Lyrics:

The Song:

"Pocket Calculator"! This Kraftwerk classic is from their album Computer World.

Beck, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and Jon Brion re-interpreted it acoustically one night, which I imagine was pretty entertaining!

Beck's been a longtime fan of Kraftwerk, and even "Pocket Calculator" itself. "When I saw the 'Pocket Calculator' video, my life changed," he recalled in Vanity Fair (November, 2001). Another time, he was reminiscing about the music and said, "When I was a kid, I thought anything that had a synthesiser was like the coolest. Gary Numan, Kraftwerk. 'Cause I had this calculator watch and it made all these sounds, sounded like the music."

More specifically, he has described the Kraftwerk influence on "Get Real Paid." There's also a passing reference to the song in "Olde English" from way way back on Banjo Story.

Kraftwerk is certainly one of Beck's favorite groups, and among his biggest inspirations. It's pretty cool to get an actual Kraftwerk cover from him. Now we just need a bootleg of it!

Live:

Played live 9 times:
Earliest known live version: February 22, 2002
Latest known live version: July 23, 2016

Beck played the song live once in 2002.

Then in summer of 2016, during the long "Where It's At" medleys/band introductions, the band took to including many cover songs. When Beck introduced Roger Joseph Manning Jr. on keyboards, he often would lead the band into a Kraftwerk cover beat. Sometimes Beck would sing a little of "Pocket Calculator" (and sometimes he'd do "Home Computer," a song on the same Kraftwerk record).