Lyrics:Modern Guilt [Version (a)]:
Heyyyy da da dada da
I feel uptight when I walk in the city
I feel so cold when I'm at home
Feels like everything's starting to hit me
I lost my bearings ten minutes ago
Modern guilt, I'm stranded with nothing
Modern guilt, I'm under lock and key
Misapprehension turning into convention
Don't know what I've done
But I feel ashamed
Standing outside the glass on the sidewalk
These people talk about impossible things
And I'm falling out of the conversation
And I'm a pawn piece in a human shield
Modern guilt is all in our hands
Modern guilt won't get me to bed
Say what you will, smoke your last cigarette
Don't know what I've done
But I feel afraid
Da da da
Da da da
Da da da
Da da da
The Song:This is the 4th track on Modern Guilt!
Rolling Stone reports that it has the "groove of a good Zombies single," which is probably accurate because Beck used to cover the Zombies'
Beechwood Park" a few years back.
Beck talked about this song as a turning point in his sessions with Danger Mouse, and I assume that is why it became the title track for the album:
"I'd recorded about 10 or 15 songs and then I did the song 'Modern Guilt' and I remember my engineer [Drew Brown] and Danger Mouse just lighting up. It was the first time I got a reaction on anything we were working on. It just felt that there was something in that song that rang true for everyone around and what we were doing and it felt like it was definitely a point where it was like, "OK, now we're on to something, this is what it's about.'"
"After that, I started just getting rid of all the songs that sounded like they could be something that could be on Midnite Vultures or Guero, things that were a bit more playful or humourous or however you want to qualify it, and kind of pursuing just the feeling that that song had," he says. "So that's the song that really shaped the record. That was the first time I've ever done that. Where all of a sudden a song came up and it had such a distinctive feeling to it I just went with that."