Please Be Patient With Me

SONG: Please Be Patient With Me
ALBUM: Sky Blue Sky
TRACK: 7

My fingers are tired, so I'm just gonna focus on one line of this song that I really, really like:

I'm this apple, this happening stone

The immediately appealing part of this line is the way Tweedy phrases the word "ha-a-appening". It highlights the minor-key chord that moves the verse along, and it hangs in the air with a singsong quality. The internal rhyme is fun, too. But the most interesting part in my opinion is the concept conveyed in the lyric: we are no different than an apple, both made of atoms and molecules, simply existing (one might say "Being There", ha ha) like a chunk of carbon - but also alive too, undergoing changes, breathing, ripening, dying, decomposing - a "happening stone". This has no bearing on what Jeff Tweedy probably meant to say, but I think it's nice.

Also, I'm not a big fan of the minimalist arrangement. The track feels like it belongs on a Golden Smog record. And the chorus is a little too pitiful and ingratiating: "You're gonna need to be patient with me"??? Come on, Jeff.