The Top 20 Jeff Tweedy Songs: #4 “A Shot in the Arm”

“A Shot in the Arm”
Band: Wilco
Album: Summerteeth (1998)
Co-Writers: Jay Bennett, John Stirratt

Key lyric: “The ashtray says you were up all night/ when you went to bed, with your darkest mind/You’ve changed.”

“A Shot in the Arm” is quintessential Wilco. A fervent rocker that builds to a cathartic climax, it comes stocked with a cool guitar analogy, (“We fell in love in the key of C”), and the reoccurring accusation that “you’ve changed.” Tweedy pours all of his late-90s angst and worry into this one, crying out for “something in my veins, bloodier than blood.” It all comes to a head with the powerful, malleable mantra, “what you once were isn’t what you want to be anymore.”