World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music

by Jeff Tweedy

When I was growing up, each member of my family absolutely detested their counterpart in our next-door neighbors’ family. The Winkers. My mom avoided the mom. Dad thought the dad was a phony. My brothers had a beef with the son. And the daughter was my nemesis. No idea what happened to make it so. It just was, and everyone accepted that we hated each other. Every once in a while there would be some thawing of relations. A detente. Christmastime seemed to put everyone on their best behavior, for example. Never lasted long. One day, shortly after Christmas 1978, Rufus, the oldest son, whom my parents only ever referred to as “Dufus” (us being a unified front when it came to talking shit about the Winkers), was pacing around in their backyard talking into some kind of walkie-talkie, looking up at the sky. My dad pulls up in the driveway that divided our two backyards. Home from work, gets out of his “company” car. Sees Rufus acting weird and shouts over at him, “Whatcha up to, Ruf?” “I got this for Christmas. Trying to talk to an airplane,” he replies, still staring at the clouds. “Ah. That’s neat. Good luck!” Dad comes in the back door and heads straight downstairs to his TV workshop in the corner of the basement (he taught himself TV repair as a side hustle in the early sixties). Which just happens to have a ham radio and a small window with a good, slightly hidden view of the Winkers’ backyard. And Rufus. After cracking open a fresh beer, Dad calls me downstairs. And after...