Sing It Again

Sing It Again is the tenth track on Mutations.

Description
Like most stuff on Mutations, Sing It Again was around for a bit before Mutations released. It was originally written around 1994, when his music publisher called him and said that Johnny Cash was looking for some songs for his new record. She suggested Beck write some new ones, so he wrote Sing It Again. It ended up not being submitted, because Beck thought it was "rubbish". Johnny Cash did use Rowboat, however. Beck played Sing It Again while opening up for Bob Dylan in December 1997, and he decided to record it for Mutations. The reason Beck to second-guess himself is unclear.

"Sing It Again" is one of Beck's more depressing songs, when you look at it closely. It is full desolate phrases and imagery (the trains are wrecked"; "you keep to yourself"; "exit signs are flashing"). The song mostly plays a movie of imagery, not necessarily a story. Still, there is some flow to it. The song opens on a vacant town, with a sense of being trapped and trying to get out ("exit signs are flashing"). Beck suddenly twists this into a metaphor for broken love, which leads to feelings of resignation ("won't you lay my bags upon the funeral fire and sing it again?").

Lyrics
''Shall we do another one then? Let's go. Alright.''

A town of disrespect, the trains are wrecked

The night is younger than us

Nowhere is anywhere else, you keep to yourself

Stirring the dregs where I have laid

The exit signs are flashing

Dead ends they won't come to life anymore

I pledge the rest, I should have guessed

Your love was hanging by threads

Tongues tied under the moon

My love is a room of broken bottles and tangled webs

The misers wind their minds like clocks that grind their gears on and on

And if it's meant, some accident, some coincidence

Crumbs fall out of the sky when you wander by

The dust clouds blow when nobody's home

Oh won't you lay my bags upon the funeral fire and sing it again?

Oh won't you lay my bags upon the funeral fire and sing it again?