Wilco

Normal American Kids

I remind myself of myself long ago
Before I could drive, before I could vote
All of the time, holding a grudge
Before I knew people could die just because
Shot from a sling, head full of buzz
I knew what I liked was not very much
High at the time, tied to the grid
Always afraid of those normal American kids
Oh all of my spirit leaked like a cut
I knew what I needed would never be enough
I was too high to change my bid
Always afraid to be a normal American kid
Always hated normal American
Empty summer days
Lightning crazed and cracked like an egg
High behind the garden shed
Painting myself as a normal American kid
I always hated it
High as high as high can loom
Under the sheets in my bedroom
I was as high as high can get
Always afraid of the normal American kids
Oh bongs and jams and carpeted vans
Hate everything I don’t understand
High times tightening the lid
Had to get away from those normal American kids
Always hated those normal American kids
Always hated those normal American kids

If I Ever Was A Child

I’ve never been alone
Long enough to know
If I ever was a child
I was tied up like a boat
Unbuttoned like a coat
Set free for a while
Well I jumped to jolt my clumsy blood
While my white, green eyes
Cry like a windowpane
Can my cold heart change
Even out of spite?
I slump behind my brain
A haunted stain never fades
I hunt for the kind of pain I can take
And I cry like a window pane
Can my cold heart change over night?
So I wont ever want to touch
Your heart too much
Or hold you too tight
I slump behind my brain
A haunted stain will never fade
I hunt for the kind of pain I can take
I never was alone long enough to know
If I ever was a child

Cry All Day

I know that I'm unknowing
I'm never totally right
I'm gonna walk away slowly
Instead I bid you good night
Another goodbye, I'm gonna cry
Cry, cry, cry all day
Whatever you're withholding
I never said it was good
If I could sell it by the dozen
I'd never dare but you would
I know that you would, I'm aware that you could
Cry, cry, cry all day
Cry all night
I had a hole in my heart, I had a "company" me
It kept me whole-y from rolling
Someone into something like me
Something like me, you don't wanna be
I cry, cry, cry all day
I cry all night
I cry all day
And I cry, cry, cry all day
Cry all night
At the open mic
I sing and I stall
I fall on the knife
However there's another
Another future to fight
I never took it so seriously
Oh it was serious alright
Watch them all fight, but you can't fight it
And I'll cry, cry all day
Cry all night
Cry all day
Cry all night
All day
And now the hounds are calling
I see the world I find
I'm sick of your affliction
But you're just a smartass and blind
Out of the light
Now be kind
Cry, cry, cry all day
All night
Into the light
Into the light
Into the light

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

I am an American aquarium drinker
I assassin down the avenue
I'm hiding out in the big city blinking
What was I thinking when I let go of you

Let's forget about the tongue-tied lightning
Let's undress just like cross-eyed strangers
This is not a joke so please stop smiling
What was I thinking when I said it didn't hurt

I want to glide through those brown eyes dreaming
Take you from the inside (baby) hold on tight
You were so right when you said I've been drinking
What was I thinking when we said good night

I want to hold you in the bible black predawn
You're quite a quiet domino bury me now
Take off your band aid cuz I don't believe in touchdowns
What was I thinking when we said hello

I always thought that if I held you tightly
You would always love me like you did back then
Then I fell asleep in the city kept blinking
What was I thinking when I let you back in

I am trying to break your heart
I am trying to break your heart
But still I'd be lying if I said it wasn't easy
I am trying to break your heart

Disposable Dixie cup drinker
I assassin down the avenue
I've been hiding out in the big city blinking
What was I thinking when I let go of you

(I'm the man who loves you)
   

Kamera

I need a camera to my eye
To my eye reminding
Which lies have I been hiding
Which echoes belong

I've counted out days
To see how far
I've driven in the dark
With echoes in my heart
Phone my family tell them I'm lost on the
Sidewalk

No it's not O.K.

I smashed a camera
I wanna know why
To my eye deciding
Which lies have I been hiding
Which echoes belong
I'm counting on
A heart I know by heart
To walk me through this war
Memories distort
Phone my family tell them I'm lost on the sidewalk

No it's not o.k.

I'm counted out
And no one knows how far (tell them I'm lost)
I've driven in the dark (tell them I'm lost)
With echoes in my heart (tell them I'm lost)
Phone my family tell them I’m lost

(yeah I’m lost)

No it's not O.K.

No it's not O.K.

No it's not O.K.

