Devils Haircut Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Something's wrong 'cause my mind is fading
And everywhere I look there's a dead end waiting
Temperature's dropping at the rotten oasis
Stealing kisses from the leprous faces

[Verse 2]
Heads are hanging from the garbage man trees
Mouthwash jukebox gasoline
Pistols are pointing at a poor man's pockets
Smiling eyes ripping out of his sockets

[Chorus]
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind

[Verse 3]
Love machines on the sympathy crutches
Discount orgies on the dropout buses
Hitching a ride with the bleeding noses
Coming to town with the briefcase blues

[Chorus]
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
[Verse 4]
Something's wrong 'cause my mind is fading
Ghetto-blasting disintegrating
Rock 'n' roll, know what I'm saying?
And everywhere I look, there's a devil waiting


[Chorus]
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind
Got a devil's haircut in my mind

[Outro]
Devil's haircut in my mind
Devil's haircut in my mind
Devil's haircut in my mind

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About

Genius Annotation

Devils Haircut is Beck’s second single supporting his 1996 studio album Odelay.

Similar to most of Beck’s songs on Odelay and surrounding material, a good deal of this song is sample based. The drums in the chorus and drum breaks come from Pretty Purdie’s “Soul Drums”.

The drumbeat during the verses comes from Them’s cover of James Brown’s “Out of Sight”.

The guitar riff was taken from another Them cover, of “I Can Only Give You Everything”. However, Beck plays this riff on the guitar, rather than sampling it.

The music video was directed by Mark Romanek.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did Beck say about "Devils Haircut"?
Genius Answer

Beck once said that “Devils Haircut” was a look at the myth of Stagger Lee: “I don’t know if I ever had any youthful purity, but I can understand that you might be tempted to make commercial shit and compromise to do it. I try not to compromise on anything. I think we associate becoming an adult with compromise. Maybe that’s what the devil is. In ‘Devils Haircut’ that was the scenario. I imagined Stagger Lee … I thought, what if this guy showed up now in 1996. The song had this Sixties grooviness, and I thought of using him as a Rumplestiltskin figure, this Lazarus figure to comment on where we’ve ended up as people. What would he make of materialism and greed and ideals of beauty and perfection? His reaction would be, ‘Whoa, this is disturbing shit.’”

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