I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Something's wrong 'cause my mind is fading
And everywhere I look, there's a dead end waiting
Temperature's dropping at the rotten oasis
Stealing kisses from the leprous faces
Heads are hanging from the garbageman trees
Mouthwash, jukebox, gasoline
Pistols are pointing at a poor man's pockets
Smiling eyes ripping out of his sockets
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Love machines on the sympathy crutches
Discount orgies on the dropout buses
Hitchin' a ride with the bleedin' noses
Comin' to town with the briefcase blues
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Something's wrong 'cause my mind is fading
Ghetto-blastin' disintegrating
Rock 'n' roll, know what I'm saying?
Everywhere I look, there's a devil waiting
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Devil's haircut in my mind
Devil's haircut in my mind
Devil's haircut in my mind
And everywhere I look, there's a dead end waiting
Temperature's dropping at the rotten oasis
Stealing kisses from the leprous faces
Heads are hanging from the garbageman trees
Mouthwash, jukebox, gasoline
Pistols are pointing at a poor man's pockets
Smiling eyes ripping out of his sockets
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Love machines on the sympathy crutches
Discount orgies on the dropout buses
Hitchin' a ride with the bleedin' noses
Comin' to town with the briefcase blues
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Something's wrong 'cause my mind is fading
Ghetto-blastin' disintegrating
Rock 'n' roll, know what I'm saying?
Everywhere I look, there's a devil waiting
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Devil's haircut in my mind
Devil's haircut in my mind
Devil's haircut in my mind
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"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
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How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Midnight
Ed Sheeran
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“Midnight” is a song about finding a love that is so true that it provides a calming feeling through every storm. Ed Sheeran reflects on his good fortunes in landing someone with such peace and support and speaks of not fearing the dark days because he knows they’ll all end in the safety nets of her arms.
“Well, good morning there / What a way to start the day / With everything laid bare,” Ed Sheeran sings in the first verse, enthusiastic to be waking up beside his woman. He apologizes for missing her calls in the second verse and promises to return them because for him, speaking to her is the most important thing. “Well, I get lost inside my head / In this chaos, you’re my calm / And I will find my feet again / ‘Cause еven the worst days of my life will always еnd / At midnight in your arms,” sings Ed Sheeran in the chorus, revelling in his good luck.
To quote Beck from his special appearance on Futurama:
"See, Bender, you have you write about what you feel. Like, when I wrote Devil's Haircut, I was feeling... wait... What is that song about?"
on wikipedia it says that its about his past addictions to vicodin... which i havent read his bio, but i didnt know he had addictions to vicodin.... and its wikipedia that said so haha. I thought that it was just kinda like a jekyll and hyde thing... kinda... like he tries to stay away but "everywhere I look there's a devil waiting" and then he turns devious. Its a good song anyways whatever it means.
"Stealing kisses from the leperous faces" haha, lyrical genious? or old fool rambles? Beck would be the greatest rambling old grandpa. Haha.
This song obviously means, where ever he turns he's tempted to commit a sin..."everywhere I look there's a devil waiting."
Ahh, agreed. I've been listening to Beck since I was, like, two years old. You know, I often try to come up with lyrical interpretations of his songs, but I'm simply not that creative! His songs are just too awesomey weird. And I'm rather saddened that hardly anyone's commented on any Beck songs- he rocks my freaking WORLD. Haha. Oh well. He has originality like you wouldn't believe.
To me this song is about deterioration, the devils are dismantling all creation, there are many references to stagnant locations, which now seem to be rotting away. Lives in slumps (dropouts, briefcase clutchers, etc.). I don't have many ideas for what the devil's haircut could possibly refer to, maybe a perceived status quo (that of human nature or modern society) that rather than maintaining the world is leading it into a gradual decline. Something's wrong 'cause my mind is fading =? theres a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that the world is fractured and in decline?
Mouthwash jukebox gasoline Mouthwash =? A vague attempt to stave off the deterioration, hardly enough to have any real effect on its own. jukebox =? the pointless endeavors people pursue to while away their time in as enjoyable a way as possible gasoline =? peoples consumption and major contribution to the deterioration.
