This is a new blog series, where a select bunch of Beckfrx will share their reminiscences, thoughts, inspirations, interpretations of EVERY Beck song! How’s that for ambitious? The Beckfrx have all been fans for a long while, we’ve lived with these songs as long as possible, and hopefully have interesting things to say. Please add your thoughts in the comments!
We’re going alphabetically, and yes, we know this will probably take five years to finish.
Today’s first song: the always mysterious “.000.000“!
Newtron:
This has always been one of my favorite Beck songs. In my mind I group this in with ‘Lemonade‘. They were both among the first Beck b-sides I heard (Odelay was my first Beck album, and its singles were my first Beck singles). Both these songs were so different from what was on Odelay — so weird and non-commercial — and listening to them I started to realize that Beck was working on a lot more layers and levels than I had originally assumed. 16-year-old Dave loved it because it was fucked up and different, and 26-year-old Dave loves it because it rocks my ass (gently).
BTW, I pronounce this “zero hundred thousand”. What does everyone else say?
Breathmint:
listening to this song over and over makes it difficult for me to breathe. kind of scary.
Vitamin.Deb:
Funny, and probably somehow appropriate, that we begin with a track that evokes for me the horrors of backwardsness. (Is that even a word? Check the Becktionary.) Looking backwards, trying to live backwards. I’m not someone who knows much at all about the technical aspects of music, but it feels to me like there are one or more elements in this song that were recorded and then inverted, a la the little man in Twin Peaks. Anyway, yeah, so I’ve got someone close to me who can’t get over the past, who is hopelessly mired in it, and this song makes me think about that. Disquieting, cautionary.
Beck:
There were definitely lyrics and they were very meaningful. I think.
AlmostAGhost:
This song will always just be, to me, those nights I’ve spent, sitting in the dark, headphones on, listening to the song in tiny fragments, played over and over, *PAUSE* *REWIND* *PLAY* *REWIND* *PLAY*, trying to figure out what those lyrics are. And never succeeding.
And finally here is an unofficial “inverted mix” of the song, which (ever so slightly) emphasizes the vocals, and has a cool drum sound.
Up next: “10,000 Pesos”!
Not his best b-side, but it did draw me in after a while. It’s one of his more disappointing B-Sides, to me anyway. I remember buying all these singles when they first came out too. But in the rural area I was from it was damn hard to find them and they were expensive for a college kid. So to get a bummer like this one was disappointing.
But…I would say out of the songs of Beck’s I would classify as “Noise Rock,†I like this one the most. I always thought the lyrics were irrelevant, but the idea that .000 is nothing and .000.000 is the minutia of nothing set the mood of this for me. Thus this was the sound of the minutia of nothing.
Love this idea! Can’t wait to read all the entries.
im a newcomer to this song, heard it on the deluxe odelay, its pretty fucked up, like bizzaro superman, i like the idea of it as static
I dug this song. My friends really loved the song Drinkin’ Wine by the Beastie Boys and would listen to it over and over again, this song was to me a more “song-like” version of Drinkin’ Wine.
Same concept different songs. Hypno-toad.
i always heard the line toilet life here.
it does sound like it comes from a bathroom in a basement or something.
lots of tubes going on here. plumbing. sinks. etc.
I hated this song for a long time and then lately, I’ve started to let it play through when it comes up on shuffle mode. it’s strangely pretty.
I called it “zero hundredth thousandth”
Strange song, I really like it. Love the backwards drum sound and echoing vocals. Lyrics are never gonna be known fully, but this is what I hear anyway:
In the light, the twilight, getting richer
In the light, the twilight, getting richer
In the light, the twilight, getting richer
In the light, the twilight, getting richer
I’ve seen your place before
I’ve dreamed of silver shoes
I bought a plastic light
My serpent feel the rain
My city’s to this coke
My ? butcher smokes
My ancient paper cloud
My servant’s nervous toe
My chipper wasn’t bust
My serpent wasn’t this
My serpent wasn’t this
My serpent wasn’t this
In the light, the twilight, getting richer
In the light, the twilight, getting richer
My convalescent kiss
My very modest church
My pricks and belly rose
My operation blows
My yelling alamos
My new pollution clothes
I never smacked the blood
I bought a captain hood
My temple wasn’t bust
My serpent wasn’t this
My serpent wasn’t this
My serpent wasn’t this
To me, the chorus sounds like he says “In the night, the twilight, getting wasted.”
If you speed up the song it seems the lyrics are easier to decypher….. I used the free Audacity program if anyone is interested in trying
What’s really cool about this song is that I’m pretty sure he took one of his drum and bass recordings reversed it and slowed it down then added the lyrics and the dissonance afterwards…