Lyrics:

The Song:

"Inside Out" is a bonus track on some editions of The Information.

Beck began playing this song on stage in early 2005, during his earliest Guero shows. Back then, the song was known as "Remain In The Dark." (And some official setlists shortened that to "Remain.") The song was not a part of Guero though; and I guess from sessions for The Information, which happened simultaneously more or less. Fortunately, Beck did finish the song, re-named it "Inside Out," and put it as a bonus track on The Information.

The song begins way back, with an early '80s British post-punk band called A Certain Ratio. One of their songs is called "Do The Du" which is led by a hyper jagged bassline. This bass became the basis for "Inside Out." Beck adds a lot more melody in the vocals (and a ton of percussion) compared to A Certain Ratio, but the starting point was clearly this older song.

In trying to figure out what Beck was writing about in this song, I scribbled some notes down about what the verses were saying. My notes ended up saying stuff like "things fall apart," "trying the impossible," "things change," "bad omens." To that end, I think this song is exploring those times when life changes on you, and you are overwhelmed by it. The first few verses all indicate some sort of change: "we're just losing all we used to hold us together," "inside out when you get older," fireworks and lights dying out.

The final verse and coda hit on the effect of all these changes: you stop caring and tune it all out and blame it on fate. But is it really fate which causes you to slip down another rung?

Live:

Played live 12 times:
Earliest known live version: January 28, 2005
Latest known live version: March 25, 2009

As noted above, this song was played live for a little bit during both Guero and Info tours of 2005 and 2006.

2005-2006: Remain In The Dark

At the beginning of 2005, Beck came out of hiding and started playing little warm-up club shows around LA with his new band and new material. It appears the reason this wasn't on Guero is because it was entirely unfinished. The same A Certain Ratio beat and melodies are present, but the lyrics are very skeletal and repetitive. As you can see from the lyrics above, it's basically one verse and the "slipping down now" part repeated. It seems Beck hadn't written most of the song quite yet, but still liked it enough to play on stage.

Beck played the song 6 times throughout the year, but only at special event club type shows, not during main gigs. I don't have recordings of many of these, so I can't pinpoint exactly when it began to take clearer shape as the final "Inside Out."

The song then popped up at two gigs in 2006 too.

2009: River Of Mirrors version

Then in March 2009, Beck tacked a short tour of Japan on to the the end of his Modern Guilt tours. There were seven shows, and they pulled "Inside Out" out of basically nowhere and started playing it. (Beck does like to do the Japanese bonus tracks on stage when he plays in Japan.) The one version I have is arranged like the record, except for some reason he skips the fourth verse (the "fireworks" one).