Heartland Feeling

Heartland Feeling is the eighth song on Golden Feelings, and the twelfth song on Fresh Meat + Old Slabs.

Description
This song could be considered a highlight of Beck's older content, or even his entire career. The song has two versions, with the Golden Feelings one sounding more complete, but the lyrics are the same between both. The Golden Feelings version is faster and has an echo as well. According to Beck himself;

"I like that song a lot. That song came out of a meeting I had with Bruce Springsteen's producer. I was still banging around in coffee houses and I'd never really had contact with real music industry type people, especially of that caliber. So I remember him espousing the merits of the songwriter and the loss of the singer/songwriter in music and how somebody needed to go out and write about the experiences of the people in the heartland of America. But to my mind a lot of that, that "landscape of the heartland singer/songwriter" was a cliche-ridden escape, simplistic and exploitative almost. That song was a reaction to that. So it's a fairly ironic song but I think it touches a certain nerve, bridges a certain intrinsic sadness in the day-to-day grind of the heartland as a wasteland. Or a bland land. It's not even a wasteland; it's just bland. It's sort of delving into the personalities that work behind this infrastructure of normality and impotence."

In these five verses, he uses great wordplay and introduces characters that are happy and going with the flow, but then they make a quick decision without thinking, which turns out to be the wrong decision. From falling asleep with a cigar, to never doing what you want, to going on a joyride. The attitude of the song is that bad decisions are made, and that's it.

Lyrics
''Alright, what we're talking about here is a kind of a, it's a heartland feeling. Mellencamp, you know, kind of a Mellenfeeling. OK, what you got to get together is some heartland folk singer, we're gonna need it real quick...John Cougar Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, that type of feel...a Mellen-feeling. A real powerful, approving music of a heartland quality, uh just powerful, straight forward music and if you can't get just the right type of feeling, find someone who'll pass and change them.''

Old Man Johnson got his head in his hand

Making his way across state in a fiddlin' band

With hair all down in his eyes And a microphone all covered with flies

When he gets done playing, goes back to his room

Climbs into bed in his cowboy boots

And he picks up a magazine, turns on the TV

Lights a cigar as he's falling asleep

Well, he's only a person who doesn't know shit

Yeah, nothing happening, that's about it, yeah

Well, little Rosanna came from Texarkana

Had fourteen dollars wrapped in a bandana

Came into town not looking for much

Well, she found a hound dog and she named him Dutch

She got a job at the arcade taking quarters

But she was never too good at taking orders

So one night, she stopped giving out change

She kicked the boss in the shin and unplugged the games

She's only a person who doesn't know shit

Nothing happening, that's about it, ooh yeah yeah yeah

Sam got canned at the cannery

He punched out the clock that night

His knuckle was bleeding as he walked home

He was cold and he had a headache

Well, his wife was cooking canned beans

He took out all the money out of his jeans

And he set it on fire in the kitchen sink

As his wife handed him a drink

He was only a person who didn't know shit

Nothing happening, that's about it, yeah huh

Smiler was looking for handouts

Sleeping in an abandoned lighthouse

Down at the minimall, shaking his hat

Washing windows with his bare hand

He found a sports car with the keys

In the ignition, it just seemed so easy

He took a joy ride, drove it into a hedge

Came out with a steering wheel wrapped around his head

Well, he's only a person who doesn't know shit

Nothing happening, that's about it, ooh ooh yeah

Well Jane was born in a small town

Everybody just standing around

They had bingo games and a raffle

Everybody chewing tobacco

Well, she grew up kind of restless

All her boyfriends wanted to be dentists

'Til she got a job at the truck stop

And she got old fast and never did what she want

She's only a person who doesn't know shit

Nothing happening, that's about it, oh yeah... ooooh