The Joke Explained

I never held your gaze
I never know my place
I stare at the eyes staring at my face
It always ends in a tie
There is no knitting the divide
I cry at the joke explained
Ah but if I had known
If I had known
If I had known
I would have never believed
I never smoked my chain
Whoever measures the crest
Ah they can have my broken chest
It's a staring contest, in a hall of mirrors
I sweat tears but I don't ever cry
Ah but if I had known
If I had known
If I had known
I would have never believed
I never knelt at the news
My parrot perished in the pews
I climb back into the yolk
It always ends in a tie
There is no knitting the divide
I cry at the joke explained
Ah if I had known
If I had known
If I had known
I would have never believed (x3)

Misunderstood

When you're back in your old neighborhood
The cigarettes taste so good
But you're so misunderstood
You're so misunderstood

There's something there that you can't find
You look honest when you're telling a lie
You hurt her but you don't know why
You love her but you don't know why

Short on long term goals
There's a party there that we ought to go to
If you still love rock and roll
If you still love rock and roll?

It's only a quarter to three
Reflecting off of your CD
You're looking at a picture of me
You're staring at a picture of me

Take the guitar player for a ride
'Cause he ain't never been satisfied
He thinks he owes some kind of debt
It'll be years before he gets over it

There's a fortune inside your head
When all you touch turns to lead
You think you might just crawl back in bed
With a fortune inside your head

I know you're just a mama's boy
You're positively unemployed
So misunderstood
So misunderstood

I know you've got a god-shaped hole
You're bleeding out your heart full of soul
You're so misunderstood
You're so misunderstood
You're so misunderstood
You're so misunderstood

I'd like to thank you all for nothing
I'd like to thank you all for nothing at all
I'd like to thank you all for nothing
Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing at all
Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing at all

Someone to Lose

Where you gonna go in your winter coat

I wonder what you’re hiding cause it’s not too cold

It’s already too late

Somebody’s gonna get you

And if I hold you to tight, someone else won’t get to

Ohhhh wouldn’t you know it, I keep it rolling

Considering no one punching a path

Facing the blast and the moon and the math

But you still never know where your soul is attached

Oh, wouldn’t you know it, ah wouldn’t you know it

I’m so confused

I can’t move

I can’t even try

I hope you find 

Someone to lose, someday

Now where you gonna go like a cobra coiled

Sweating in sweater, you’ve got too much style

But you’re never alone, someday they’re gonna get you

I hope you find

Someone to lose, someday

I hope you find

I hope you find 

Someone to lose, someday

You Are My Face

I remember my mother’s Sister’s husband’s brother Working in the goldmine full-time Filling in for sunshine Filing into tight lines Of ordinary beehives The door screams I hate you Hate you hanging around my blue jeans Why is there no breeze No currency of leaves No current through the water wire No feelings I can see I trust no emotion I believe in locomotion But I've turned to rust as we've discussed Though I must have let you down Too many times In the dirt and the dust I have no idea how this happens All of my maps have been overthrown Happenstance has changed my plans So many times my heart has been outgrown Now everybody’s feeling all alone Can’t tell you who I am When everybody’s feeling all alone Can’t tell you who I am I am looking forward Toward the shadows tracing bones Our faces stitched and sewing Our houses hemmed into homes Trying to be thankful Our stories fit into phones And our voices lift so easily A gift given accidentally When we’re not sure We’re not alone Written by Jeff Tweedy and Nels Cline Instrumental Credits Jeff Tweedy – vocals, electric guitar John Stirratt – vocals, bass Glenn Kotche – drums Mikael Jorgensen – piano Nels Cline – lead electric 12-string Pat Sansone – vocals, acoustic guitar, Hammond A100 organ Jim O’Rourke – feedback

Via Chicago

I dreamed about killing you again last night
And it felt alright to me
Dying on the banks of Embarcadero skies
I sat and watched you bleed
Buried you alive in a fireworks display
Raining down on me
Your cold, hot blood ran away from me
To the sea

I printed my name on the back of a leaf
And I watched it float away
The hope I had in a notebook full of white, dry pages
Was all I tried to save
But the wind blew me back via Chicago
In the middle of the night
And all without fight
At the crush of veils and starlight

I know I'll make it back
One of these days and turn on your TV
To watch a man with a face like mine
Being chased down a busy street
When he gets caught I won't get up
And I won't go to sleep
I'm coming home, I'm coming home
Via Chicago

