Beck unplugged - Modern Guilt / Orphans / Gamma Ray (ft Jessica Dobson, lyrics below)

Modern Guilt (album title track) / Orphans / Gamma Ray (2008, lyrics below) No copyright infringement intended.
Performed for KCRW's 'Morning Becomes Eclectic' (2008)

MODERN GUILT

I feel uptight
when I walk in the city
I feel so cold
when I'm at home
Feels like everything's
startin' to hit me
I lost my bearings
ten minutes ago

Modern guilt,
I'm stranded with nothing
Modern guilt,
I'm under lock and key
This apprehension
turned into convention
Don't know what I've done
but I feel ashamed

Standing outside the glass
on the sidewalk
These people talk
about impossible things
I'm falling out
of the conversation
Like a pawn piece
in a human shield, oh

Modern guilt
is all in our hands
Modern guilt
won't get me to bed
Say what you will,
smoke your last cigarette
Don't know what I've done
But I feel afraid

Da da da
Da da da
Da da da
Da da daaaa...

ORPHANS

[Beck reportedly said: "This whole idea of these orphans (from a documentary on Sudan that really moved him), it's a metaphor... Right now, in this country, just watching what's going on over these years, there's a certain amount of us who don't feel a part of it, who can't help but feel alienated. You love your country, but... there's a certain amount of us who have been orphaned from the powers-that-be, the status quo, the center, or whatever you call it. There are a lot of us who feel like we're wandering or we're not quite at home anymore... I was just trying to sum up that feeling - that feeling of: 'If it were to all end right now, would it really matter?' Trying to find a home. That's why people came to this country in the first place. It's a strange thing when you become a stranger in your home, and then you're an orphan again. Hopefully the pendulum swings, and when it does, I'm gonna hang on to it..."

The lyrics immediately reminded me of these lines from William Blake's poem 'Auguries of Innocence' (also the title of a book of poetry by singer-songwriter Patti Smith): "To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour." - Mohican http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguries_of_Innocence ]

Think I'm stranded but I don't know where
I got this diamond that don't know how to shine
in the sun where these dark winds wail
These children leave their rulers behind
As we cross ten leagues from a rubicon
With matchsticks for my bones
If we can learn how to freeze ourselves alive
We could learn to leave these burdens to burn

Cast out these creatures of woe
Who shatter themselves
Fighting a fire with your bare hands

Now my journey takes me further south
I want to hear what the blind men sing
With their fossils and their gypsy bones
I'll stand beside myself so I'm not alone
How can I make new again what rusts every time it rains?
And the rain, it comes and floods our lungs
We're just orphans in a tidal wave's wake

If I wake up and see my maker coming
With all of his crimson and his iron desire
We'll drag the streets with baggage of longing
To be loved
Or destroyed
From a void
To a grain of sand in your hand

Ahhhh
Ahhhh ooh ooh
Ahhhh oooh ooh
Ahhhh oooh ooh

GAMMA RAY

If I could hold hold out for now
With these ice caps melting down
And the transistor sound
And my Chevrolet terraplane
Going around around around

Come on little gamma ray
Standing in a hurricane
Your body's bored
Like a refugee
From a house that's burning
And the heat wave's calling your name

She's got on a cactus crown
With a dot dot dot on her brow
And she speaks inside a cloud
With her countenance turning around

Come on little gamma ray
Standing in a hurricane
And I'm pulling out thorns
Smokestack lightning out my window
I want to know what I've lost today

Come on little gamma ray
Standing in a hurricane
When your body's bored
Like a refugee
From a house that's burning
And the backwater's calling your name

Listen to Beck's interview with NPR's 'All Songs Considered' hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton on his new album 'Morning Phase'...the creative process, effects of internet criticism on musicians, musical influences (on the day Pete Seeger passed away), the joy of reuniting with his band and playing Morning after a long hiatus due to a back injury, how a book about Elvis inspired the song Blue Moon: http://bit.ly/1fkqg0l
Part 2 here: http://bit.ly/1hyYtMQ
Part 3 (NPR 'Morning Edition' interview): http://bit.ly/1msJN0k
Full 'All Songs Considered' conversation at http://n.pr/1bnLTIb
Mohican's 'Voices of Dissent' playlist: http://bit.ly/1d5BLo5
Beck's 'Morning Phase' and 'Sea Change' on Spotify:
http://playlists.net/beck-sea-change-morning-phase

Instant music downloads, tickets and more:
http://beck.com
http://youtube.com/beck
http://twitter.com/beck
http://facebook.com/beck

Видео Beck unplugged - Modern Guilt / Orphans / Gamma Ray (ft Jessica Dobson, lyrics below) канала A Mohican