Dark Star

No wonder there are no comments. trying to come up with a meaning to this song is giving me a headache.

Very laid back for a rap song. Even though I'm not a fan of rap, Beck is definitely one of the exceptions. This is my second favorite song on the album next to Cell Phone's Dead and is obviously a homage to Beck's Sea Change album.

I get a very political feel from this song as well, especially political in the sense of global warming, death of the world, etc.

"Hovering in carbon monoxide cremations"

"Plug in my reactor to the fallout zone"

"Ammunition souls shooting holes in the ozone"

Definitely reminds me of global warming. Almost as if this "Dark Star" is Earth's future. The hole(s) in the ozone layer are/is the "scar that's open."

who needs a song meaning when you have that awesome harmonica solo with the bass and the hooting!

this song seems to me to be mainly a very dim forecast for the future. These lines: "The enemies' story is a lot like mine /And if you get to the point then you know better than I", "widow's tears on soldiers' bones" and the descriptions of general desolation throughout the song tell me that this future was he victim of some sort of human-designed blight, maybe nuclear war. The "enemy's story being a lot like mine" speaks of a period of international tension, suspicion and paranoia that led to this destruction. "egos, delirium, and arrows of american eagles" indicates the war was begun by the US. It seems like there were a few human survivors of the disaster, but the world seems to be run mostly by machines :"autopilot drivers, ammunition souls (antiaircraft weaponry?), robot teachers", etc.

Also, the nuclear war caused the sky of this future world to be polluted beyond repair by the "carbon monoxide cremations (ashes from disintegrated people/plants animals) and other fallout. This pollution has caused the "ice age".

"Dark star, just an eye that is closing Sees through the shards from a scar that's open"

I think the dark star is the sun trying to shine through the skies darkened by the "shards" of the incinerated buildings, trees, etc., that cloud the sky. The sun being an "eye that is closing" may be symbolic of a higher power (God?) that had been previously watching over humanity, yet has given up on them because of the destruction they caused themselves and others by their hostility and lack of trust.

Well, that's my guess at the meaning. It's a really depressing song now that I soent time to analyze its meaning...

this song seems to me to be mainly a very dim forecast for the future. These lines: "The enemies' story is a lot like mine /And if you get to the point then you know better than I", "widow's tears on soldiers' bones" and the descriptions of general desolation throughout the song tell me that this future was he victim of some sort of human-designed blight, maybe nuclear war. The "enemy's story being a lot like mine" speaks of a period of international tension, suspicion and paranoia that led to this destruction. "egos, delirium, and arrows of american eagles" indicates the war was begun by the US. It seems like there were a few human survivors of the disaster, but the world seems to be run mostly by machines :"autopilot drivers, ammunition souls (antiaircraft weaponry?), robot teachers", etc.

Also, the nuclear war caused the sky of this future world to be polluted beyond repair by the "carbon monoxide cremations (ashes from disintegrated people/plants animals) and other fallout. This pollution has caused the "ice age".

"Dark star, just an eye that is closing Sees through the shards from a scar that's open"

I think the dark star is the sun trying to shine through the skies darkened by the "shards" of the incinerated buildings, trees, etc., that cloud the sky. The sun being an "eye that is closing" may be symbolic of a higher power (God?) that had been previously watching over humanity, yet has given up on them because of the destruction they caused themselves and others by their hostility and lack of trust.

Well, that's my guess at the meaning. It's a really depressing song now that I soent time to analyze its meaning...

"who needs a song meaning when you have that awesome harmonica solo with the bass and the hooting!"

hallelujah hallelujah amen

love this song =)

To me, this song is about death... Suicide more specifically. It's sort of a story, you know? A depressed person ("an indignant mindset of belligerent silence") who ponders suicide for a while ("Thinking about the rain under the sweatshirt hood") goes back to his place turns on some heavy metal ("Listen to the noise on the battery tape deck, a Judas train wreck, anonymous suspect") then commits suicide ("Hovering in carbon monoxide cremations"). Then it describes his descent into death ("Think tanks empty" aka his conciousness). Aside from that, the title, to me, seems to be blatantly about death. The light at the end of the tunnel, the Dark Star.

Aside from the first verse, I have no fucking clue what the rest of the song is about. Maybe Beck is describing what the guy's soul encounters during is ascent to heaven (or descent to hell).

I would LOVE to hear this song on some seriously good speakers. God, I get goosebumps just hearing it on my ipod.

to me it sounds like the universe being sucked through a hole in the sky. quite possibly the most bleak despairing and hell-like anti-war song ever written.