Artist: Beck
Title: I Just Started Hating Some People Today b/w Blue Randy
Label: Third Man Records 128
Released: May 28th, 2012
There’s always been some sort of irony present in Beck’s creations. They’re filled with subtle contradictions and conflicts. So when he releases “I Just Started Hating Some People Today” and it sounds like a derivative country song with a couple of trademark Jack White bombastic flourishes, am I supposed to take this seriously?
The first verse about becoming aware of the wiles of others is a winner, but the songs spirals into violent lyrics Quentin Tarantino may find amusing. With lyrics such as:
I just started wanting to punch your face.
You might wanna wear a helmet just in case.
What was once your face is gonna be replaced.
And I just started wanting to punch your face.
I don’t have any other intelligent way to say this, but it’s stupid. And if it isn’t stupid, am I missing out on some inside joke?
When I listen to Zappa and the Mothers of Invention I don’t quite get it all. But I don’t think I was ever meant to completely understand Zappa’s musical-stylings. And here’s Beck staring at me on the picture sleeve; wearing sunglasses with the reflection of the photographers’ light umbrella in the lenses, just like the picture of Frank on Strictly Commercial.
Is this song supposed to be funny? Is it a parody of country music? Or does Jack and Beck have to step back every now and then and realize not every creation is worth a pressing. Yes, I understand this is a one-off recording and maybe the two were just having a little fun, but I still don’t get it.
Maybe it comes from Beck’s childhood and his father’s involvement with the Fluxus Art Scene. In the Fluxus manifesto it reads, “…art-amusement must be simple, amusing, unpretentious, concerned with insignificances, require no skill or countless rehearsals, have no commodity or institutional value.
If that’s the case, I get it. Except for the part about having no commodity or institutional value. I paid seven bucks for my art-amusement.
And if you’re curious about the b-side, it’s Bukowski-meets-Luke the Drifter. And it is better than the a-side.