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Wilco (the lyrics)


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You'll feel it in your heart

But [? not sure it's but] not for very long

 

And stand each Sunday, a hymnal

Steady in your hand

 

 

Into war's waters I will wade

 

For you to live I took your place

A deal was made and now it's paid

And the gold as I was told

The place where my body could be laid

(kind of unsure about the particulars of all this)

 

 

Grandchildren far and near

 

If my love comes across

 

2 cents for now... hearing a live version would help.

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One verse here I absolutely cannot understand.

 

 

Sunny Feeling

 

I was on my way home

From high school

I was stuck at the crossing

I dug in for a duel

 

Well at the last moment

I barely hit the brakes

My life split in two directions

Into two seperate fates

 

I got on the last fight

To Amsterdam

We couldn't hit the runway

So he took off again

 

Aww, there's no need to worry

The captain cut in

The winds are less heavy

Over in Berlin

 

You know it's true

The other shoe

It waits for you

What can you do?

Remember to show gratitude

The darkest night is nothing new

 

Sunny's got a problem

????????????

She knows nothing of immanence(?)

Suburban gangster flow

 

Oh maybe it's random

How each moment unfolds

It didn't feel

Like the wrong time or place

Until they cut off her clothes

 

One last verse:

 

I'm on my way home

From my high school

I'm always contemplating

Why the kids are still cruel

Oh, the kids are still cruel

 

A sunny feeling is taken away

A sunny feeling is taken away

A sunny feeling is taken away

Some other feeling is taken away

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Wilco (The Song)

 

Are you under the impression

This isn't your life?

Do you dabble in depression?

Is someone twisting a knife in your back?

Are you being attacked?

 

Oh this is a fact

That you need to know-ow-ow-ow-ow

 

Wilco

Wilco

Wilco will love you, baby

 

Are times getting tough?

Are the roads you travel rough?

Have you had enough of the old?

Tired of being exposed to the cold?

 

Start up your stereo

Put on your headphones

Before you explode

 

Wilco

Wilco

Wilco will love you, baby

 

There's so many wars that just can't be won, oh-oh-ohhh

Even if all the battles begun, oh-oh-ohhh

This is an hour of arms open wide

A sonic shoulder for you to cry on

 

Wilco

Wilco will love you, baby

 

Is someone twisting a knife in your back?

Are you being attacked?

Oh, this is a fact

That you need to know-ow-ow-ow-ow

 

Wilco

Wilco

Wilco

Wilco will love you, baby.

Hmm, I always heard this as "tired of being exposed to the cold / stare of your stereo."

However, I could be wrong.

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The meaninglessness

Of the this

We can express

 

I hear this as "we can't express."

 

 

I also noticed those three mentions of "well" during my listen! Interesting.

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The lyrics on this album are certainly interesting, and I need to spend more time focusing on them and reading them, etc before I comment on meanings of the majority of the songs. I do however, want to say something about Wilco the Song. This is a really funny and interesting lyric for me because quite simply, I can't think of an example from rock music that has lyrics like this. The closest comparison I can come up with is a rap song in which the MC just uses standard freestyle type verses and brags. Obviously Wilco is a tad humbler, but it is interesting to hear such a straightforward statement of purpose on a rock album. They're addressing exactly why people listened to them in the first place and announcing that they're back. It's not poetic, but its unique and it works.

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And they are making a mystic bond with their fans.

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Good call. I listened to it over and over and couldn't pick it up. Went back to the Lolla video and tried to read Jeff's lips. I'm going with Flown.

I actually listened to it again rather than relying on memory. Now I hear "thrown." Oops.

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In Wilco the Song, I hear this verse a bit differently:

 

 

"There's so many wars that just can't be won, oh-oh-ohhh

Even if all the battles begun, oh-oh-ohhh

This is an hour of arms open wide

A sonic shoulder for you to cry on"

 

I think it's "This is an aural arms-open-wide"

 

Thanks everybody for your lyrical assistance!

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I think it's "This is an aural arms-open-wide"

 

Thanks everybody for your lyrical assistance!

 

Yeah, I think that's it. I listened to it a few times. Then again this is coming from a guy who thought the verse of Jesus, etc was "Two, two chords" for the first two years he had the album.

 

--Mike.

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Yeah, I think that's it. I listened to it a few times. Then again this is coming from a guy who thought the verse of Jesus, etc was "Two, two chords" for the first two years he had the album.

 

--Mike.

 

:lol Alissa, then a kindergartener, warbled that song when new as, "Tall buildings shake, horses escape, singing sad sad songs". I'll never be able to hear Jesus Etc without an image of sad, frightened horses bolting out of a building flitting briefly through my brain.

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:lol Alissa, then a kindergartener, warbled that song when new as, "Tall buildings shake, horses escape, singing sad sad songs". I'll never be able to hear Jesus Etc without an image of sad, frightened horses bolting out of a building flitting briefly through my brain.

 

 

Haha. Little Kids are sometimes the best lyricists I've ever heard.

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:lol Alissa, then a kindergartener, warbled that song when new as, "Tall buildings shake, horses escape, singing sad sad songs". I'll never be able to hear Jesus Etc without an image of sad, frightened horses bolting out of a building flitting briefly through my brain.

 

Awesome. I was actually a little bummed to find out it wasn't two, two chords, I always thought he was just telling Leroy what to play in the verse and they just left it in in as the line.

 

--Mike

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Haha. Little Kids are sometimes the best lyricists I've ever heard.

My youngest one actually corrected ME on Jesus Etc..."turning your orbit around" just THIS YEAR! I can't (won't) even tell you what I THOUGHT Jeff was saying...lol That's what I get for NOT reading liner notes :stunned

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In Sonny Feeling the one line is: "all the mini-mart clerks know" but as far as the word at the end of the next line, I can't hear anything other than "imminence" (like you suggested).

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I think it's:

 

The summer sweet dreaming

April blush

 

I noted that above, but wasn't sure. Glad to have someone who hears it the same, at least.

 

Love the name change. :lol

 

At the end of Sonny Feeling I thought I heard "some of the feeling is taken away." Then I retracted the statement because really, that sounds identical to "some other feeling is taken away" unless you're enunciating like a mofo. Who knows.

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