Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DLXXII--Uncle Tupelo: We've Been Had

 We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again, so...I'm (four days...closer?) late again....

My original introduction to this week's tune came when my darling daughter sent me a copy of this week's bands greatest hits (discussed in earlier posts--see below) sometime shortly after the turn of this century, though that version was a live recording.  During the pandemic when I used to have to wait in my car while my son had his Tae Kwan Do lessons, I used to play music on my phone to pass the time, and for some odd reason one night it dawned on me that I'd never heard the studio version of this week's song.  I played that album version, fell in love with it anew, and quickly added it to my list for the pantheon that is Friday Night Jukebox....

I've written about Uncle Tupelo twice before (Vol. XL and Vol. CDLXVIII), and once about band member Jeff Tweedy's band, Wilco, since the band's break up (Vol. DI)) and therefore that's all I have to say about that (seems I heard that in a movie....).

"We've Been Had" was the eighth song on Uncle Tupelo's final studio album, the rather inoffensively entitled Anodyne (word's meaning here).  The song was not released as a single, and the album did not chart on the Billboard 200, though the album is considered by some to be among the best in the Alt-Country genre.

Fun Fact:  The lyrics make mention in the first line of a Marshall Stack, and if you've ever been to a rock concert and seen the amps upon amps stacked on stage...well that's a Marshall Stack.  The set-up is widely credited to John Entwistle and Pete Townshend of The Who which both used to let their instruments be heard over the others.

Ostensibly a song about the bullshit the band was fed by record labels, "We've Been Had" was written by Jeff Tweedy.  Featuring some punk influenced guitars that sound like a veritable whirlwind (and absolutely make the song), some tongue in cheek/happy go lucky vocals by Tweedy, and a spirited performance from the rest of the band (sans Jay Farrar who by that time hated Tweedy so much he refused to play his songs).  The song is a rollicking tribute to music, musicians, and fans--which is what Friday Night Jukebox is all about.  And the fact that I can play a really bad version of it on my guitar is just the icing on the rock and roll cake....

Amazingly enough (and how many times have I used that phrase over the years), this marks the end of my eleventh year of writing posts for Friday Night Jukebox.  Don't fret--fate willing, there'll be many more music posts to come.  That said, I just wanted to thank my loyal readers (all three of you) for their, well, loyalty, and offer my sincerest hope that it's been as much fun for you to read as it's been for me to write.  Onward....

Lyric Sheet:  "There's a young girl screaming/All the way in the back/Poor kid, she never saw it coming/Now she knows she's been had..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee