Lyrics:

The Song:

"Peaches & Cream" is a song from Beck's 1999 album, Midnite Vultures.

Beck once said, "I like to go for sounds that seem out of place, external from the era. The scrambling of time, I think, is one of the affectations of '90s music, and it's something I enjoy. That's what drew me to hip-hop: The messages were so fresh and current, but then there would be a Coltrane saxophone or a Booker T bass line. And you'd realize that this kid from Brooklyn was making connections in the tracks that required more musical knowledge than what was available on the radio."

While I could probably put this quote on every Beck song, this deeper realization of musical styles and eras is the highlight of "Peaches & Cream."

The first, foremost influence is of course Prince. Beck's falsetto and sexy lyrics are certainly "Prince-like," as is the mix of soul and rock in the many layers of guitars and horns and synthesizers.

Lyrically, "Peaches" also pulls from many disparate sources, including:

• The opening lines "Don't tell your right hand, baby, what your left hand do" is lifted from a Koerner, Glover & Ray song called "Don't Tell Your Right Hand What Your Left Can Do." Koerner, Glover & Ray are folk legends. Talking of one of their albums, Beck once said, "My brother and I were obsessed with that record. I would sit and listen and try to figure out the songs. They were in the folk world, they were doing this folk music, but they were doing something different with it. They were putting this rock 'n' roll energy into it. That's what attracted me." Two of them, Glover & Ray, even opened a concert on the Mellow Gold tour in Minneapolis (where they're from), which surely was an early career highlight for Beck.

  
  This line is a phrase from the blues, I am not sure where it originated. It shows up in a Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee song "My Father's Words": "He said if you want to be loved / Here's what you've got to do / You've got to love somebody / Want someone to love you / Though don't let your right hand / Know what your left hand do." Beck is surely influenced by Sonny Terry's harmonica playing (as were Koerner Ray & Glover). Beck also covered one of their other songs, "Goodtime Charlie."




• Another blues lyric is of course "keep your lamplight trimmed and burning," a fairly common line Beck could've picked up from any number of sources (Blind Willie Johnson or Mississippi Fred MacDowell being the most likely).
  
  Beck was asked about it in a short interview by Jack White of the White Stripes:
  
  JW: Question number four: You used a phrase on Midnite Vultures, "Keep your lamplight trimmed and burning." Is that a sexual reference?
  
  B: Uh well, yeah, in one respect it is. I'm coming home, it's the dark section of town...
• Another little source of inspiration is Beck's pick up of "Where do we go now?" from Guns 'N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine." Beck's brings up G'n'R often on stage and in many a interview, certainly it was just an in-joke. I recall him once explaining Vultures as nothing but trying to make his band laugh.

So this song borrows from folk, blues, metal, soul. All in a rock song sung in a falsetto! There really is a lot of stuff in this track.

Live:

Played live 21 times:
Earliest known live version: November 1, 1999
Latest known live version: August 27, 2000

"Peaches" never really made it into live shows with very much frequency. It was a part of 21 Vultures shows in 1999-2000 (there were over 120 shows in this time).

"Peaches & Cream" made its live debut on November 1 1999 in Santa Ana, CA. This was the Midnite Vultures Kick-off Concert, though at that point, only two songs were actually being played for the first time (this one, and "Broken Train"). "Peaches" was definitely a highlight of the new Vultures songs that night (the album hadn't been released yet). Beck's confident falsetto was memorable, and the audience ate the song up, it's disjointed riff surprising and grooving the unfamiliar audience.

In fact, out of all the Vultures songs done on stage, "Peaches" may be my favorite. The guitar riff is more pronounced, sort of swirling and swarming around. Not only does Lyle Workman play the buzzing slide guitar, but Beck and Roger also join in on electric guitar. The wild stage performances really suit the song. Beck sometimes strains for the high notes, but that adds some tension. The band never played the song all that often, unfortunately. The best bootlegged version I've heard is from Munich on March 11 2000.

But I imagine that perhaps the band never quite agreed, since it was never played all that much. Perhaps it was a difficult one for Beck to sing on stage while running around with electric guitar?

They haven't tried it since 2000.