Where the cups are cracked and hooked
Above the sink
They make me think
Crumbling ladder tears don't fall
They shine down your shoulders
Crawling is screw faster lash
I blow it with kisses
Rest my head on a pillowy star
And a cracked door moon
Says I haven't gone too far

I'm coming home
I'm coming home
I'm coming home
Via Chicago

I'm coming home
I'm coming home
I'm coming home

Searching for a home
Searching for a home
Searching for a home
Via Chicago

I'm coming home
I'm coming home
Instrumental credits: Jeff Tweedy – vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, synthesizers Jay Bennett – banjo, piano, organ, moog, tambourine John Stirratt – bass Ken Coomer – drums

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

Reservations

How can I convince you it's me I don't like Not be so indifferent to the look in your eyes When I've always been distant And I've always told lies For love I'm bound by these choices so hard to make I'm bound by the feeling so easy to fake None of this is real Enough to take me From you O I've got reservations About so many things But not about you I know this isn't what you were wanting me to say How can I get closer and be further away From the truth That proves it's beautiful To lie I've got reservations About so many things But not about you I…reservations About so many things But not about you Not about you Not about you Not about you Not about you

Impossible Germany

Impossible Germany
Unlikely Japan

Wherever you go
Wherever you land
I’ll say what this means to me
I’ll do what I can

Impossible Germany
Unlikely Japan

(The) fundamental problem
We all need to face
This is important
But I know you’re not listening
Oh I know you’re not listening

If this was still new to me
I wouldn’t understand

Impossible Germany
Unlikely Japan

But this is what love is for
To be out of place
Gorgeous and alone
Face to face

With no larger problems
That need to be erased
Nothing more important than to know
Someone’s listening
Now I know

You’ll be listening

Written by Jeff Tweedy and Wilco

We Aren't the World (Safety Girl)

Have you seen any mention

It’s been quiet in detention all week

Is that so?

I saw the winter party person candidate, give a sermon 

Shook his fist, like this.

Is that so?

And everyone sat as blank as a cake and in love 

like a stupid lump of clay

Is that so?

I know a good Armageddon might have made my day, that day

Is that so?

We aren’t the world

We aren’t the children

But you’re my safety girl

And you know we could go spend ourselves like money

Let’s pretend we’re hundred dollar bills

Is that so?

And complain everyday there’s a spider in my soup

Tired of my opinion, like everybody else

Is that so?

We aren’t the world

We aren’t the children

But you’re my safety girl

Like so

Is that so?

We aren’t the world

We aren’t the children

But you’re my safety girl

Jesus, Etc.

Jesus, don't cry
You can rely on me honey
You can combine anything you want
I'll be around
You were right about the stars
Each one is a setting sun

Tall buildings shake
Voices escape singing sad sad songs
Tuned to chords strung down your cheeks
Bitter melodies turning your orbit around

Don't cry
You can rely on me honey
You can come by any time you want
I'll be around
You were right about the stars
Each one is a setting sun

Tall buildings shake
Voices escape singing sad sad songs
Tuned to chords strung down your cheeks
Bitter melodies turning your orbit around

Voices whine
Skyscrapers are scraping together
Your voice is smoking
Last cigarettes are all you can get
Turning your orbit around

Our love
Our love
Our love is all we have
Our love
Our love is all of God's money
Everyone is a burning sun

Tall buildings shake
Voices escape singing sad sad songs
Tuned to chords strung down your cheeks
Bitter melodies turning your orbit around

Voices whine
Skyscrapers are scraping together
Your voice is smoking
Last cigarettes are all you can get
Turning your orbit around

Last cigarettes are all you can get
Turning your orbit around

Last cigarettes are all you can get
Turning your orbit around

Locator

Locator sees me swaying through the catacombs
Locator hears me whispering in my home
Even when the waves are falling
Beating me into diamonds
Even when the wheels are whining
Even when the wheels are whining
Something in the sky can find me
I x8
Hide x8
Here below
Hide
Oh no, Locator it is I
Even when I run
I’m crawling
Even through the walls and blinds and 
Even when the wheels are whining x3
something in the sky can find me
I x8
Hide x8
Here below x4
I love Locator everywhere I go
I tell Locator everything it wants to know

Box Full of Letters

I've got a box full of letters
I think you might like to read
Some things that you might like to see
But they're all addressed to me

I wish I had a lotta answers
'Cause that's the way it should be
For all these questions
Being directed at me

