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?
Listen[]
Sing It Again
Tracks
- 1: Cold Brains - 3:41
- 2: Nobody's Fault but My Own - 5:02
- 3: Lazy Flies - 3:44
- 4: Canceled Check - 3:14
- 5: We Live Again - 3:05
- 6: Tropicalia - 3:20
- 7: Dead Melodies - 2:36
- 8: Bottle of Blues - 4:56
- 9: O Maria - 3:59
- 10: Sing It Again - 4:19
- 11: Static - 5:18
- 12: Diamond Bollocks - 6:02 (unlisted)
B-Sides
Black Balloon • Diamond in the Sleaze • Electric Music and the Summer People • Halo of Gold • One of These Days • Runners Dial Zero