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Deadweight (song)
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Wikipedia article
"'Deadweight'" is a single by Beck, taken from the soundtrack to the film 'A Life Less Ordinary'. The song was nominated for Best Song from a Movie at the 1998 MTV Movie Awards but lost to Will Smith's "Men in Black". The song can also be found on the deluxe version of 'Odelay'.
Background
Beck recorded "Deadweight" with the Dust Brothers between 'Odelay' and 'Mutations'. It was released on the soundtrack to 'A Life Less Ordinary' at the end of 1997. In contrast with the buoyant, lively melody, Beck adds his own Gram Parsons-style hard-luck lyrics about gambling, Las Vegas, and loneliness. Beck has mentioned that this song was a part of his "Brazilian trilogy". Unlike "Tropicalia", which is a bossa nova song, "Deadweight" uses its Brazilian influence more as part of a larger funky brew. As Beck said in 'USA Today', "I'm trying to get to a place where this merging of styles is so fluent and natural that you don't notice the different snippets, a musical consciousness where there's no preconceived ideas". An edited version without the synthesizer noise breakdown coda was also put out as a single.
Structure
Beck recorded most of the song by himself, playing bass, keyboards, drum machine, and all the guitars; though the scratching is uncredited, it was most likely one of The Dust Brothers, who produced the track.
"Erase the Sun" and "SA-5"
The remaining two tracks on the single"Erase the Sun" and "SA-5"provide direct links to 'Mutations' with lyrical fragments that would end up almost word-for-word in future songs.
Track listing
# "Deadweight" (edit) - 4:07
# "Erase the Sun" - 3:16
# "SA-5" - 1:52
Personnel
*Beck Hansen vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, organ, mellotron, synthesizer, piano, production
*The Dust Brothers turntables, drum machine, production
Music video
The song's music video was directed by Michel Gondry. It features Beck - who lives in a paradoxical world - working at a desk on the beach, then going on holiday to an office. He eventually ends up at a movie theatre showing 'A Life Less Ordinary'. The video is intercut with scenes from the movie.
Charts
In the United Kingdom, the song reached number 23 on the UK Singles Chart. In the United States, it charted on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, peaking at number 16. In Australia, "Deadweight" peaked at number 73 in January 1998.
References
Category:1997 singles
Category:Beck songs
Category:Songs written for films
Category:Music videos directed by Michel Gondry
Category:Songs written by Beck
Category:1997 songs
Category:Geffen Records singles
Category:Song recordings produced by Dust Brothers
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