# Jeff Tweedy or Jay Farrar? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 25, 2020, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeff-tweedy-or-jay-farrar/916303 "2020-07-25T07:54:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeff-tweedy-or-jay-farrar/916303/1 "2020-07-25T07:54:47Z")
I love them both, what say you dopers? ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeff-tweedy-or-jay-farrar/916303/2 "2020-07-25T12:13:13Z")
Well, I’ve only got one Son Volt album but I have every Wilco studio album, so I guess for me it’s obviously Jeff Tweedy. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeff-tweedy-or-jay-farrar/916303/3 "2020-07-25T12:40:11Z")
Pretty clearly Tweedy for me. Has Farrar developed much or at all as a songwriter since Uncle Tupelo? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeff-tweedy-or-jay-farrar/916303/4 "2020-07-25T12:52:59Z")
I’ll go with Jeff, but they are both pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeff-tweedy-or-jay-farrar/916303/5 "2020-07-25T23:16:34Z")
Tweedy, hands down, way more interesting, diverse and adventurous music. I like Jay Farrar and Son Volt, I even generally like Jay’s Uncle Tupelo’s songs better than Tweedy’s, but the career of Wilco compared to Son Volt’s is a very different matter. Farrar got stuck in his old ways and Tweedy developed. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeff-tweedy-or-jay-farrar/916303/6 "2020-07-26T05:08:03Z")
Tweedy ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeff-tweedy-or-jay-farrar/916303/7 "2020-07-26T05:27:37Z")
I love them both, but there is no doubt that in the “sophistication” of their music, lyrically and, well musically, Tweedy and Wilco have put out albums with a wide range of styles. Farrar has not, he has always done the same thing. So did Elvis, and the Rolling Stones. As much as I love Wilco, I can’t think of many songs that hit me in the gut. I could bring up “Passenger Side”, because I spent a few years in that seat because of stupid DUI’s I got in my late teens, but when I listen to that song now it’s more of a funny recollection of something that really wasn’t funny. Jesus Etc - “Skyscrapers are scraping together/your voice is smoking/last cigarettes are all you can get/turning your orbit around.” Well, hell, I was in NYC on 9/11, half a mile from the towers, and I was also trying to quit smoking, so yeah, that did get me in the gut. Even so, with the desert island test. I’ll take “Tear Stained Eye” and “Windfall” over any Wilco song. Switching it over to AM Searching for a truer sound Can’t recall the call letters Steel guitar and settle down Catching an all-night station somewhere in Louisiana It sounds like 1963, but for now it sounds like heaven May the wind take your troubles away Both feet on the floor, two hands on the wheel, May the wind take your troubles away. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeff-tweedy-or-jay-farrar/916303/8 "2020-07-26T06:11:58Z")
it was a stupid question, like asking if you prefer the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Well as I write that, of course I prefer the Stones. Do I prefer the Stones or the Who, or Hank to Jimmy Rodgers, or Earth Wind and Fire to the Ohio Players? As Neil Young once sang, “It’s all one song.” ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeff-tweedy-or-jay-farrar/916303/9 "2020-07-27T18:26:18Z")
Tweedy. I like most of Wilco, as well as the solo and side project stuff he has done. I like Son Volt and Farrar’s UT songs, but they don’t have the last impact of Tweedy. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2020, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeff-tweedy-or-jay-farrar/916303/10 "2020-08-27T16:35:25Z")
I have one Wilco song (“Box Full of Letters”) and one Son Volt song (“Drown”) in my iTunes, so it’s kind of a tie. I’ll give it to Farrar, I guess. Anyone who thinks to fit the word “caryatid” into a song title has to be a fascinating guy.