Lyrics:

The Song:

"Round the Bend" is a bit of a downer, but still quite a great song. The strings and guitar are reminiscent of a Nick Drake song (check out "River Man"). The lyrics are also easily labeled Drake-ish. But that's ok. As usual, Beck doesn't overdo his influences. There's still enough of himself in the song, which has a similar aura to "Nobody's Fault But My Own" that it is one of the centerpieces of Sea Change. As Beck admitted before playing "Round the Bend" on August 28, 2002: "If you fall asleep while listening to this song, then it's working."

The song was previewed on stage on February 26, 2002, about a month before the song was recorded. There were a few different lyrics in it than there are in the final product. "Faster than any bullet / From an empty gun" was originally "You never will reveal / What you're hiding from." Also the "Make their daggers sharper / Then their faces tan" was "It is getting darker / Beauty is hard to tell." The end of the second verse was at first "paradise is cruel / when you're only going / round round..." instead of the repeated "loose change" lines. I definitely miss the "paradise is cruel" line, which was a great one. The "bullet" and "dagger" lines are interesting additions though.

A live version of the song was released on RollingStone.com. It was the performance recorded on August 16, 2002 in Cambridge.

Live:

Played live 49 times:
Earliest known live version: February 21, 2002
Latest known live version: September 20, 2008

Premiered on February 21 2002, along with the song "Guess I'm Doing Fine." That first night, it was just Beck on acoustic guitar and Justin Meldal-Johnsen on stand-up bass. The later three performances were done with a fuller band, though even there it's pretty sparse.

The August 2002 tour saw "Round the Bend" played as a duet with Smokey Hormel. Smokey played his Les Paul guitar with a violin bow, to simulate the heavy strings of the record. They played it every night.

The tour with the Flaming Lips in October 2002 continued with "Round the Bend" appearing frequently. The first seven shows all heard it, then not at all for the last four. Then on the second leg, it all but vanished. I think the shows have tended to get more upbeat as the tour went on, so stuff like this was left back. For the most part, the song was done by Beck alone on guitar, but the Lips did a very subtle arrangement of lead guitar slides.

Lately though Beck has basically stopped playing this, which is a little surprising considering how regular it was for a few months. It seems like it will more likely show up when the occasion calls for it from now on, instead of being played with any sort of regularity.