The Top 20 Jeff Tweedy Songs: #8 “Jesus, Etc.”

Album: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
Band: Wilco
Co-writer: Jay Bennett
Key lyric: “Last cigarettes, are all you can get, turning your orbit around.”

“Jesus, Etc.” has rightfully become a Wilco “standard.” Offering words of comfort and commitment over a melancholy, constantly-moving chord progression, it plays directly to your deepest emotions. When it was released (as a free stream) in late 2001, the lyrics, with their references to tall buildings shaking and voices escaping, seemed to resonate with the national zeitgeist. Today, it’s no less stirring. “Jesus, Etc.” features some of Tweedy’s most memorable impressionistic lyrics: “I’ll be around, you were right about the stars; each one is a setting sun.”