Dead Melodies

Dead Melodies is the seventh track on Mutations.

Description
Like most songs on Mutations, Dead Melodies was written a couple of years before it was recorded. The recording is very well done and expands on the original tune.

The first line, "Where will you go when this day is over?" immediately pulls the listener in, and sets the tone of the song. The day is over, a gamblers winnings have been lost, the snakes are out.

In the second verse, there's a bit of reflection. "Seasons of strangers" is a unique, but uneasy phrase. As does the next phrase, "doldrums are pounding," which is clearly a pun, but also displays emotion, as doldrums are "a period of depression or unhappy listlessness; a period of stagnation or slump." That basically describes the entire song.

In the last verse, Beck jumps from the reflection to the present. Whatever is happening, must stop. "Engineer, slow down this train." Sometimes in blues songs like these, trains represent life. "Cinders in chaff laugh at the moon" may seem hard to understand at first, but it's actually another clever phrase. Beck is playing off of 2 definitions of "chaff": Beck ends the song singing about dead birds, rotting in trees, one more image of decay and despair. The song seems to be about being at the lowest possible moment. Through the verses, Beck looks at it from different angles, forward, looking back at it, and then looking directly at it.
 * 1) "the refuse of burned corn or straw" (through which the train would be traveling)
 * 2) "to make fun in a good-natured way" ("laugh at the moon")

Lyrics
Where will you go when this day is over?

A gambler's purse lays on the road straight to your door

The snakes have gone crazy tonight

Winding their way out of sight

A laugh, a joke, a sentiment wasted

Seasons of strangers that come and go

Doldrums are pounding, cheapskates are clowning this town

Who could disown themselves now?

Engineer, slow down this old train

Cinders and chaff laugh at the moon

Night birds will cackle, rotting like apples on trees

Sending their dead melodies to me