Hello! Jeff has a record coming out. You may have heard about it right here on the ’ship, or maybe you may have heard about it somewhere else. It’s called Twilight Override. It’s a big record—three records—a triple record. And there’s a song on it called “Feel Free,” that we’re sharing today.
Jeff tells us the structure of the song is “pretty simple,” (…easy for him to say...) so we’ve decided to put that to the test by inviting everybody here to write their own verse of “Feel Free.”
By “pretty simple,” Jeff means that each verse is a rhyming couplet1 that describes something people do to feel free.
If you’re game, please submit some lyrics. Once we have enough submissions, Jeff’s going to record a new version of the song for us all to sing. It might not win a Grammy2 but you will be able to say “I wrote a song with Jeff Tweedy that was released on Starship Casual.”
Jeff’s on tour, in Colorado currently. He’ll be back later this week with your regularly scheduled programming. Thank you. — Crystal and the Starship Casual Engineers
This Week in Wilco, Etc.
2006 / August 18: Jeff is at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons, CO and plays a 22-song set. He covers “So Much Wine” by the Handsome Family, “Shake Sugaree” by Elizabeth Cotten, and “The Losing End (When You’re On)” by Neil Young.
2022 / August 21: Jeff records an episode of the Sing for Science podcast (Season 3, Episode 1) before the Wilco gig at Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY.
1988 / August 22: Uncle Tupelo plays the Blue Note in Columbia, MO. The set is recorded and is used as the source tape for the live tracks that appear on the Live & Otherwise cassette.
Feel Free
Feel free
Get on the floor and dream
Cutting pictures out of a magazine
Feel free
Feel free
Plant yourself like a seed
And take your time being buried
Feel free
Feel free
Carry a torch in the street
Say you’re full when we know you’re empty
Feel free
Feel free
To fall in love with the people you know
And fall harder for the people you don’t
Feel free
Feel free
Keep it all pristine
Clean, in its original packaging
Feel free
Feel free
Taking it slow and easy
Even though your heart is racing
Feel free
Feel free
Swim alone in the open sea
Bounce around holding a baby
Feel free
Feel free
Hail Satan, doesn’t matter to me
Or you can be the devil every Halloween
Feel free
Feel free
Lay it down, like a wreath
And leap over what’s underneath
Feel free
Feel free
To never listen and always speak
To never learn and try to teach
Feel free
Feel free
Kick a ball at a tree
Trying to retrieve your frisbee
Feel free
Feel free
Let It Bleed or Let It Be
John or Paul, Mick or Keith
Feel free
Feel free
Think of your name on a marquee
Aim for something you can’t see
Feel free
Feel free
Spin around and get dizzy
Do I know him? Who is he?
Feel free
Feel free
Get yourself born in the USA
Love with a love they can’t take away
Feel free
Feel free
Shave your head in the sink
Be brave, don’t think
Feel free
Feel free
Put your love above the part you play
Keep your love away from what you get paid
Feel free
Feel free
Make a record with your friends
Sing a song that never ends
Feel free
Loose/slant/imperfect rhymes all welcome.
But hey, who knows! Stranger things have happened.
Feel Free
Take a stand, place that button on your bag
Don’t be discouraged. Fly your flag.
Feel Free
Dedicated to my LGBQT son currently in high school.
How can anyone top this Tweedy lyric:
"Get yourself born in the USA
Love with a love they can’t take away"
That last line sums up simply
How your words have rescued me
Repeatedly.
❤