I just can't find the time

To write my mind
The way I want it to read

You'll come back again
And I'll still be your friend

I got a lot of your records
In a separate stack
Some things that I might like to hear, but I
Guess I'll give 'em back

I wish I had a lotta answers
'Cause that's the way it should be
For all these questions
Being directed at me

Just can't find the time
To write my mind
The way I want it to read

You'll come back again
And I'll still be your friend

I can't find the time
To write my mind
The way I want it to read

Just can't find the time
To write my mind
The way I want it to read

Instrumental credits:
Jeff Tweedy – vocals, guitar
John Stirratt – bass, vocals
Max Johnston – dobro
Ken Coomer – drums
Brian Henneman – guitars

Theologians

Theologians they don’t know nothing
About my soul
About my soul

I’m an ocean
And this emotion
Slow motion, slow motion

Illiterati lumin fedei
God is with us everyday
That illiterate light
Is with us every night

Theologians, oh they don’t know nothing
About my soul
Oh they don’t know

They thin my heart with little things
And my life with change
Oh in so many ways
I find more missing every day

Theologians

I’m going away
Where you will look for me
Where I’m going you cannot come
No one’s ever gonna take my life from me
I lay it down
A ghost is born
A ghost is born
A ghost is born

I am a notion
I am all emotion
I am a cherry ghost
Cherry ghost
Hey I’m a cherry ghost
Cherry ghost

I'm Always In Love

Why, I wonder is my heart full of holes
And the feeling goes but my hair keeps growing
Will I set the sun
On a big-wheeled wagon
Well I'm bragging
I'm always in love

When I let go of your throat, sweet throttle
When I clean the lash of your black-belt model
Will I catch the moon
Like a bird in a cage
It's for you I swoon
I'm always in love

I don't get the connection
If this is only a test
I hope I do my best
You know I won't forget

When I fold the cold in my jet-lag palm
When I soak so long I forget my mother
Will I set the sun
On a big-wheeled wagon
Well I'm bragging
I'm always in love

It's a drag I snag
Well I'm always in love
Well I'm worried
I'm always in love

I'm worried
I'm worried

I'm worried
I'm always in love
I'm worried

I'm worried

I'm worried

I'm always in love

I'm worried

I'm worried

I'm worried

I'm always in love

I'm worried

I'm worried

I'm worried

I'm always in love

  Instrumental credits: Jeff Tweedy – vocals, baritone guitar Jay Bennett – bass, piano, keyboards, drums, backing vocals John Stirratt – piano, backing vocals Ken Coomer – drums

Random Name Generator

Come on listen to the weed whistle way
I belong to the stars in the day
I ran away
Eternal instigator
Well I was old

I remember the Milky Way, why?
I belong to the stars in the sky
Random name
Random name generator
Random name generator
Random name generator

You don't know me cold as night
Somebody hold me in the diamond light
A narrator
Mr narrator

I want to name every new born child
A miracle only ever grows wild
Invisible
Instigator
Random name generator
I kind of like it when I make you cry
A miracle only once in a while
Random name
Random name generator

I change my name every once in a while
A miracle every once in a while
I create
I am the flame, a flame creator
A random name generator

Come on cuff me to the weed whistle whine
If I miss your breeze will you miss mine
I kind of like it when I make you cry
A miracle every once in a while
Come on cuff me to the weed whistle whine
I think I miss my family fine

Heavy Metal Drummer

I sincerely miss
Those heavy metal bands
I used to go see
On the landing in the summer
She fell in love with the drummer
She fell in love with the drummer
She fell in love

Shiny shiny pants
Bleached blond hair
A double kick drum
By the river in the summer
she fell in love with the drummer
another
then another
she fell in love

I miss the innocence I've known
Playing Kiss covers
Beautiful and stoned

Unlock my body
And move myself to dance
Into warm liquid
flowing blowing glass
classical music blasting
masks the ringing in my ears

Oh I sincerely miss
Those heavy metal bands
I used to go see
On the landing in the summer
She fell in love with the drummer
She fell in love with another
She fell in love

I miss the innocence I've known
Playing Kiss covers
Beautiful and stoned

I miss the innocence I've known
Playing Kiss covers
Beautiful and stoned

Playing Kiss covers
Beautiful and stoned

Playing Kiss covers
Beautiful and stoned

 

I'm the Man Who Loves You

All I can see
Is black and white
And white and pink
With blades of blue
That lay between
The words I think
On a page
I was meaning
To send to you
I couldn't tell
If it would
Bring my heart
The way I wanted
When I started
Writing this letter to you

