According to Bob Dylan's autobiographical Chronicles, Woody Guthrie gave his unpublished songs to Dylan but Bob was unable to get them from Guthrie's family (he tells a story about a reluctant babysitter).
Nora Guthrie's liner notes in Mermaid Avenue indicate that it was her intention that the songs be given to a new generation of musicians who would be able to make the songs relevant to a younger generation. She therefore contacted singer-songwriter Billy Bragg in spring 1995 about recording some unreleased songs by her father, folk singer Woody Guthrie. Most of the songs were written late in Guthrie's life when he was unable to record due to the motor impairments of Huntington's disease. By the 1990s, Woody Guthrie had become a "relic" to the MTV generation, and Nora sought to establish a different legacy for the musician. To Nora, Bragg was "the only singer I knew taking on the same issues as Woody." Bragg was concerned, however, that his fans would not realize that the songs were written by Guthrie when he performed them on tour, so he decided to record the album with another band.
Bragg contacted Tweedy and Bennett about co-recording the album while Wilco was on the European segment of their Being There tour. Bragg was particularly fond of Being There because their influences extended farther back than the 1950s. Although Tweedy was indifferent to the offer, Bennett was enthused about recording songs of one of his idols—Bennett's previous band Titanic Love Affair was named after a Billy Bragg lyric. A recording contract between Bragg and Wilco was signed after a show at Shepherd's Bush Empire. Bragg mostly recorded the politically-charged lyrics, while Tweedy preferred to record lyrics that showcased Guthrie as a "freak weirdo." The recording of Mermaid Avenue began on December 12, 1997, and was the topic of BBC's Man in the Sand documentary film.
Tempers flared between Bragg and Wilco after the album was completed. Bennett believed that Bragg was overproducing his songs, a sharp contrast to Wilco's sparser contributions. Bennett called Bragg about the possibility of remixing Bragg's songs, to which Bragg responded with "you make your record, and I'll make mine, fucker." Eventually Bragg sent copies of his recordings to Chicago for Bennett to remix, but Bragg refused to use the new mixes on the album. The two parties were unable to establish a promotional tour and quarreled over royalties and guest musician fees.
Despite these conflicts, the album was released on June 23, 1998, and sold over 277,000 copies. The album received rave reviews from Robert Christgau and Rolling Stone, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. It also placed fourth on the Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1998 (right behind Bob Dylan's Live 1966).
Remember The Mountain Bed
Billy Bragg & Wilco Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Do you still sigh there near the sky where the holly berry bleeds?
You laughed as I covered you over with leaves
Face, breast, hips, and thighs
You smiled when I said the leaves were just the color of your eyes
Rosin smells and turpentine smells from eucalyptus and pine
Bitter tastes of twigs we chewed where tangled wood vines twine
I could not see any wrong in you, and you saw none in me
Your arm was brown against the ground, your cheeks part of the sky
Your fingers played with grassy moss, as limber you did lie
Your stomach moved beneath your shirt and your knees were in the air
Your feet played games with mountain roots as you lay thinking there
Below us the trees grew clumps of trees, raised families of trees, and they
As proud as we tossed their heads in the wind and flung good seeds away
The sun was hot and the sun was bright down in the valley below
Where people starved and hungry for life so empty come and go
There in the shade and hid from the sun we freed our minds and learned
Our greatest reason for being here, our bodies moved and burned
There on our mountain bed of leaves we learned life's reason why
The people laugh and love and dream, they fight, they hate to die
The smell of your hair I know is still there, if most of our leaves are blown
Our words still ring in the brush and the trees where singing seeds are sown
Your shape and form is dim but plain, there on our mountain bed
I see my life was brightest where you laughed and laid your head
I learned the reason why man must work and how to dream big dreams
To conquer time and space and fight the rivers and the seas
I stand here filled with my emptiness now and look at city and land
And I know why farms and cities are built by hot, warm, nervous hands
I crossed many states just to stand here now, my face all hot with tears
I crossed city, and valley, desert, and stream, to bring my body here
My history and future blaze bright in me and all my joy and pain
Go through my head on our mountain bed where I smell your hair again.
All this day long I linger here and on in through the night
My greed's, desires, my cravings, hopes, my dreams inside me fight
My loneliness healed, my emptiness filled, I walk above all pain
Back to the breast of my woman and child to scatter my seeds again
The song Remember The Mountain Bed, written by Billy Bragg and Wilco and performed by both, reflects on a past memory of a mountain bed made of limbs and leaves. The lyrics ask if the other person still remembers the bed, accompanied by the holly berry and the color of their eyes. The lyrics then describe the environment and the sensations felt in the bed. The mountain bed is described as a place where the two individuals were totally free of societal constraints, and they learned the real meaning of life. The bed acted as a catalyst for the realization of life's essence, where the smallest and the most trivial things can bring joy and happiness.
