Girl

My strongest argument is that he’s closing/has closed off all thoughts of his ex.

All the folding in the video is a metaphor for Beck dismissing anything that ever happened with her. In the first part of the lyrics he could be talking about running into her and seeing that she is miserable because she messed up. She has a fake plastic wedding ring on and seems to be generally disheveled – She’s pounding on machines, strutting oddly on a beach. Then in the chorus he says that he knows he’s going to steal her eye -- as in she'll want to come back. But he’s going to make her die and put all memories (soul) of her where they belong. She throws a coin in a dust fountain -- as in she’s trying to make a wish that they'll get back together but everything is dead (dust). All she hears is white noise -- Beck wont respond to her. In fact, she has a ticket for a midnight hanging (he's putting an end to it all) “throw a bullet from a freight train leaving” He's sending her and all her baggage away and anything she can say wont hurt him (throwing a bullet)

There was a lot of imagery in the video. In one part we see a chalking of a lot of rainbows and hearts. One heart even has a BH in it! Then, that chalking folds up to show an outline from a murder scene. In another part beck looks at a sun guard that says “go now, paradise is knocking” and he folds it up to read “no parking!” Could these be symbolic? Is he folding up the promises of paradise, love and rainbows to show murder and denial? The video also features pieced together el camino. A camino is a path or a road. In the end of the video the el camino is toed away and Beck doesn’t seem to care. Maybe that was his pilgrimage away from this girl? Now that path has been crossed and “toed away” so that there is no going back.

This argument seems pretty sound to me but it still leaves a lot of lyrics and images from the video unexplained: 1.) what the hell is he saying -- “my… girl” 2.) bleached bones? 3.) black tongue tied around the roses? 4.) hands tied back and her rags were burning. crawling out from a landfilled life 5.) scrawling name on ceiling

I’m sure I’m missing a lot here. That video is rich with symbolism and imagery. There are completely different explanations out there too.

well the reason on his site he puts "my...girl" is because beck is a genius and wants the true meaning of his songs to be up to interpretation. i personally hear suneyed sometimes but cyanide most of the time. i believe the song is about a murderer stalking a victim and many of the images in the video support this such as the "side effects include death" board in the pharmacy and the chalk outline of a body on the side walk. also his lyrics talk about happy things but have a dark or false twist to them such as a toy dimaond and bones bleaching on a beach. then obviously he talks about fleeing the scene of the crime on a freight train, but hey thats my intrepretation there is no right or wrong answer and thats why beck is such a unique artist.

AAH this song is so...awesome. It is like a modern "Girl From Ipanema", it definately rocks me. The remix is even better (not the one that is on the cd, its on vinyl/online), so check it if you can. For me, Girl is to Guero what Paper Tiger is to Seachange...my favorite.

why has nobody pointed out how creepy the lyrics are to this song?

I still like it though =P

I love how the music and lyrics don't match in this song. The music is like HAPPINESS and the lyrics are like DEATH RARAR I EAT U Theories for the word between my and girl: Summer Sun-eyed Sullen Cyanide

Hey I got a theory: What if the reason Beck hasn't confirmed the lyrics is because he wants us to interpreted them either way? Depending on the word the song's meaning differs drastically.

"Cyanide Girl": Implies suicide, death, making the lyrics very dark. "Sun Eyed Girl": Implies that the girl, although surrounded by dark imagery, sees through and focuses on brighter things.

I think Beck purposely pronounces the word so it could be either, leaving it up everyone to either see the glass as half full or half empty. I go with "Sun Eyed Girl".

Eh? Did I just blow everyone's mind?

After listening to this song "a lot" I've come to the conclusion it's a recreation of a movie called Red Dragon. Or a personality like the character that is the red dragon. Sun eyed girl AKA mirror in the victims eyes... it's like mentally watching a horror flix, but gives you all the reasons to feel guilty listening to it.... Beck is one of the best artist in his made up genre. Setting his his own pace in his own time. There are very few artist that that can do this, like Frank Zappa, unusual lyrics. That make the mind think.

"black tongue tied Round the roses"

This is a fundamentally Goth fashion reference. It's obscure/archaic (as Goth itself can often be), but "tongue" can refer to a broad strip of fabric used to wrap around and bind. ["Her hair pulled back in a ponytail held by a tongue of blue ribbon" for instance.] If it has laces/cord as a double outer binding over the ribbon of fabric, this even more resembles how a shoe tongue looks and works, so drawing the analogy by functionality works.

"Toy diamond ring stuck on her finger" can also refer to the quirky and inventive devices (necessarily cheap because of low discretionary income) Goth girls might use to fancy up their look.

"With a noose she can hang from the sun" sort of sounds like the fascination with death and suicide taken to extremes, with extremes of looking for fresh and quirky was to express an overly dramatic image. Very Goth.

I'm just going to say there is so much Goth imagery and reference probabilities (if you're familiar enough with these kinds of girls) and even Goth styled expression that I think one's mind should be looking for that flavor of interpretation throughout the song.

AAH this song is so...awesome. It is like a modern "Girl From Ipanema", it definately rocks me. The remix is even better (not the one that is on the cd, its on vinyl/online), so check it if you can. For me, Girl is to Guero what Paper Tiger is to Seachange...my favorite.

What is he saying in between "my" and "girl"? It sounds like... summer. Or sunblock. Or sun nar girl.

What is he saying?