Wilco

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,

Oh, oh, oh, oh

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?
The stare of your stereo,
Put on your headphones before you explode

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Wilco,
Wilco,
Wilco will love you baby,

There're so many wars that just can't be won,
Even before the battle's begun,
This is an aural 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,

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Wilco,
Wilco,
Wilco, Wilco will love you Baby

Deeper Down

By the end of the bout, he was punched out
Fists capsized, muscles shouting
Deeper down
He felt the insult of a kiss

Deeper still than we can go
Further out than triremes row
Drowning slow
His memories persist

Out beyond the telescope’s pry
Up above the tallest Dutch dope high
He realized
This mystery is his

Underneath the ocean floor
A part of who we are we don’t explore
I adore
The meaninglessness of the this
We can’t express

By the end of the bout, he was punched out
Fists capsized, muscles shouting
Deeper down
He felt the comfort of a kiss

One Wing

We once belonged to a bird
We cast a shadow on this world
You were a blessing, and I was a curse
I did my best not to make things worse
For you

That isn’t true
I always knew this would be your fate
This is what happens when wings separate
This happens to all dead weight
Eventually

We may as well be made of stone
We can’t be flown
One wing will never fly
Neither yours nor mine, I fear
We can only wave goodbye

One wing will never ever fly
Neither yours nor mine
One wing will never ever fly, dear
Neither yours nor mine, I fear
We can only wave goodbye

One wing will never ever fly, dear
Neither yours nor mine, I fear
We can only wave goodbye

Bye, bye
Bye, bye
Bye, bye
Bye, bye

Bull Black Nova

It’s in my hair
It’s on my clothes
It’s in the river over the road
It’s shining down, my angry star
Hanging on the hood of my car

I’m not going far
I’m not going far

It’s coming down
They’re coming up the shoulders
What have they found?
I wonder if they know
I’m in a bull black Chevy Nova
Silhouetted by the setting sun

This can’t be undone
This can’t be undone

If I’m the one with blood on my sofa
Blood in the sink, blood in the trunk
High at the wheel of a bull black Nova
Then I’m sorry as the setting sun

This can’t be undone
Can’t be outrun

It’s in my head
There’s blood in the sink
I can’t calm down
I can’t think
I keep calling there’s blood in the trunk
I can’t calm down

Pick up
Pick up

You And I

You and I
We might be strangers
However close we get sometimes
It’s like we never met

But you and I
I think we can take it
All the good with the bad
Make something that no one else has but

You and I
You and I

Me and you
What can we do
When the words we use sometimes
Are misconstrued

I won’t guess
What’s coming next
I can’t ever tell
You’re the deepest well I’ve ever fallen into

Oh, I don’t want to know
Oh, I don’t want to know
Oh, I don’t need to know
Everything about you

Oh, I don’t want to know
And you don’t need to know
That much about me

You and I
We might be strangers
However close we get sometimes
It’s like we never met

But you and I
I think we can take it
All the good with the bad
Make something that no one else has

You and I
You and I
You and I
You and I
You and I
You and I
You and I
You and I
You and I

You Never Know

Come on children, you’re acting like children
Every generation thinks it’s the end of the world
All you fat followers get fit fast
Every generation thinks it’s the last
Thinks it’s the end of the world

It’s a dream down a well
It’s a long, heavy hell
I don’t care anymore, I don’t care anymore
It’s a fear we transcend, if we’re here at the end
I don’t care anymore, I don’t care anymore
You never know

Come on kids, you’re acting like children
Act your age
Get back to black metal and pearls
All you sword swallowers, pull yourselves together
Every generation thinks it’s the worst
Thinks it’s the end of the world

It’s a secret I can’t tell
It’s a wish down a well
I don’t care anymore, I don’t care anymore
It’s a long heavy hell
Synthesizer Patell
I don’t care anymore, I don’t care anymore
But you never know
You never know

I don’t care anymore, I don’t care anymore
It’s a secret I can’t tell
It’s a wish down a well
I don’t care anymore, I don’t care anymore
It’s a fear to transcend if we’re here at the end
I don’t care anymore, I don’t care anymore
I don’t care anymore, I don’t care anymore
But you never know
You never know

Country Disappeared

Wake up, we’re here
It’s so much worse than we feared
There’s nothing left here
Our country has disappeared

With the winter trees bleeding leaf red blood
And the summer sweet dreaming April blush
But none of that it is ever going to mean as much to me again

Hold out your hand
There’s so much we don’t understand
So stick as close as you can
To all of your best laid plans

