I love this song, and the more I listen to it, the more I picture Woody Guthrie. "Riding alone, town after town, toll after toll. A fixed bayonet through the great southwest to forget her" Woody travled across the nation several times during his liftime. He had traveled Route 66, he boasted, enough to run it up to 6,666, back and forth, across the county as whim and winds took him. All the while, he never seemed to find what he was looking for. "Her" could be refering to either his mother or his first wife , Mary. "A cheap sunset on a television set can upset her. But he never could" makes me think of his mother who suffer ed from huntingtons disease, that made her very easy to displease. Woody was in a way, similar to an echo. He would settle down in one place only to leave and not turn up for months. It mentions him living in loud cities and qiet mountains. Woody lived in both places several times. The chorus is what really gets me. Woody Guthrie had the need to be remembered by others and the ability to be remembered by everyone he talked to. He would try to make the biggest difference wherever he went.
Although Tweedy probably didn't write this song about Woody, I know he is an inspirations to Tweedy's music. I like thinking that it's about him because as a 12 year old Okie boy, Woody Guthrie is my biggest heroe and Tweedy is my second. So it's cool to think of one of my heroes singing about my other heroe. Great song. Wilco Rocks.
I love this song, and the more I listen to it, the more I picture Woody Guthrie. "Riding alone, town after town, toll after toll. A fixed bayonet through the great southwest to forget her" Woody travled across the nation several times during his liftime. He had traveled Route 66, he boasted, enough to run it up to 6,666, back and forth, across the county as whim and winds took him. All the while, he never seemed to find what he was looking for. "Her" could be refering to either his mother or his first wife , Mary. "A cheap sunset on a television set can upset her. But he never could" makes me think of his mother who suffer ed from huntingtons disease, that made her very easy to displease. Woody was in a way, similar to an echo. He would settle down in one place only to leave and not turn up for months. It mentions him living in loud cities and qiet mountains. Woody lived in both places several times. The chorus is what really gets me. Woody Guthrie had the need to be remembered by others and the ability to be remembered by everyone he talked to. He would try to make the biggest difference wherever he went.
Although Tweedy probably didn't write this song about Woody, I know he is an inspirations to Tweedy's music. I like thinking that it's about him because as a 12 year old Okie boy, Woody Guthrie is my biggest heroe and Tweedy is my second. So it's cool to think of one of my heroes singing about my other heroe. Great song. Wilco Rocks.