Title Of This Song
By: Beck Hansen

Written by: Beck Hansen

Versions:
  1. Title Of This Song
    Available on Song Reader.
 
Lyrics:
Title Of This Song [Version (a)]:

You've taken the title of this song
From a life that's beyond
Something that you could belong to
But is it wrong to sing along
When all of the words
They just get on your nerves
And the verse is ringing out like a curse

I'm tired of this old refrain
Is the chorus you sang
When you had no one to blame
But yourself for singing it all in vain

You've taken the title of this song
From a book that goes on and on
Till you can't find the ending
Was it a funeral or a wedding?
Or a seance for the bride
Whose affection had died?
Though some say love is suicide
My heart it don't make any sense
Was all that she said
When her love was found dead
But the story was all in her head

You've taken the notes from your head
And played them out loud
On a public announcement instead
'Cause all of your thoughts get distorted
The feedback goes on and you've ruined the song
While everyone just plays along
It's only the notes that you've played
That drowned the thoughts
From a song that was lost

There was nothing but the song we were singing
There was nothing but the song we were singing
 
The Song:

"Title Of This Song" is one of the songs Beck wrote for Song Reader. While some of the others songs have shown up in Beck's live set or whatnot, "Title" has not been performed publicly by Beck in any way.

Despite that, "Title" has always been one of my Song Reader favorites. It does sort of read awkward, which is ironic, since it is only available as sheet music; but there is still a cool mystery to it, and a lot of great turns of rhyme. The meta title highlights this as a song about a song, or more broadly, about songwriting. Beck uses the song within, comparing it to various infinite ideas: "a life beyond," a neverending book, life vs. death. Songwriting helps makes sense of ideas (both for the writer and the listener).

You can hear versions of the song here.