Feel You

Album: Waterfall II (2020)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Five years after My Morning Jacket released The Waterfall, the COVID-19 lockdown inspired the band's lead singer, Jim James, to put the finishing touches to its sequel. The second half of around 25 songs recorded at a hilltop mansion in the California coastal town of Stinson Beach, Waterfall II shares the same central theme as The Waterfall of rebirth and renewal.
  • Jim James took several walks in Muir Woods, an old-growth coastal redwood forest, during the recording of The Waterfall and The Waterfall II. He explained to Apple Music that he'd written the main riff for "Feel You" in Kentucky before departing to Stinson Beach, but was seeking inspiration for the rest of the instrumentation and the lyrics. He felt that being in those woods would be his muse, and nature did indeed give him what he was looking for. "A lot of the instrumentation and a lot of the ending and a lot of the space in the song - I feel like really was downloaded from the tree," said James.
  • Lyrically, this is about the need to slow down and just "feel" the natural world. James explained it's about "what I consider to be the good way to waste time: to just take time, to do nothing basically, to experience the forest or experience the ocean, because I feel like we're all constantly trying to do things and trying to fill our time with activities and keep it moving. But I think we forget to just take time to just not do anything."
  • My Morning Jacket nabbed their first #1 on any Billboard chart when "Feel You" topped Adult Alternative Songs.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Dave Alvin - "4th Of July"

Dave Alvin - "4th Of July"They're Playing My Song

When Dave recorded the first version of the song with his group the Blasters, producer Nick Lowe gave him some life-changing advice.

Incongruent Opening Acts

Incongruent Opening ActsSong Writing

Here's what happens when an opening act is really out of place with the headliner, like when Beastie Boys opened for Madonna.

Tanita Tikaram

Tanita TikaramSongwriter Interviews

When she released her first album in 1988, Tanita became a UK singing sensation at age 19. She talks about her darkly sensual voice and quirky songwriting style.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Metallica

MetallicaFact or Fiction

Beef with Bon Jovi? An unfortunate Spandex period? See if you can spot the true stories in this Metallica version of Fact or Fiction.

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in Songs

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in SongsSong Writing

Elvis, Little Richard and Cheryl Cole have all sung about Teddy Bears, but there is also a terrifying Teddy song from 1932 and a touching trucker Teddy tune from 1976.