Geen hairmetal, maar wel hairsongs krijgt u deze week voorgeschoteld. Stond u even op het verkeerde been?

Midden jaren negentig was Beck Hansen all over the place met een eclectische, inventieve mix van hiphop, blues, folk, pop, elektronica, rap en garagerock met als hoogtepunt 'Odelay' uit 1996, dat met de medewerking van The Dust Brothers, die ook van 'Paul's Boutique' van Beastie Boys een hoogmis van geniale afwisseling edoch focus hadden gemaakt.

Ook tekstueel ging Beck zich te buiten aan het bizarre. In Devils Haircut wemelde het van de poëzie in de vorm van "discount orgies", "bleeding noses", "garbage man trees", and "stealing kisses from the leprous faces", die Beck gebruikte om een gevoel van stuurloosheid op te wekken: "A devils haircut in my mind". Of zoals hij zelf beschreef: "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" ".

De belangrijkste riff van de song is "I Can Only Give You Everything" van Them, de Belfast rhythm & bluesgroep van de jonge Van Morrison in 1965. Julian Cope gebruikte de riff ook al in Reynard The Fox in 1984. Beck nam Devils Haircut samen met New Pollution op in twee dagen, vlak nadat hij uit de Lollapalooza-tour van 1995 stapte.

Mike Simpson, één helft van the Dust Brothers, legde uit dat vele gitaarsamples eigenlijk geen samples waren: "It's Beck playing guitar. Basically we'd sit and listen to records and Beck would go: "Oh I really love the guitar sound on that song", and he'd start playing it. Beck had this broken twenty watt amp and we plugged it in and moved the mic around, and ran it through one of our little distortion pedals until we got the sound we were looking for. Then we'd record him playing. We had a pretty primitive recording setup back then." Verduiveld chique liedje desalniettemin...

Capital Cities - Farah Fawcett Hair (2013)

Beck - Devils Haircut (1996)

Sufjan Stevens - Springfield, Or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught In

Pavement - Cut Your Hair (1994)

America - Sister Golden Hair (1975)

LCD Soundsystem - Emotional Haircut (2017)

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Almost Cut My Hair (1970)