Medeski Martin & Wood (or MMW) is an American jazz trio formed in 1991, con… Read Full Bio ↴Medeski Martin & Wood (or MMW) is an American jazz trio formed in 1991, consisting of John Medeski on keyboards and piano, Billy Martin on drums and percussion, and Chris Wood on double bass and bass guitar.
The band draws on influences from a number of musical traditions, from funk to Hip Hop, and is known for an unconventional style sometimes described as "avant-groove".
MMW has found moderate mainstream success—often working with noted guitarist John Scofield—and touring on the jam band circuit.
The band members were introduced to each other by jazz drummer Bob Moses, who had performed with Medeski and Wood , and was Martin's instructor.
Medeski Martin & Wood's first performances together were at the Village Gate, a popular New York jazz club. They were initially an acoustic jazz trio, but Medeski added a Hammond organ when the difficulties of touring with a piano became apparent. Their first album, Notes from the Underground, is a record of their entirely-acoustic era. All of their subsequent albums reveal Medeski's use of a wide variety of keyboards, including mellotron, melodica, and a clavinet. Wood entirely eschewed the electric bass for MMW's first three albums, and still relies heavily on the acoustic upright bass in recordings and during live performances. Their earlier albums reveal a Hip Hop influenced updating of classic soul jazz sounds, which is the primary theme of their well-known 1996 album, Shack-man.
The band received some of their first significant exposure outside of the New York City jazz scene by performing with Phish at their October 14, 1995 concert, which led to the association of the group as a jam band.[1] In addition, their performance on John Scofield's 1997 album A Go Go helped to further their exposure. The band collaborated further with Scofield again in 2006, releasing the album Out Louder under the name Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood. This was the first album released on MMW's own Indirecto Records.
From 1998–2005, MMW were signed to leading jazz label Blue Note Records, and showed them delving deeper into dense, electronic funk than their earlier albums, although the band continued to experiment with free jazz and free improvisation both on their albums and in concert.
Medeski Martin & Wood's live performances are renowned for their exploratory nature. Their concerts usually involve extended improvisations, which may be both arrhythmic and atonal, an aspect of their musicianship that is rarely documented in the studio. They occasionally tour using only acoustic instruments, reverting back to the instrumentation that they began their career with. Their album Tonic is an example of these more contemporary acoustic performances. They have also done short tours of entirely improvisatory performances. These shows usually consisted of two sets of improvisation, followed by an encore of a song from an album.
Their song "End of the World Party" was featured on the show Grey's Anatomy and can be found on the show's soundtrack.
Each of the trio's three members are involved in a large music community, and have participated in numerous side projects over the years.
In 2001 John Medeski collaborated with the North Mississippi Allstars and slide-guitarist Robert Randolph; together, these five musicians formed The Word, a bluesy gospel band. They released one self-titled album and toured extensively.
Beginning around 2005 Chris Wood formed The Wood Brothers with his brother, blues guitarist Oliver Wood. They have released several albums to date and continue to tour and record together.
In 2007 John Medeski and Billy Martin released an album as a duo, called Mago. They performed that material together at the 2007 Bonnaroo Music Festival

The Lover
Medeski Martin and Wood Lyrics

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How did I figure I was gonna drive home like that?
So I parked on the highway and slept, one hand on a baseball bat
That was back when I knew what to call it
That was back when she still would'a fought me for it

But it's over now
I had a good run but I lucked it out
The neighbors clocked it, they know I been cleanin' out

That tiny house
Where we could settle for each other
If I was a good lover
If I was a good lover
If I was a good lover

How did we both get so damn old so fast?
From a basement apartment to a time I can't seem to sleep in past?
That was back when I ain't have much to sing about
Way back when I wrote a thousand songs no one cared about

But it's over now
We had a good run but I lucked it out
The neighbors clocked it and then we were cleanin' out
That tiny house
Where we were gonna settle for each other
If I was a good lover
If I was a good lover
If I was a good lover
If I was a good lover
If I was a good lover
If I was a good lover

If I was a good lover
If I was a good lover

Overall Meaning

The song "The Lover" by Medeski Martin and Wood is a melancholic reflection on a failed relationship and the passing of time. The opening lines suggest the singer had been drinking and was in no state to drive home, leading them to park on the highway and sleep with a baseball bat as protection. The lyrics then shift to a sense of nostalgia for a time when the singer and their partner were still in love and would fight for each other, suggesting that something has gone wrong and they are now alone.

The repeated refrain "If I was a good lover" underscores the singer's sense of regret and self-blame for the failure of the relationship. They wonder what might have been different if they had been a better partner, while also acknowledging that the passage of time has taken its toll on both themselves and the relationship. The lines "From a basement apartment to a time I can't seem to sleep in past? / That was back when I ain't have much to sing about / Way back when I wrote a thousand songs no one cared about" suggest that the singer's life has not turned out as they hoped, and they feel a sense of disappointment and disillusionment.

Overall, "The Lover" is a poignant and introspective song that speaks to universal themes of love, regret, and the passing of time. The haunting melody and sparse instrumentation emphasize the sense of loneliness and isolation conveyed in the lyrics.

Line by Line Meaning

How did I figure I was gonna drive home like that?
I was so drunk that I couldn't even make it to my car. How did I think I was going to drive home?

So I parked on the highway and slept, one hand on a baseball bat
I had to pull over on the highway and sleep there because I couldn't make it all the way home. I kept the baseball bat with me for protection.

That was back when I knew what to call it
That was back when I knew what to call my relationship with her.

That was back when she still would'a fought me for it
That was back when she still cared about our relationship enough to argue with me about it.

But it's over now
Our relationship is over now.

I had a good run but I lucked it out
I had a good relationship for a while, but I feel like I lucked into it.

The neighbors clocked it, they know I been cleanin' out
The neighbors saw me moving out and now they know our relationship is over.

That tiny house
We used to live together in a small house.

Where we could settle for each other
We were willing to be with each other long-term, even if we weren't perfect together.

If I was a good lover
If I could have been a better partner for her.

How did we both get so damn old so fast?
It feels like we went from young and in love to old and broken up so quickly.

From a basement apartment to a time I can't seem to sleep in past?
We used to live in a small, cramped apartment and now I can't seem to get a good night's sleep.

That was back when I ain't have much to sing about
That was back when my life felt more simple and I didn't have much to write songs about.

Way back when I wrote a thousand songs no one cared about
I used to write so many songs, but no one really paid attention to them.

If I was a good lover
If I could have been a better partner for her.