You’ve got the white clouds hanging so high above you
You’ve got the helicopters dangling, angling to shoot
The shots to feed the hungry weekend news crew anchormen

So every evening we can watch from above
Crush the cities like a bug
Fold ourselves into each other’s guts
Turn our faces up to the sun

I won’t take no
I won’t let you go
All by yourself
I know you need my help

When the cold light shakes you like a chandelier
The snowflakes break through the atmosphere
And melt on the blue breath of the auctioneers and disappear

So every evening we can watch from above
Crush the cities like a bug
Fold ourselves into each other’s blood
Turn our faces up to the sun

Solitaire

Once I thought the world was crazy
Everyone was sad and chasing
Happiness and love and
I was the only one above it

Once I thought without a doubt
I had it all figured out
Universe with hands unseen
I was cold as gasoline

Took too long to see
I was wrong to believe in me only

Once my life was a game so unfair
It beat me down and kept me there
Unaware of my naysaying
Solitaire was all I was playing

Took too long to see
I was wrong to believe in me only

I'll Fight

I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go
I’ll go for you
I’ll fight, I’ll fight, I’ll fight
I’ll fight for you
I’ll kill, I’ll kill, I’ll  kill
I’ll kill for you
I will, I will, I will

I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go
I’ll go for you
I’ll fight, I’ll fight, I’ll fight
I’ll fight for you
I’ll die, I’ll die, I’ll die
I’ll die for you
I will, I will, I will

And if I die, I’ll die, I’ll die alone
On some forgotten hill
Abandoned by the mill
All my blood will spring and spill
I’ll thrash the air, then be still

You’ll wake with a start from a dream
And know that I am gone
You’ll feel it in your heart but not for very long

You’ll rise each day as planned
Your will as your command
And stand each Sunday
A hymnal steady in your hand

And you’ll sing to yourself the rising,
falling melody
That you could never read
Without the choir’s lead
Still alone and lost indeed
And your soul will not be free

I will go, I will go, I will go
Into war’s waters, I will wade
And I will know without remorse
Or regret the fairness of our trade

For you to live, I took your place
A deal was made and I was paid
And in gold as I was told
With a place where my body could be laid

You will steer your life and die old in bed at home
Surrounded by your peers
Without suffering or fear
Grandchildren far and near
And none will shed a tear
For their love no longer here

I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go
I’ll go for you
I will
I’ll fight, I’ll fight, I’ll fight
I’ll fight for you
I will, I will, I will

I’ll kill, I’ll kill, I’ll kill
I’ll kill for you
I will
I’ll die, I’ll die, I’ll die
I’ll die for you
I will, I will, I will

And if I die
I’ll die, I’ll die alone
Like Jesus on the cross
My faith cannot be tossed
My life will not be lost
If my love comes across

Sonny Feeling

I was on my way home
From high school
Stuck at the crossing
I dug in for a duel

But at the last moment
I buried the brakes
My life split in two directions
Into two separate fates

I got on the last flight
To Amsterdam
But couldn’t hit the runway
So we took off again

“Aw, there’s no need to worry”
The captain cut in
“The winds are less angry
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

Sonny’s got a problem
All the mini-mart clerks know
She knows nothing of Eminem’s
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

A sunny feeling is taken away
A sunny feeling is taken away
A sunny feeling is taken away
A sunny feeling is taken away

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 of the feeling gets taken away

Everlasting Everything

Everything alive must die Every building built to the sky will fall But don’t try to tell me my Everlasting love is a lie Everlasting everything Oh nothing could mean anything at all Every wave that hits the shore Every book that I adore Gone like a circus, gone like a troubadour Everlasting love forever more Everlasting everything Oh nothing could mean anything at all Oh I know this might sound sad But everything goes, both the good and the bad So it all adds up, and you should be glad Everlasting love is all you had Everlasting everything Oh nothing could mean anything at all Everlasting everything Oh nothing could mean anything at all

2009

Wilco (The Album)

Credits + Notes

With Leslie Feist (vocals) on “You and I”
Dave Max Crawford (trumpet) on “Everlasting Everything” and Jason Tobias (slide cimbalom) on “Deeper Down”

Produced by Wilco and Jim Scott
Recorded by Jim Scott
Additional engineering by Jordan Stone, TJ Doherty and Jason Tobias Recorded at Roundhead Studios, Auckland, New Zealand and The Loft, Chicago
Mixed by Jim Scott with Kevin Dean at PLYRZ Studios, Santa Clarita, CA
Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering, Portland, ME

All songs written by Jeff Tweedy
(Words Ampersand Music, BMI, Admin. By Bug Music) except “Deeper Down” (Tweedy/Sansone)