Song of the Week: 6/23-6/29/2025
Wilco: "At Least That's What You Said"
Lately I keep hearing Wilco’s “At Least That’s What You Said” swimming around in my mind. When I think of the song I think of that quiet opening and then the chaotic dissonance contrasted with the piercing melody of the guitars. It’s a good song for late June.
Summer hits quietly at first but then the days reach a fever pitch of exhaustion. Is there any sleep like summer sleep? When the humidity turns the front yard into a sauna. When even the nights are hot and you find yourself, impossibly, longing for the sharp chill of a fall evening.
When the weather breaks it feels akin to opening the freezer and taking out an ice- pop. The relief is palpable. The chaos of the afternoon storms and the cool breezes that follow are old summer friends.
The song has an intimacy. We are voyeurs looking in the window of a relationship. We are standing in the storm and we can understand the nature of what is happening even if we can’t hear the words. When you have been through enough summer storms you know—black as the sky might be—that the sun will be out soon.
You know the way it feels to stand outside in the magic hour, barefoot in the grass, in the long light of summer and look in the window of a house at the people inside?
You know the way it is to remember someone, something, somewhere, sometime . . . days after it has passed and feel so much love and longing that it feels like you will burst?
“At Least That’s What You Said”
When I sat down on the bed next to you
You started to cry
I said maybe if I leave you’ll want me
To come back home
Or maybe all you mean
Is leave me alone
At least that’s what you said
You’re irresistible when you get mad
Isn’t it sad I’m immune
And I thought it was cute
For you to kiss
My purple black-eye
Even though I caught it from you
I still think we’re serious
At least that’s what you said