Lyrics:

The Song:

"Day For Night" was put up on beck.com when it was redesigned in November 2005. It sounds to me like "Broken Drum"s little brother, a slow atmospheric track.

Day For Night, I take it, is a film technique (that the movie is referencing) where they shoot a night scene in the daylight with some fancy filter so it looks dark. I'm not sure about that as a metaphor (in the film or in this song). Perhaps it deals with covering up reality, allowing you "to disappear."

Still, Beck's lyrics are quite lovely, simple expressions of powerful feelings. "Seize the moment / when it's day for night / to disappear" is striking. Put away your distinguishing characteristics, shoot out the lights, and disappear. What's left of you when you are lost? The second verse has lonesome vagabonds, weary and far from home. Are they lost?

Life is hostile, but keeping your soul is the way to survive it.

Day For Night is also the name of a film by François Truffaut. Beck in the past has said another of Truffaut's films, The 400 Blows, is one of his all-time favorites. I have seen Day For Night but did not see much to indicate it as any sort of jumping-off point for the song; my best guess would be that Beck just used the phrase. The story does have an actor who, after his love leaves him, wants to quit acting, he's too much of a wreck to go on. Perhaps that feeling led to the "I throw my voice away" lines here.