RTD

RTD, also known by the name Sucker Without a Brain, is the fourth track on Banjo Story and Fresh Meat + Old Slabs.

Description
This song describes a bus, specifically a pedestrian being run over by one and riding "the bus to heaven". This song seems to be heavily inspired from Woody Guthrie, with the rerecorded version on Fresh Meat + Old Slabs being not very different, except for the bridge being cut. Beck noted that his first few performances were on buses. He stated "My first were on buses. I'd get on the bus and start playing Mississippi John Hurt with totally improvised lyrics. Some drunk would start yelling at me, calling me Axl Rose. So I'd start singing about Axl Rose and the levee and bus passes and strychnine, mixing the whole thing up." This likely relates to this song, and maybe he even played this song on the bus.

The song title remains a mystery, as it was referred as "Sucker Without a Brain" on bootleg versions of Banjo Story, but "RTD" on the official version.

Banjo Story version
A sucker without a brain

Nothing to do again

Step into the street

Like a man on a flying trapeze

Here comes that bus right into your face

Now you're flying, now you're flying home

Isn't just like a dream?

People and sirens and everything

The driver tried to swerve

But he just didn't see ya

Now you're buried 'neath the wheel

Just like a tortilla

Here comes that bus right into your face

Now you're flying, now you're flying home

And after you die, of course

There's a bus in the afterlife

When you die, you're riding

That bus in the sky, take a ride

We can all climb aboard

The fare is easy to afford... when you're dead

Yeah, sometimes you meet a dancer

But this is one ride where you won't need a transfer

Here comes that bus right into your...

Fresh Meat + Old Slabs version
A sucker without a brain

Nothing to do again

Step into the street

Like the man on the flying trapeze

Here comes that bus right into your face

Now you're flying, now you're flying home

Isn't it just like a dream?

Sirens and people and everything

The driver tried to swerve But he just didn't see ya

Now you're buried 'neath the wheel

Just like a tortilla

Here comes that bus right into your face

Now you're flying, now you're flying home

When we're dead, we can all climb aboard

The fare is easy to afford

Sometimes you meet a fireman

Sometimes you meed a dancer

This is one ride where you won't need no transfer

Here comes that bus right into your face