Beck Song Information

Written by: Beck Hansen

Alternate Titles:

a.k.a. Lonely Boy Blues
a.k.a. Together We Found Misery

Versions:

Woe (2:03)
Available on Banjo Story.
Credits

Beck Hansen: Guitar (Acoustic), Harmonica, Vocals

Lyrics:

Woe [Version (a)]:

I found you, you found me
Together we found misery
And I'm all bent up

I was here, you were gone
I was right, but now I'm wrong
Wrong wrong

I was true, though I lied
You can keep the blues
I'm gonna catch that train and ride

I been taking all of the blame
All your so-called lovers
Can go back from where you came

Happy skull, just a head
He can smile
Though he's dead

The Song:

"Woe" is one of my favorites of Beck's blues songs. Here, even at this young age (18), Beck shows off the dedication and work he put in to performing blues and folk songs. Much of the lyrics are blues-simple (that's a compliment), but he has also added his own personality. The first verse ("I found you, you found me / Together we found misery") and the last ("Happy skull, just a head / He can smile though he's dead") combine Beck's own style with the blues.

The line "I'm gonna catch that train and ride" is a very common blues one. Beck probably got it from one of his long-time favorites, Mississippi John Hurt, who had a song called "Got The Blues, Can't Be Satisfied" which included the lines:

Got the blues, can't be satisfied
Keep the blues, I'll catch that train and ride

This is a very commonly performed phrase, but Hurt's version is most like Beck's with the "keep the blues" preceding the "train" line. Beck would use these lines at the end of his rap on the John Spencer Blues Explosion track, "Flavor".

The best part about Banjo Story is that shows off many of the directions Beck could have expanded on as he grew (and he often did just that!). This is a direct ancestor of songs which would come later like "Hollow Log" and even much of Sea Change.

Live:

No live versions are known.

Notes:

The list of titles on the actual Banjo Story artwork are cut off by the printer when it gets to this, the last song. One cannot decipher what the actual title is, except that it is short, about four letters long. "Together We Found Misery" is an excellent name, though it was courtesy of the person who first began circulating Banjo Story on cd.

There is another bootleg tracklisting that was circulated which refers to this song as "Lonely Boy Blues."

UPDATE: a sharp-eyed Beck fan figures that this song was intended to be called "Woe." It certainly fits with the parts of the letters you can see on the cover, as well as the lyrics of the song.