Lyrics:

The Song:

Every time Beck sings the wonderful "Bogusflow," he gives the impression that it is completely improvised. Even on the studio recording (albeit probably done live in one take), Beck breaks out into laughter halfway through. There are a few performances on bootleg, but the song's release on DGC Rarities and its performance on KCRW in 1994 are the standards.

"Bogusflow" seems to be about mainstream music and how uninteresting (or bogus) it can be. This was clearly a focus of Beck's thoughts at the time, as he had just signed with a major label, after coming out of the anti-folk/punk/art world. Nearly every line of the song deals with this in some way. Right from the beginning, he tells of musicians being unoriginal, yet still having success ("Monkey see, monkey die/laminate your face and paste it up into the sky"). To someone as creative as Beck, the observance of so much lack of originality still leading to success is certainly irksome ("excitement level: zero," "new age, old age, totally lame/straight to the middle of the road").

When the song was released, Beck wrote a brief summary for the CD liner notes: "Pulling up roots...again. Stranded in the decaying harbor. Surfing in the oil spillage." Cryptic, but accurate. Being stranded in the decaying harbor with the other musicians who were "exploring the boring to the core" was exactly how Beck might have felt.

Live:

Played live 8 times:
Earliest known live version: March 1, 1994
Latest known live version: May 24, 1998

"Bogusflow" was played live a few times. One early instance was on KCRW in 1994, while Beck was plugging the relase of Mellow Gold. This song kicked off his set. In the middle of the song, Beck announced "Give me some noise!" and Chris Ballew adds some odd distorted vocals that makes them both laugh. Lyrically, it's fairly similar to the recorded version, but with enough differences (in bold) to list them all here:

Monkey see, monkey die
Laminate your face and paste it up into the sky
'Cause it's squalid and it's solid
And it's completely rancid and beautiful
Like a dishrag lying in the street
Uptight beyond belief
Cut a hole in the floor to see
Just how close to hell we're standing
Got the travelling Vitamin C blues
Police lady staring at my shoes
Holy ghost, moldy toast, riding lamppost
Excitement level: zero
Rock the casbah, bring the noise
Pretentious dimensions exploring the boring to the core
Adults with cordless personalities
Running around in new age bionic jogging suits
Give me some of that noise!
California white boy sound
Rocket-powered and nailed to the ground
New age, old age, completely totally lame
Straight to the middle of the road
Just rewind the tape and play the whole thing backwards
With the sound turned all the way off

A few weeks later Beck went on tour for the first time to support Mellow Gold, and performed the song at Duke University on March 26, 1994. "This song is about Pearl Jam," he declared. The recording is awful, but he seems be to using lyrics mostly from the earlier KCRW appearance, with a few from the yet-to-be recorded version for DGC Rarities. That just shows how Beck's songs are constantly flowing and changing and mutating. Hopefully more early tapes will arise, so that more of Beck's rambling improv lyrics for "Bogusflow" can be heard...they're always so fun!

The June 11, 1994 version had some new lines in there too:

Flaming hot dogs, sausage meat
Feels so greasy, feels so neat
Spread it on a blanket over all your pants
You got your walkie-talkies, you got class
Monkey see, monkey fly fly fly
Flap your wings, you know it's getting time to die
Don't touch my virginity
Just refresh the pest, slightly depressed


Beck played the song on June 27, 1994 in Chicago. Early on, he tossed in a few new lines, "Mom is dead / That's not saying much / It's easy not to say much / Stick out your tongue and believe." He continued on before getting to the "exploring the boring to the core" line which led into this:

Slicked up, gussied up, muscled up
Turn the others up ???
'Cause there's a muscle here
And there's a muscle over there
Purple fist, revolution everywhere
Unaware under ???
Tooth and nail, put your whiskey in the garbage pail
She's got eyebrows painted on
Like birds that could teach me how to fly
I would ? if they can, I'll make a meal plan
Try not to crash land
'Cause that's for certain, suckers might be
Believes everything he sees
Tossed out like a dog waiting to fall into the slide
??

He finished the song by singing, "'Cause it's a ??? / Have a nice day! / Hasta la vista! / So pleased ?? tortillas / That's not even the beginning."

On June 29, 1994, in Minneapolis, Beck returned to "Bogusflow" once again. He gave the song a relatively long harmonica intro. Early in the song, he referenced his old favorite rap (which would end up being recorded for the John Spencer Blues Explosion's song, "Flavor"): "Step right into the lane/ the birds are so insane/ stomping their foot like a chain gang/ back in the membrane." Tonight, the bands were "exploring the boring to the core of the cliche/on the freeway looking for a flat/scraping off the ass/the bottom of the barrel." He finally ended the song with this long, disjointed improvisation:

California white boy plays with stones
Beaches faced revolution purple angel paste
Coming down, sliding through your fingers
'Cause it's new age, old age, it's totally lame
Straight to the middle of the road
Spray it on your face
So take that tape cassette
Put it in the tape recorder
Play the whole thing backwards
With the sound turned completely off
Stick up your nose, it's a little bit snooty
Like my homies never knew me
Taken from chestnut hut
Burning in black, down on the lane
??? leaving me, right to the middle of the way
Boiling down to the blame of the gang
Softcore all the way