This entry of the Wednesday Wilco Song Spotlight shines on a track from Jeff Tweedy, and company’s latest album, Cousin. It is the first song to be covered from Wilco’s 13th studio release in this series, so this serves as a preview of its future entry in an updated edition of my book, Wilcopedia.
“Evicted” (Jeff Tweedy)
Shortly after “Evicted,” the first single off of Cousin dropped online on August 1, fans and critics noted the tune’s similarity to Prince’s 1985 hit “Raspberry Beret.” Kitty Empire of the Guardian even wrote that song is “a pretty heartbreak ballad that boasts shades of Prince’s Raspberry Beret’ as played by Teenage Fanclub.”
Tweedy addressed the issue on his Substack newsletter, Starship Casual (click to subscribe), in a Chit Chat Check-in audio segment available to subscribers called “Raspberry Evicted Beret.” In what he also called a “Prince TED Talk,” Tweedy explained that he “doesn’t hear” the songs sounding alike, and said that he learned “Raspberry Beret” so that he could play the songs side-by-side.
After playing a bit of Prince’s tune, and discussing that it “things that were out of my skill set to sing, and some things that I don’t relate to in terms of romantic conquests,” he went on to play a chunk of “Evicted,” and remark, “I don’t think Prince would say he deserved that” (referring to the song’s repeated refrain “I deserve it”).
It’s understandable that Tweedy would want to underline the differences in the lyrical stance (as he says it’s important for him to do so), but while the choruses are very different as he displays, it’s the phrasing in the verses that have the vibe of the verses in Prince’s mid ‘80s A-side, and LP album track from his psychedelic pop album, Around the World in a Day.
Otherwise “Evicted” is an infectious, folky take on the old standard lover’s lament which combines George Harrison-style guitar licks, with a groovy beat, and a catchy chorus sealing the deal: “I’m evicted from your heart.”
In a press release for the song and the album (released on September 29) Tweedy wrote, “I guess I was trying to write from the point of view of someone struggling to make an argument for themself in the face of overwhelming evidence that they deserve to be locked out of someone’s heart. Self-inflicted wounds still hurt and in my experience they’re almost impossible to fully recover from.”
Tweedy debuted “Evicted” at a solo show at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles on January 6 of this year. The second performance of the song at the same venue appeared on Episode 218 of The Tweedy Show. The song was played by Tweedy at six solo shows before Wilco took it on at their show on August 22 in France at Ramonville St Agne (Le Bikini).
Wilco has performed “Evicted” at every show since then, and went on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to play it the other night (Oct. 9), which you can see at the top of this post. I’ll conclude with another version of the song from The Tweedy Show (Episode 221, August 2, 2023):
No comments:
Post a Comment