The lyrics use vivid imagery to express the power of love and nature's ability to provide peace, harmony, and a meaningful existence. The experience on the mountain bed helped them to learn life's purpose, as they "laughed and loved and dreamed, fought and hated to die." They were free to express themselves, and that is what life's about. The negative side of life, greed, loneliness, and pain, still affects them as the greed or cravings inside of them fight with their memories of the mountain bed, which once gave them peace, joy, and a reason for being.
Line by Line Meaning
Do you still sing of the mountain bed we made of limbs and leaves?
Do you still think about the time we spent together, surrounded by nature's beauty, feeling each other's warmth?
Do you still sigh there near the sky where the holly berry bleeds?
Do you still long for the moments we shared near the tall trees where the red holly berry is blooming?
You laughed as I covered you over with leaves
You found joy in my silly gestures, as I covered you with leaves
Face, breast, hips, and thighs
Every part of your body was beautiful and celebrated by me
You smiled when I said the leaves were just the color of your eyes
You valued my words and found them flattering when I compared your eyes with the leaves
Rosin smells and turpentine smells from eucalyptus and pine
We both enjoyed the scents of nature, from the pine and eucalyptus trees
Bitter tastes of twigs we chewed where tangled wood vines twine
We explored the forest by tasting the twigs from the vines that entwined the trees
Trees held us in on all four sides so thick we could not see
We were surrounded by trees so thick that they did not allow us to see beyond them
I could not see any wrong in you, and you saw none in me
We were lost in each other's love and did not criticize each other's shortcomings
Your arm was brown against the ground, your cheeks part of the sky
Your beautiful brown arm blended with the brown earth, while your cheeks looked as if they were a part of the beautiful blue sky
Your fingers played with grassy moss, as limber you did lie
You were at peace, laying down and playing with the soft moss around you
Your stomach moved beneath your shirt and your knees were in the air
You were comfortable and carefree, moving your stomach and placing your knees in the air
Your feet played games with mountain roots as you lay thinking there
You were relaxed enough to play around with the roots of the mountain, while you deep in thought
Below us the trees grew clumps of trees, raised families of trees, and they
The trees below us flourished with life, giving birth to new trees and nurturing them
As proud as we tossed their heads in the wind and flung good seeds away
We felt just as proud and content as the trees that lived where we rested, tossing their branches in the wind and spreading their seeds
The sun was hot and the sun was bright down in the valley below
In the valley below, the sun was shining bright and hot
Where people starved and hungry for life so empty come and go
In the valley, people were hungry and deprived of the joy and contentment we found in the mountains
There in the shade and hid from the sun we freed our minds and learned
In the shade and hidden from the sun, we learned to relax and free our minds
Our greatest reason for being here, our bodies moved and burned
We discovered our reason for existence, moving and exerting our bodies in the natural world
There on our mountain bed of leaves we learned life's reason why
We understood the meaning of life while lying on our bed of leaves, connecting with nature
The people laugh and love and dream, they fight, they hate to die
In the valley below, people experience the same emotions as us even though they are ignorant about nature's beauty and the meaning of life
The smell of your hair I know is still there, if most of our leaves are blown
I can still smell your beautiful hair even if the leaves have withered away due to time
Our words still ring in the brush and the trees where singing seeds are sown
The echoes of our conversations still resonate in the forest long after we have gone
Your shape and form is dim but plain, there on our mountain bed
Although I cannot see your physical form anymore, the memory of you lying with me in the mountains is still vivid
I see my life was brightest where you laughed and laid your head
My life has been the happiest whenever I was with you and saw you smile
I learned the reason why man must work and how to dream big dreams
In the mountains, I learned the importance of working and dreaming big
To conquer time and space and fight the rivers and the seas
I wanted to conquer time, space, and nature's elements after being in the mountains
I stand here filled with my emptiness now and look at city and land
Now I stand filled with feelings of emptiness looking at the city and its vast lands
And I know why farms and cities are built by hot, warm, nervous hands
I understand now why people build farms and cities, driven by their emotions and passions
I crossed many states just to stand here now, my face all hot with tears
I have traveled great distances just to stand here now with tears streaming down my face
I crossed city, and valley, desert, and stream, to bring my body here
I traveled across cities, valleys, deserts, and streams to be in the same place where we lay together in the mountains
My history and future blaze bright in me and all my joy and pain
Memories of our time together, along with the joys and pains of my past and future, dazzle inside of me
Go through my head on our mountain bed where I smell your hair again
I keep replaying our moments together in the mountains, where I can still smell the fragrance of your hair
All this day long I linger here and on in through the night
I stay here as long as possible, both day and night
My greed's, desires, my cravings, hopes, my dreams inside me fight
My internal struggles, such as greed, desire, and hope, battle with each other
My loneliness healed, my emptiness filled, I walk above all pain
My loneliness and emptiness disappeared, leaving me free to walk without the burden of pain
Back to the breast of my woman and child to scatter my seeds again
I return to my family, a place where I can spread new life through my experiences in the mountains
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JEFF TWEEDY, JAY BENNETT, WOODIE GUTHRIE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind