Gold Chains

This is such an interesting song. I think it would've been great on Odelay and I'd have loved this song on that album. The lyrics make me think of a lonely guy, full of ideas and enthusiasm, who's style is about 10 years behind the times. He's trying to create an 80s style hip-hop party, "tryin' to get together into some kind of scene" maybe he's a DJ and a fantastic breakdancer. The only problem is that it's 1996! I have to think this is semi-autobiographical of Beck himself in his early amateur days. He saw what was going on as a kid. Maybe he was too young to participate, and by the time he became a sort of Grand Master Flash figure in the 90's, those times were lost and gone. It's tragic. He can't get anyone on board with his style of scene he wanted to resurrect. But the charm of the song is that this doesn't seem to get him down because he's his own entertainment, his own best friend and his own biggest fan. It doesn't matter that other people won't get on board with his moves and his fresh beats, because he brings the party with him everywhere he goes. They can't danpen his spirits because he knows how cool he really is. We should all be like this. We should all go back home with our gold chains swingin'. Maybe you gotten beaten this time around, but there's always next weekend. And we know it eventually worked out for Beck because, if you grew up in the 90s, you immediately wanna dance when someone says "two turntables and a microphone!". That's was definitely 10 years behind the times, but it rocked the 90s. It didn't matter that that tune reeked of mothballs, we loved that about it anyway, I know I did.

As a side note; I read an interview with Beck during the Mellow Gold era, and the interviewer asked what his favorite album was. His answer was the first album by the Bullet Boys. I don't know if you know who the hell the Bullet Boys are, but they were one of the very last hair metal bands to get signed, a bit like Jackal and Enuff Z Nuff. In other words, they were the dregs of the movement. But they had a very wild and over the top style, plus by 1994, they had the stench of yesterday's trend all over them. Flash in the pan and trashy as all hell. Beck has always had an affinity with things that were no longer in style but hadn't yet come back around as retro revival. He's always loved the thing that isn't cool anymore, seen as tacky, dated and slightly embarrassing. That's what Gold Chains is about. This song is a perfect example of how his mind works and why he's a genius.