Rock 'n' roll, know what I'm sayin' =? maybe his realization that there is little that can be done to prevent it and you may as well get on with your life, theres no one he could tell who would listen or understand or have the power to do anything about it. Maybe a prediction of the chaos to emerge from the collapse.
I like the suggestions of a rebellion motif because it fits the lyrics however it doesnt fit the music/singing, he sounds so calm up untill the end, which seems to fit a sudden collapse better than a gradual buildup of tension. Also, he doesnt really seem to feel trapped as one of the pen pushers or even with them so much as just tagging along and observing them, describing them as briefcase blues rather than attributing the blues to himself. hitchhiking. On the other hand if you do look at it in the rebellion terms, the hitching a ride with the bleeding noses bit could be a reference to the desire to climb the social and/or corporate ladder.
This is probably mostly me and may have little to do with the song, but its what I think when I hear it.
also I agree with doodoodoo, there are lots of reasons an artist might want to claim it has no meaning (avoid having to explain it, or meaning is to personal to share openly
I feel as though this is song about the singer walks into a town full of anarchy and crime. The events lead am impression on him that begins as a meer thought("Got a Devil's Haircut in my mind").But by the end of the song,when Beck begins to scream the chorus, it seems as though the man has succumb to the discord of the town and is now a part of it to his horror
I'm tired of idiots saying Beck's songs are just rambling nonsense, just because you're not artistic enough to understand them doesn't mean they don't mean anything, like the beatles' I am the Walrus.
I ripped this off wikipedia because I decided to do some research on it instead of pulling random opinions from my own ass.
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The song is dotted with references to the wandering disorientation that comes with touring, such as "coming to town with the briefcase blues".
Beck himself has talked about the meaning of "Devils Haircut" on a few occasions. In one interview, he claimed that it was "a really simplistic metaphor for the evil of vanity". He said of the song: “ I don't know if I ever had any youthful purity, but I can understand that you might be tempted to make commercial shit and compromise to do it. I try not to compromise on anything. I think we associate becoming an adult with compromise. Maybe that's what the devil is. In "Devils Haircut", that was the scenario. I imagined Stagger Lee... I thought, what if this guy showed up now in 1996... I thought of using him as a Rumpelstiltskin figure, this Lazarus figure to comment on where we've ended up as people. What would he make of materialism and greed and ideals of beauty and perfection? His reaction would be, "Whoa, this is disturbing shit".
@B0NG They're not rambling nonsense, but they're not straightforwardly sensible, either. They're about something in that they came out of a certain state, and listening to them can lead you to understand and experience a bit of that state.<br /> <br /> So, he wrote this song thinking about the disorientation of being a touring musician, and the disorientation of unexpectedly being a minor star (as he said elsewhere), and the disorientation of traveling in general, and also thinking about compromise, and the line between growing up and selling out, and how drawing that line in the wrong place has affected our society, and how it's made even your own city disorienting, and the evil of vanity, and so on.<br /> <br /> Most of that is there to find in the song if you look hard enough, and, maybe even more importantly, it's also there to affect you if you just listen. But Beck isn't even thinking about "How do I get these ideas into my listeners' minds", he's just thinking about the ideas themselves, and writing what flows from them into the restrictive structure of song lyrics, and the result is something that gets the ideas into his listeners' minds.
No, but they sound like rambling nonsense, while not being which just adds to the experience
ah i love beck..i've been listenin since i was about 7..he is great..i love the drums in this song and the fx
this was SUCH a great song live... if you ever get the chance, GO SEE BECK LIVE!!!!!!!!!! it was one of my all time fav concerts and i didnt think i was even that huge of a Beck fan.... it was just sooo entertaining! you will love it!!
this was SUCH a great song live... if you ever get the chance, GO SEE BECK LIVE!!!!!!!!!! it was one of my all time fav concerts and i didnt think i was even that huge of a Beck fan.... it was just sooo entertaining! you will love it!!