Sorry Odelay fanatics – Beck has admitted that the lyrics to tracks like The New Pollution and Devil’s Haircut were ‘scratch vocals’. In other words, complete nonsense.
“Most of the vocals on [ Odelay ] were scratch vocals,” the singer told Rolling Stone. “We just grew attached to them.”
As you may well know, scratch vocals are placeholders: filling in gaps during recording while the artist thinks up the real words. Obviously Beck and his studio buddies decided their absurdity was inspired.
UK newspaper The Guardian reported on Beck’s admission, and checked songmeanings.net to see what people were saying about Odelay’s oblique wordplay. Theories on the true meaning of The New Pollution include everything from unrequited love to erectile dysfunction. Now we can add “intentional bullshit” to that list, although admittedly it doesn’t have quite the same ring.
