Cyanide Breath Mint

I've always believed that this song was about rising above the superficiality of normal belief systems or consumer ideals. When he says "I got a funny feeling they got plastic in the afterlife," it's like he's saying that the consumer minded have even incorporated their soullessness into their religious beliefs, taking the passion and feeling (which he mentions in the last line) from the very thing that is supposed to be pure or above "modern" life.

He's basically asking the listener to refuse to settle and not conform to the conceited and self serious (those who would be "shaking hands with themselves") and refuse to let them corrupt your individuality and, by doing so, you'll rise above it ("when they suck your mind/like a pigeon you'll fly").

This is one of the best songs of the 90's, one of the best white-boy blues songs in fact, including Dylan. It perfectly captures the existential dread in suburban decay. Here Beck attempts to escape via ironic stance and visceral thrills, like so many Gen-Xers, but by the last line, he doesn't sound so convinced himself. Just great stuff.

some of the lines are wrong (or my version is different). this is what i have:

Definitely this is the wrong place to be There's blood on the ceiling There's a kid drinking fire. Going down to the sea Got people to meet Shaking hands with themselves Hanging all to themselves

When they want you to get it Grab on the branch When they want you to shred it Sleep in the grass Well I know, I know It's the positive people running from their time Looking for some feeling

In the afternoon Riding the scapegoat Decomposing, burning equipment Cool off your jets Take off your sweats I've got a funny feeling There's no feeling in the afterlife

When they want you to cry Leap into the sky When they suck your mind Like a pigeon you'd fly I know, I know It's the positive people Running from their time Looking for some feeling

When they want you to get it Grab on the branch And when they want you to shred it Sleep in the grass I know I know It's the positive people Running from their time Looking for some feeling

this is quite honestly i think the most bitter, vitriolic attack on the modern day record company i've ever heard. there's nothing to tell you nothing to sell you. burning equipment and riding scapegoats beck somehow focused his vocal spew into something that remains highly relevant to any singer/songwriter today. be wary be wary still. as one person put it, it's bitterly ironic. one half tastes good and the other will kill you.