Up All Night
By: Beck Hansen, Greg Kurstin
Written by: Beck Hansen, Greg Kurstin

 
Lyrics:
Up All Night [Version (a)]:

When you get the rhythm and words all make you cold
When you break it down and this world is all you know
Hands up, you're working it round, now get yourself together
When you call the dominoes fall, it's time to go

Now I'm feeling so far away
I see the colors and all the kids going home
Night is crawling up to the day
Hear the noise ringing, the sirens all singing

I just wanna stay up all night with you
Just wanna stay up all night with you
There's nothing I wouldn't rather do
Just wanna stay up all night with you

Keep on moving
Don't wait for nothing now
Keep on moving
Don't wait for nothing now
Keep on moving
Don't wait, don't wait for nothing now
I'll keep on moving
Don't wait for nothing now, nothing now

One two what you doing?
I've been jumping through some hoops
Want to get my body loose
Want to tell you, tell you what to do
I've been running out of bounds
Like an animal struggling
Looking for a diamond
I'm trying, I'm fighting
Right into the rhythm now

I just want to stay up all night
I want to stay up all night with you you you

Just want to stay up all night with you (stay up all night)
Just want to stay up all night with you
There's nothing that I wouldn't rather do (then stay up all night)
Just want to stay up all night with you you

Put it up in the air
If you don't really care
Let them know that you're there
If you got the time to take it up there
Livin' up in the air
Livin' out on a prayer
Let them know that you're there
If you got the time to take it up there
Up all night with you
With you
With you
 
The Song:

"Up All Night" is a cliche-filled song, likely on Beck's upcoming 2017 album.

Rolling Stone reports that the version we currently have, which leaked on Youtube and was eventually on the soundtrack to the FIFA '17 video game, is an "early version" of the song. Whether this means it is different in some way from the album cut, or just that we received it early, before the album proper, is unclear. (Some version of the song was also in a watch commercial.)

UPDATE: The version on Colors is different from the FIFA version. (Unsure what version is in the watch commercial at the moment.)

The song focuses on a musician seeing jubilant crowds at a music festival, and wanting to deliver for them. There may be some autobiography here, as Beck seems to be writing about struggling to perform -- the injury struggles he went through for a few years may show up in this as well.

--

In one interview with Matt Pinfield, Beck referred to a category of party songs, like Prince's "Kiss," Chic's "Good Times," and David Bowie's "Let's Dance." He said that "Up All Night" was an attempt to add to that category and make a "simple bring-everyone-together song." (Though arguably, Beck already has a number of these.)
 
Live:

Played live 113 times:
Earliest known live version: October 8, 2017
Latest known live version: April 16, 2023

2017-2018 Colors tour

Beck of course played "Up All Night" at pretty much every show of his Colors tour. (We have it listed for every setlist except one night in Australia.) He also did it at a number of TV/radio appearances around the world, like the Tonight Show, Ellen, a show in Japan, and KCRW. As is Beck's tendency with new songs, he followed the basic arrangement of the record. During the second half of 2018, the band did add a little robot vocal intro loop that Beck could improv a bit over. You can hear that in the example below.

Also in this example, at a festival in Japan, Beck had Japanese pop singer Daoko come and do a rap in his place of the song (the "one two what you doing" rap). (Daoko had earlier recorded a remix of the song for the Japanese market, that's why and what she was doing here.) I love this! I now wish Beck had different rappers or singers show up for this section of the song. :)