"Song for Che" in an instrumental cover song Neutral Milk Hotel played occasionally in 1998. Basically the only true cover NMH ever played as a band (with honorable mentions to "Glue" and "I Love How You Love Me"), it was originally written by Charlie Haden, a jazz bassist who was in the Ornette Coleman Quartet. The song is featured on Liberation Music Orchestra, an album that "comfortably straddles the lines of jazz, folk, and world music, working up a storm by way of a jazz protest album that points toward the Spanish Civil War in particular and the Vietnam War in passing." It came out in 1969 and apparently also provided some inspiration for the instrumental pieces on Aeroplane. The song was also covered by Robert Wyatt in the 70s, a favorite of Jeff's and possibly how he found the song originally.

The "Che" the song is for is Che Guevara.

Available
various bootlegs - live version:
2/7/98 Cow Haus, Tallahassee, FL
3/4/98 Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill, NC
9/18/98 Pusterviksbaren, Gothenburg, Sweden

better known non-NMH versions:
Charlie Haden - Liberation Music Orchestra (1969)
Ornette Coleman - Broken Shadows [Moon] (1969)
Ornette Coleman - Crisis (1969)
Robert Wyatt - Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard (1975)

Live
Played by NMH a few times in 1998.

Lyrics

(instrumental)