But if I could
You know I would
Just hold your hand
And you'd understand
I'm the man who loves you

All I can be
Is a busy sea
Of spinning wheels
And hands that feel
For stones to throw
And feet that run
But come back home
It makes no difference
Ever known
Makes no difference
Ever known to me

But if I could
You know I would
Just hold your hand
And you'd understand
I'm the man who loves you

All I can see
Is black and white
And white and pink
With blades of blue
That lay between
The words I think
On a page
I was meaning
To send to you
I couldn't tell
If it would
Bring my heart
The way I wanted
When I started
Writing this letter to you

If I could
You know I would
Just hold your hand
And you'd understand
I'm the man who loves you

If I could
You know I would
Just hold your hand
And you'd understand
I'm the man who loves you

If I could
You know I would
Just hold your hand
And you'd understand
I'm the man who loves you

I'm the man who loves you

I'm the man who loves you

I'm the man who loves you

 

Dawned On Me

I’ve been young
I’ve been old
I’ve been hurt
And consoled
Heart of coal
Heart of gold
So I’m told

I’ve been lost
I’ve been found
I’ve been taken
By the sound
Of my own voice
The voices in my head

I can’t help it if I fall in
Love with you again I’m calling
Just to let you know
It dawned on me

Every night is a test
To the east from the west
The sun rises and sets
That’s the sun at it’s best

I forget, then I know
I’d regret letting you go
Sometimes I can’t believe how dark it can be

I can’t help it if I fall in
Love with you again I’m calling
Just to let you know
It dawned on me
It dawned on me

So on
And so forth
And again
I will stop to begin
At the end

I can’t help it if I fall in
Love with you again I’m calling
Just to let you know
It dawned on me

Oh I can’t help it if I fall in
Love with you again I’m calling
Just to let you know
It dawned on me

Hummingbird

his goal in life was to be an echo
riding alone, town after town, toll after toll
a fixed bayonet through the great southwest
to forget her

she appears
in his dreams
but in his car, and in his arms
a dream could mean anything
a cheap sunset on a television set could upset her
but he never could

remember to remember me
standing still in your past
floating fast like a hummingbird

his goal in life was to be an echo
the type of sound that floats around
and then back down like a feather
but in the deep chrome canyons of the loudest Manhattans
no one could hear him
or anything

so he slept, on a mountain
in a sleeping bag underneath the stars,
he would lie awake and count them
but the great fountain spray of the great Milky Way
would never let him
die alone

remember to remember me
standing still in your past
floating fast like a hummingbird
remember to remember me
standing still in your past
floating fast like a hummingbird
a hummingbird
a hummingbird

Instrumental Credits


Jeff Tweedy Vocals
John Stirratt Electric Rhythm Guitar & Background Vocals
Glenn Kotche Drums
Mikael Jorgensen Piano
Jim O'Rourke Bass & Electric Lead Guitar
Frankie Montouro Hammer Dulcimer
Karen Waltuch Viola

The Late Greats

The greatest lost track of all-time
The Late Greats’s “Turpentine”
You can’t hear it on the radio
Can’t hear it anywhere you go

The best band will never get signed
The Kay-Sette’s starring Butcher’s Blind
So good you won’t ever know
They never even played a show
Can’t hear ‘em on the radio

The greatest singer in Rock-n-Roll
Would have to be Romeo
His vocal chords are made of gold
He just looks a little too old

The best songs will never get sung
The best life never leaves your lungs
So good you won’t ever know
You’ll never hear it on the radio
You can’t hear it on the radio

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

Spiders are singing in the salty breeze
Spiders are filling out tax returns
Spinning out webs of deductions and melodies
On a private beach in Michigan

Why can’t we wish their kisses good
Why do they miss when their kisses should
Fly like winging birds fighting for the keys
On a private beach in Michigan

This recent rash of kidsmoke
All these telescopic poems
It’s good to be alone

Why can’t they say what they want
Why can’t they just say what they need
Come clean, listen and talk
Hello private caller
ID blocked

The sun will rise, we’ll climb into cars
The future has a valley and a shortcut around
Who will wear the crown of drowning award
Hold a private light
On the Michigan shore

Fool me with a kiss of kidsmoke
From a microscopic home
It’s good to be alone

I’ll be in my bed
You can be the stone
That raises from the dead
And carries us all home

There’s no blood on my hands
I just do as I’m told