Written by: Beck Hansen
Alternate Titles:
a.k.a. Sucker Without a Brain
Versions:
- RTD (2:42)
Available on Banjo Story.
CreditsBeck Hansen: Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals - RTD (2:45)
Available on Fresh Meat + Old Slabs.
Lyrics:
RTD [Version (a)]:
A sucker without a brain
Nothing to do again
Step into the street
Like a man on a flying trapeze
Here comes that bus right into your face
Now you're flying, now you're flying home
Isn't just like a dream?
People and sirens and everything
The driver tried to swerve
But he just didn't see ya
Now you're buried 'neath the wheel
Just like a tortilla
Here comes that bus right into your face
Now you're flying, now you're flying home
And after you die, of course
There's a bus in the afterlife
When you die, you're riding
That bus in the sky, take a ride
We can all climb aboard
The fare is easy to afford... when you're dead
Yeah, sometimes you meet a dancer
But this is one ride where you won't need a transfer
Here comes that bus right into your...
A sucker without a brain
Nothing to do again
Step into the street
Like a man on a flying trapeze
Here comes that bus right into your face
Now you're flying, now you're flying home
Isn't just like a dream?
People and sirens and everything
The driver tried to swerve
But he just didn't see ya
Now you're buried 'neath the wheel
Just like a tortilla
Here comes that bus right into your face
Now you're flying, now you're flying home
And after you die, of course
There's a bus in the afterlife
When you die, you're riding
That bus in the sky, take a ride
We can all climb aboard
The fare is easy to afford... when you're dead
Yeah, sometimes you meet a dancer
But this is one ride where you won't need a transfer
Here comes that bus right into your...
RTD [Version (b)]:
A sucker without a brain
Nothing to do again
Step into the street
Like the man on the flying trapeze
Here comes that bus right into your face
Now you're flying, now you're flying home
Isn't it just like a dream?
Sirens and people and everything
The driver tried to swerve
But he just didn't see ya
Now you're buried 'neath the wheel
Just like a tortilla
Here comes that bus right into your face
Now you're flying, now you're flying home
When we're dead, we can all climb aboard
The fare is easy to afford
Sometimes you meet a fireman
Sometimes you meed a dancer
This is one ride where you won't need no transfer
Here comes that bus right into your face
A sucker without a brain
Nothing to do again
Step into the street
Like the man on the flying trapeze
Here comes that bus right into your face
Now you're flying, now you're flying home
Isn't it just like a dream?
Sirens and people and everything
The driver tried to swerve
But he just didn't see ya
Now you're buried 'neath the wheel
Just like a tortilla
Here comes that bus right into your face
Now you're flying, now you're flying home
When we're dead, we can all climb aboard
The fare is easy to afford
Sometimes you meet a fireman
Sometimes you meed a dancer
This is one ride where you won't need no transfer
Here comes that bus right into your face
The Song:
Beck, at the age of 18, recorded Banjo Story in January, 1988. Nothing mindblowing, but most of the tracks really do sound like an 18-year old and his songs. Especially this one.
"Sucker Without a Brain" borrows nicely from Woody Guthrie, every young folksinger's model. Beck's little spoken aside about there being "a bus in the afterlife" and his line "The fare is easy to afford...when you're dead" are very Guthrie-esque. The re-recorded version a few years later on Fresh Meat and Old Slabs is quite similar, very little has changed. He does unfortunately drop the little spoken bridge.
Beck was quite familiar with bus-riding, and this might have been one of the songs he would perform while riding around Los Angeles in one. Beck recalls his early performances, "My first were on buses. I'd get on the bus and start playing Mississippi John Hurt with totally improvised lyrics. Some drunk would start yelling at me, calling me Axl Rose. So I'd start singing about Axl Rose and the levee and bus passes and strychnine, mixing the whole thing up." A pedestrian being run over by a bus could have been another topic for these rides.
Beck, at the age of 18, recorded Banjo Story in January, 1988. Nothing mindblowing, but most of the tracks really do sound like an 18-year old and his songs. Especially this one.
"Sucker Without a Brain" borrows nicely from Woody Guthrie, every young folksinger's model. Beck's little spoken aside about there being "a bus in the afterlife" and his line "The fare is easy to afford...when you're dead" are very Guthrie-esque. The re-recorded version a few years later on Fresh Meat and Old Slabs is quite similar, very little has changed. He does unfortunately drop the little spoken bridge.
Beck was quite familiar with bus-riding, and this might have been one of the songs he would perform while riding around Los Angeles in one. Beck recalls his early performances, "My first were on buses. I'd get on the bus and start playing Mississippi John Hurt with totally improvised lyrics. Some drunk would start yelling at me, calling me Axl Rose. So I'd start singing about Axl Rose and the levee and bus passes and strychnine, mixing the whole thing up." A pedestrian being run over by a bus could have been another topic for these rides.
Notes:
- The original Banjo Story artwork list a song called "RTD." The title is the fourth listed, and is thus referring to "Sucker Without a Brain." I am not sure what RTD means. Perhaps rapid transit department? It is a song about someone being run over by a bus, and riding a bus.
- The song though is referred to as "Sucker Without a Brain" on Fresh Meat. Though again, I have no idea if Beck wrote up a tracklist for Fresh Meat, or if someone else did it along the way. For now, the song appears to have two titles, with "Sucker Without A Brain" being the common one, and "RTD" being the "official" one.