World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music
- Dec 21, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
★★★★☆
I did four things when I went to Chicago for a day and a half last December: 1) I walked, a lot; 2) I saw Geddy Lee on his My Effin’ Life book tour at the Auditorium Theatre, my reason for being there; 3) I ate more than once at the Chicago Diner; and 4) I visited as many bookstores as I could make my way to and came home with a dozen or so books, all used, except for this signed copy of Jeff Tweedy’s third, and latest, World Within a Song. In the introduction, Tweedy states that he’d have written this one first if he’d been more ambitious and clear-eyed about what he cares most for and thinks most about in this world: other people’s songs. And so, instead of a traditional memoir, as his first book, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back), was, we get 50 snapshots of a life told through 50 songs and, in between, 24 rememories, as he calls them, dreamlike passages recounting specific events in his life.
The plan was simple: read aloud a chapter (two to five pages) every night and then listen to the song. That worked for a bit—until I started doubling up with other books with looming due dates. Eventually, through no fault of its own, this one sat unread for the better part of six months. With the end of the year drawing near, I gave up on the nightly format and read the final two-thirds (and listened to the songs) in just four days. One song a night was fun while it lasted, but it was always late and we were always tired, so that wasn’t necessarily the best way to enjoy the book. Bingeing the last 140 or so pages might not have been the best way either (maybe starting each day with a song would have been the sweet spot), but sometimes it’s fun to eat a whole mess of Laffy Taffy in one sitting.
Music has saved my life—or given me one—more than once. Or maybe daily. In World Within a Song, Tweedy shares what these songs have taught him about how to be human, how to think about himself and others, and how listening to music is simultaneously deeply personal and universally vast. In short: How they’ve saved his life and given him one, too. As the leader of my favorite active band, whose albums I cherish and sometimes take for granted (much like Beatles or Dylan records, it’s as if they’ve always been there), and who I’ve seen countless times over the past two decades, including a raucous solo outing at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I’m always happy to spend time with Tweedy. If we can spend it dishing about music, all the better.
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