Detonate

Detonate, also known by it's bootleg names Talkin' Demolition Expert and Talkin' Beck Blues is the third track on Banjo Story.

Description
This song is Beck's take on the genre Talkin' Blues. One of Beck's earliest influences was Woody Guthrie, and he pioneered in that genre. Back in 1988, Beck only knew some Woody Guthrie covers, but he eventually learned from other musicians how to write his own songs, which resulted in this and the other tracks on Banjo Story. Most of Talkin' Blues songs contain humorous lyrics over an acoustic guitar, with lots of rhyming followed by irregular lines, usually as a response to what was just said. Here, Beck writes a song with many humorous lines, as well as some disturbing ones too.

Lyrics
I'm a strapped-in loner, I was heedin' that shame

You never shake my hand, you never know my name

A crackhouse cooling, just chewin' the floor

I pass out cold and I go look for some more

I got all kinds of devices I'm gonna detonate

Got a .45 magazine, rag of gasoline

Phone booth, gold tooth, a pigeon wing

Got bazookas, hand grenades

Firebomb weddings, spray down parades

I used to work in an offic e in the outskirts of town

Routine, the grindstone grinding me down

So I picked up a filing cabinet and threw it at my boss

And then I took him outside and hung him on a cross

Then I kept walking on down the road

Oh yeah

Well fourteen uzis later and a bottle of rum

A cigarette lighter and a live chicken

Got in all kinds of mischief

Some kinds I won't tell, I did all kinds of things

Well I went into the Peekaboo Hut

To watch the lady have sex with a mutt

And then, uh, then I, then I,

I had a demolition derby with some shopping carts

And I killed every pop star in the top-twenty charts

I like to hijack people

I like to jump through movie screens at the best part

I was reading that hardcore magazine

101 Erotic Things To Do With Bologna

Then I went home and I painted the TV screen

On the old black and white TV

And I painted a picture on it

And I watched it all night long

I ate a live dog and I buried his bone

Then I carved out a tombstone

I got shell-casings in the freezer

A money belt in the drawer

I stole some blank checks

And I used them down at the comic book store

I read a lot of comic books