Lyrics:It's All Gonna Come To Be [Live version (a)]:
From KCRW version:
This is sort of a, got these chords from Bob Seger. It's sort of a heartland feeling, sort of approving...
When all is said and done, want to clip my toenails
Down down down down down
And put 'em in clear plastic ziplock bags
And take them down, down to the town
In a Monte Carlo with Stevie Nicks-interior-white leather
And you're the last thing on my list
But you're the first thing I'm gonna remember
When I wake up
It's all gonna come to be
The same bad video for twenty years
It's all gonna come to be
Optimistic Xerox of yourself
It's easier when you're self-made
You can pack it up and put it on the highway
You can fill up the air with bad breath
Because it's already polluted and reconstituted
And filtered back into the system and packaged up
And the Space Age is running out of distance
You can leap out and disconnect all the connections
And program the appliances to puke on the floor
It's all gonna come to be
Self-indulgent, yeah
It's all gonna come to be
The same old noise you never wanted to see
Mexican speed metal things
Casserole fruit salad hair gel
Self-inflicted, life-affirming hell
Is that slack? Is that crack? Are those dogs? Are those dogmas?
Are those clogs or platform shoes on your feet?
Take your Johnny Cashmachine and your talkabout fashions
That come crashing in late at night like a plane crash
Survivors come pickin' out the fiberglass and styrofoam
And the love that is breathing is the love that is spraypainting
Vandalizing everything you own
Because it's all gonna come to be
The same bad scene for twenty years
It's all gonna come to be
Optimistic Xerox of yourself
Predictions of dehabilitating health
Whining all night long, wining and dining
Climbing into the rafters, shredding your afro
Taking karate lessons, sucking in the bandages
The Song:"It's All Gonna Come to Be" is a lovely, wordy folk song. It's most famous performance was on KCRW on March 1 1994. Beck was promoting the release of
Mellow Gold and performed a few songs. Chris Ballew joined him, though his contribution to "It's All Gonna Come to Be" was limited to some amusingly distorted moaning. At the end of the song, Beck announced that Ballew was playing "a cyborg." Beck did give the impression that he was improvising lines; whether this was completely true, I am not sure. You just get a great sense he was not always sure where he's going with the lyrics. That's part of his genius.
"It's All Gonna Come to Be" seems to be focused on the major label music scene, a theme common to a lot of Beck's songs from the time. He emphasizes this by giving an abbreviated version of the "
Heartland Feelings" intro, which was a request from a music producer to make music bland in the mold of Bob Seger or John Mellencamp, so it will be a big hit and sell. The first chorus refers to what must have been a fear of Beck's at the time—ending up "the same bad video for twenty years." Does one get stuck with the same image always? As an "optimistic Xerox of yourself?" How can you stop that from happening? It happens all the time, and Beck was both observant, and fearful, of it. (Fortunately, looking at it now, many years later, Beck has avoided it, for the most part.)
His next verse has probably his most bitter, but accurate, description of the music scene, and the people involved with it: "You can fill up the air with bad breath because it's already polluted / and reconstituted and filtered back into the system and packaged up." He observes that it's all just the "same old noise you never wanted to see." Beck doesn't offer up any solutions or conclusions; he lets his own talent and songs prove that his career is just beginning, but he is definitely not going to be packaged up and reconstituted by the music biz.
Live:Played live 3 times:
Earliest known live version:
March 1, 1994Latest known live version:
September 6, 1994Beck pulled "It's All Gonna Come To Be" seemingly out of nowhere in Japan, in September, 1994. There probably were other performances of it between KCRW in March and this one, and maybe someday some will surface. The lyrics are almost completely different from the March performance (except for a couple of lines), so he must have been working on the song in the time between. Here's the new lyrics, they're very similar on September 1 and 6 (but these are mostly from the 1st):
Gather round with vigilante chain
Elevate the toss and turn on an endless cliche
There's a lesson to be learned from every struggle
You can juggle your concerns
Your brother will be watching you
With his daredevil science possessed by appliance
Driving right through a facade
And it's a peaceloving culture
The vulture is a prop
Doesn't mean that you are safe with your own private cop
Dropping others down on a plate
Harnessed to a factory of filth and love
When it is twisting up above
It fits round your fist
Show strength for what you exist
'Cuz it's all gonna come to be
You've seen it all before
The ages in your life
Makes no difference here
It's easier when you're self-made
You can pack it up and put it on the highway
You can fill up the air with bad breath
Because it's already polluted and reconstituted
And filtered back into the system without a safety net
Spread down another tangled web
And you can take it out of context
And turn it into a contest
And tell all the kids their checks got burned in the mail
'Cuz it's all gonna come to be
You've seen it all before
But it still excites me
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