Hate It Here

[dls]

So, I'm listening to "Hate It Here" tonight and I was wondering about the line: "I make my bed I change the sheets"

 

Maybe it's just the editor in me, but shouldn't the line be: "I make our bed I change the sheets"? The narrator of the song is singing to the woman that left him and clearly he isn't over her. Seems like "my bed" sort of implies that the guy is getting over the girl, even though the rest of the song doesn't back that up. I might be overthinking this, but I'm guessing JT didn't just pass over this stuff once, and mulled over each line. To me, changing the line "our" doesn't sound any better or worse (sans alliteration of course) and makes more sense. Any thoughts?

[Artifex]

'my' is easier to sing high than 'our', imo.

[So Long]

you think too much.

[froggie]

maybe jeff bought their bed with his own $$$$$$

[oceanman]

I thought it was more or less a song written from Sue's perpective.

[Drazil]

If she left, that makes the bed Jeff's. It's that "possession" thing...

[cryptique]

My guess is that it's a phrase with a double meaning -- the literal meaning of him doing the housekeeping, and a metaphorical meaning with a twist on the phrase "you made your bed, now you have to lie in it." Ergo, it makes more sense to use "my" than "our."

 

Of course, I'm probably overanalyzing, but now that I've been forced to think about it, I appreciate that lyric just a bit more.

[W(TF)]

I thought it was more or less a song written from Sue's perpective.

 

 

?

[kissel me some more]

maybe jeff bought their bed with his own $$$$$$

 

I think it was Red Bank (although it may have been Merriweather) when Jeff said something after the song like: 'That is a true story - it is not mine - but it is true' and I just remember John smiling.

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

The way I've been interpreting it, the speaker in the song knows his wife/girlfriend isn't coming back, but he can't come right out and say it until the end of the song. His use of "my" instead of "our" is a hint that he's building up to finally admitting his realization, even though he doesn't want to.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who listens to the lyrics that closely!

[welch79]

you think too much.

i'm thinking this as well...

 

plus, sometimes my wife says "my house," "my bedroom," etc. in my presence just b/c that's the way she speaks.

[W(TF)]

The way I've been interpreting it, the speaker in the song knows his wife/girlfriend isn't coming back, but he can't come right out and say it until the end of the song. His use of "my" instead of "our" is a hint that he's building up to finally admitting his realization, even though he doesn't want to.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who listens to the lyrics that closely!

 

I agree. Starts off "you're not comin' home", builds up to "you're not there (at mom's)" and "what if you never come home?", then ends up "you don't live here any more". Nice progression of emotional reactions, especially the crescendo and solos after "and I should take care" implying either an impending breakdown or some other big trouble.

 

I think too much also. It's a motherfucking brilliant song, either way. I also love the loping, sad guitar solos...very reminiscent of mid-70's Neil Young (Cortez The Killer, etc). Which is not often or easily imitated. Nels just bounces from style to style and seems to enjoy them all.

[unposed_question]

i'm thinking this as well...

 

as am I. I mean, why is it "the" sheets instead of "our/my" sheets? Don't those belong to someone too? Or does

this imply that sheets can't be owned, unlike a bed, which clearly must be owned by someone. I think this

is giving short shrift to the sheets.

 

So I side with the sheets.

[oceanman]

?

I just thought he wrote it in a third person.I could be completely wrong.I thought she called it the Liar Liar song.Sky Blue Sky is one of the only Wilco albums that I really don't look that deep into,I like to enjoy it as good music,thats it.

[HighFives]

maybe jeff bought their bed with his own $$$$$$

 

hahaha

[W(TF)]

I just thought he wrote it in a third person.I could be completely wrong.I thought she called it the Liar Liar song.Sky Blue Sky is one of the only Wilco albums that I really don't look that deep into,I like to enjoy it as good music,thats it.

 

Fair enough, maybe he did.

 

Tweedy made some interesting comments in Billboard on how he approached the SBS song lyrics.

 

Tweedy insists he didn't plan to tone down the experimentation of Wilco's recent albums, although he admits when he thought to himself, "What record do I want to hear right now?," the answer was, "I want to hear somebody just sing me some songs." Stirratt adds, "We had rockers that existed with these songs for a while, but this sort of mood took over with tunes like 'You Are My Face,' " he says. "We had roughs in this sequence early on, and it felt so much like a record even at that point. It was like, 'God, this is the record that is trying to present itself to us.'"

 

When it came time to write lyrics, Tweedy pushed himself to keep things personal. "I've written a lot of stuff in the past that has been very, very uncomfortable for my wife to listen to, and uncomfortable for us both to live with in the context of people reading into it in a really autobiographical way," he says. "There's a part of me that was very conscious on this record of writing directly to my wife a little bit more; some things where I can say, 'This is how I feel.'

 

"I have to stay focused on what's really going on in my world, or I'm not writing about anything," he adds. "I feel like I've gotten through a lot, and I feel a lot better about my life. I feel like I'm able to contribute a lot more to my family. I don't think any of that is sad, silly or embarrassing to talk about."

[GtrPlyr]

I'm not so sure that Jeff put a heck of a lot of thought between using "my" or "our." A lot of songwriting is intuitive and sometimes your first thought just feels right, regardless of narrative slant. I just don't get the impression that every single word is weighed and labored over by Jeff to the nth degree, at least not all the time. It's usually the critics and fans that overanalyze, and end up putting more meaning into songs than were there to begin with. I'm sure some people are still talking about the political meanings in the song "Tequila" somewhere.

[dls]

I can't speak to how JT writes his songs, perhaps what's first is best, or he might be one of those writers that spends years fussing over each line (didn't it take Leonard Cohen 5 years to write Hallelujah?). At any rate, because couples have some of their most intimate conversations/moments in bed, that line struck me funny. As someone who went thru something similar years ago, sleeping alone was the last thing I came to grips with.

[markosis]

I like Wilco

[welch79]

I like Wilco

hey, good post. why didn't you use a period? are you not finished with your thought?

[W(TF)]

I like Wilco

 

Can I quote that and put it on a t-shirt?