With this approach, you can work on a song and finish it without even having the lyrics done. I mix them low so you have to struggle to hear, but loud enough so you can get the sound you want and get the melody to come through. I’ll even double vocal tracks of these sounds without words-I call them “mumble tracks.” A lot of times people will hear them and think I’m singing real lyrics there, but I’m not. In fact, one of the primary ways I write lyrics is to sing and record vocal sounds without words, vowel and consonants that sound like language but don’t actually mean anything. I think that’s partly why I usually don’t bother with lyrics for a long time, because I don’t want them to get in the way. At the same time, I hope-at best-that the words enhance some meaning, or clarify somehow what the melody makes me feel. Basically, I just don’t want to fuck it up. When I write lyrics, or when I adapt a poem to a song, what I really want to do is not interfere with the spell that’s being cast by the melody. I really believe that melody does all the heavy lifting emotionally. Lyrics are a very tricky thing to write, because songs, in my mind, are ruled by melody. I’ve thought about Johnston a lot in my own work with words and lyrics. I don’t trust myself to make conscious choices. I’m very drawn to Daniel Johnston’s real gift for tapping into this depth of feeling-there are lines like this one littered throughout his recorded output. Things that, if you could explain them straightforwardly, you wouldn’t have to have poetry, you wouldn’t have to have songs. And I think it demonstrates why we need poetry, why we need songs-to say the things that can only be expressed in this kind of elegant, inexplicable way. It captures a profound feeling: the desire to comfort someone, and the impossibility of doing so, all at once. “Don’t be sad” and “I know you will”-two contradictory emotions, experienced at the same time. I love, too, how the line doesn’t have a “but”-the more obvious thing to write would be “Don’t be sad, but I know you will.” The way Johnson wrote it is so much more powerful. We were touring through Austin, Texas-where Johnston lived and performed at the time-and Waterloo Records carried them in their store. Jeff Tweedy: I first came across Daniel Johnston’s cassettes in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s-I don’t remember exactly what year. Privileging emotional presence over any kind of defining atmosphere or mood, and featuring some of the most memorable melodies of Tweedy’s career, Sukierae is a portrait of a master craftsman at home, at ease, and willing to try anything. The result is a two-disc tour de force that shifts shape through varying musical styles-abrasive guitar rock, shuffling drum ‘n’ bass, Neil Young-inflected ballads. (The two also played together on gospel legend Mavis Staples’s Tweedy-produced One True Vine). On his new record, Sukierae, he plays every instrument except drums, which are contributed by his 18-year-old son, Spencer. Tweedy explained how Johnston, whose mental illness leaves him permanently in the care of his parents, remains an inspiration for the emotional honesty of his lyrics and the raw, visceral quality of his recordings.Īfter making Wilco’s most recent record, The Whole Love (2011), Tweedy realized that he’d never made an album on his own before-even though his bandmates had all worked outside the context of an ensemble. “I’m not gonna play one song about my dead father - I’m going to play three,” he quipped before performing “Don’t Forget.” Rolling Stone reported, “Fans smiled, sung along, and relished the opportunity to hear one of the greats tell his stories in such an intimate and unique SXSW setting.” He also played some of the songs featured in his Words + Music episode, including Wilco’s “Jesus, Etc.When I asked him to choose a favorite line for this series, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy wanted to discuss a lyric by Daniel Johnston, the indie cult hero whose bedroom recordings have influenced a generation of lo-fi musicians. At the event, he told the stories behind some of his songs. Tweedy recently was the subject of one of the streaming platform’s Words + Music series. Tweedy previewed what his solo shows could look like last month during an acoustic set at South by Southwest, where he headlined Audible’s Sound Studio Weekend. The solo dates start next month, following the end of Wilco’s current tour, which runs through the end of April. Le Ren will open many of the dates, according to his announcement on Twitter. Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy will embark on a solo tour this summer before releasing his new book, World Within a Song.
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