Greatest Songs #5

Beck - "Beautiful Way" (1999, from Midnite Vultures)

It's fitting that I start the top five with a departure from form, both from the tone of most of the songs on this list and the artist known as Beck. Midnite Vultures was Beck's first mess-with-my-palette album, a sea change before Sea Change. He basically took away all the blues-country, white-trash elements that had marked his earlier work in favor of a pure R&B booty-beat partaaaay. It's self-consciously an album to get laid to, and I'm not entirely sure if it really works as such (tunes like "Debra" for example, are a little too goofy. Humor has a limited place in the realm of Eros). But "Beautiful Way" is a step outside the groove, a morning-after seperation song that ought to have been the last track, but wasn't (that honor goes to the aforementioned "Debra").

We start with a deep, soft melody, a gentle kiss with piano and bass, and a bare minimum of the sound-effects collage that graces most Beck tunes. Then comes Beck's voice, plain and unaffected:

Searchlights on the skyline
Just lookin' for a friend
Who's gonna love my baby
When she's gone around the bend?

Ah, the Departure Song, a well-worn groove in the annals of Pop Consciousness; how typical of the Love Album to pay homage to Love's Afterbirth. Yet paying attention to the lyrics provides some interesting variations. Note the fact that Becks isn't wondering who's going to love him. This could be a sign that he's got a line waiting for him back at his crazy sawinging bachelor pad, but I don't think so. He's actually wondering who's going to love her: How she's going to fare. Again, we could chalk this up to male arrogance, but I don't find anything constructive in that. For once, the guy's watching her leave without bemoaning his own fate.

The refrain
:

Ooooooooooooooh,
Such a beautiful way to break my heart
Ooooooooooooooh,
Such a beautiful way to break your heart
(Bum bum bum) There's someone calling my name
(Bum bum bum) She's gonna miss that train (Bum bum bum)

As silly as this reads, when you hear it, you can't help being caught up in the rising emotion, or singing along with the "Bum bum bum's". And the viewpoint is mature, knowing, appreciative. He feels the loss of her, aches for more time, but doesn't want her to miss her train. Our hearts are broken, and damn, it's beautiful. C.S. Lewis would approve.


#6