Week Two
By: Beck Hansen, John King, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Mike Simpson, Roger Joseph Manning Jr., Smokey Hormel
Written by: Beck Hansen, John King, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Mike Simpson, Roger Joseph Manning Jr., Smokey Hormel

Versions:
  1. Week Two (2:35)
  2.  
 
Lyrics:
Week Two [Version (a)]:

[no lyrics this week]
 
The Song:

Back while Beck was spending a long time in the studio recording Midnite Vultures, four weekly video clips were put on Beck.com, showing the sessions. This was the second, week two.

This video begins with a very sexxy soul rock song. There's heavy bass, synthesizer, Beck on electric guitar, and some horns (which I think were being sampled?). No lyrics at this point, but it's pretty cool.

Next Beck plays spoonbender Uri Geller's record for the camera, with Uri telling the listener to "hold the fork or key in your hands gently...and start repeating in your head and mind...'bend bend bend'... also rub your finger very smoothly up and down the object... stroking it tenderly while repeating in your mind...'bend bend bend'." I think you can tell that this had a big influence on the lyrics for Midnite Vultures. Beck tries to bend a screwdriver with his mind.

After that a full-blown 70s rock jam kicks off, with all the band joining in: Roger Manning Jr, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Smokey Hormel, the Dust Brothers. They rock it out for a bit, before the video shows Justin saying "these are my favorite kinds of days. We throw caution to the wind and just play."

Then the video shows Smokey playing a weird percussive riff on his guitar, while Roger grunts a melody over it and Beck laughs.

Finally, Beck's unsuccessful attempts to bend the screwdriver bring him to tears, despite Uri Geller telling him it's ok to fail.

Here it is!

 
Notes: