff has kicked his habits. The new songs are incredible and get better each night. I feel that the next wilco album will be the best one.

Is this really about cleaning up? As far as I knew he kicked his Rx addiction after ghost, and is trying to quit smoking now. Whatever he is doing, it's not the rock and roll story with needles broken off in his arm. I doubt his music will be compromised. Now on another note, if he is going to be taking meds for his 'disorder' I am very worried. My philosophy is it is better to feel shitty than feel nothing at all. Not so much the case with corrective anti anxiety meds, but more so along the lines of your prozacs and other anti-depressants. That shit frightens me.

 

Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Richard Thompson, David Hidalgo, Louie Perez, Cesar Rosas, Elvis Costello all doing brillant work later in their lives...I think it gets better and better for many artists. And being clean adds a pretty intense punch to some peoples work.

May I add the late Stevie Ray?

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I would argue that Stevie Ray Vaughan's very brief clean period was better than his drug-addled years.

I just saw this post shortly after I posted the same thing. Kudos my friend.

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if he is going to be taking meds for his 'disorder' I am very worried. My philosophy is it is better to feel shitty than feel nothing at all. Not so much the case with corrective anti anxiety meds, but more so along the lines of your prozacs and other anti-depressants. That shit frightens me.

May I add the late Stevie Ray?

 

You really have no idea. :realmad

 

Anti-depressants do not make you "feel nothing at all." Where do you get your information? What do you think is the great distinction between meds for anxiety and for depression? Gee, the one often produces the other, right? And sufferers of anxiety often take the same or similar medications as sufferers of depression.

 

Maybe "that shit frightens" you because you have no idea what you are talking about! By the way, your comments stigmatize people taking meds for depression in a way that is highly insensitive. Are you friends with Tom and Katie?

 

Oh, the scare quotes around disorder is a nice touch on your part. Way to go, downplaying the significance of JT's situation--and if you did not mean to do that perhaps you should communicate more clearly in the future.

Edited by zanelotti
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OxyCotton

I have a shirt made out of that.

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You really have no idea. :realmad

 

Anti-depressants do not make you "feel nothing at all." Where do you get your information? What do you think is the great distinction between meds for anxiety and for depression? Gee, the one often produces the other, right? And sufferers of anxiety often take the same or similar medications as sufferers of depression.

 

 

some do, some don't, it all depends on the reaction one's body has to the drugs.

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some do, some don't, it all depends on the reaction one's body has to the drugs.

 

True, but I was responding to the blanket statement that such drugs make one "feel like nothing," period. Also, a thing to consider is that someone who is depressed might "feel like nothing" anyway, so it might not be the drug itself. "You are on (drug x)? You act like a zombie!" Well, if you are depressed you feel, at best, like a zombie anyway. But your point is well-taken.

Edited by zanelotti
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