Lyrics:

The Song:

This touching dirge is one of the more personal songs Beck has ever written. The emotion and focus of the song is about Beck's grandfather, Al Hansen. Al was a semi-famous artist, known for avant-garde performance art, as well as his odd collages and sculptures. He would use trash like candy wrappers or cigarette butts to make his art. As Beck remembers, "One of his grand statements was that he was an alchemist?he could turn shit into gold."

It should be obvious how that is a big influence on Beck, who does similar things with many of his collage-like songs. Not here though: "We Live Again" is one of the most straight-forward recordings he's ever made, and it doesn't sound like there are many overdubs. Roger Manning's lovely harpsichord leads the group, which is a complete change of pace, as well. Beck's father, David Campbell, also adds a very subtle orchestral background.

The first lines refer to Al Hansen's art ("sifted through sand and leftover nightmares. . .turns shit to gold") and his influence ("blows my soul crazy"). The second verse seems to be about the bohemian, artistic lifestyle that Al Hansen pioneered. It could refer to Los Angeles, but the line "Stink like colognes from a new-fangled wasteland," using a little wordplay, might point the song towards Germany. Back in the '80s, Al Hansen opened an art school in Cologne, Germany. Beck spent a little time there as a teenager, as well.

The song works as more than just being about Al, especially in the chorus lines "The end of the end / We live again / Oh I grow weary of the end." I read those lines as a comment about the everlasting nature of an artist's work.

Also the "wildernesses burn" phrase originally showed up in this song back in 1997 (about 14 months before recording Mutations).

Live:

Played live 53 times:
Earliest known live version: January 10, 1999
Latest known live version: May 22, 2003

1999 MUTATIONS tour

"We Live Again" was played at most of the shows of the short Mutations tour.

2000 VULTURES

The Vultures tour saw but just a couple of "We Live Again"s. Beck played it alone, during his acoustic set on May 31 2000, in Tokyo. He played a very minimal, quiet guitar line, which allowed for his voice to be the highlight. It was a beautiful performance, though he seems to forget what the bridge is and he stops after the first two verses (it had been awhile since he played it, I guess). It is nice to hear songs like this in the acoustic set from time to time, instead of always getting the same song.

2000-2001 after VULTURES

After the Vultures tour, Beck mellowed down by doing a few shows opening for Neil Young, some benefit gigs and a few other stops around California. "We Live Again" certainly fit the mood of many of these appearences, and it was played fairly regularly. The fragileness of the song is best shown at the ArtistDirect concert on October 3 2000. During the "turns shit to gold" line, the song falls apart into laughter. They try to get it going, but cannot, and give up until returning to it for the encore. This time it goes off without a hitch.

An expert performance of "We Live Again" on just an acoustic guitar was played on November 3 2000, at Beck's annual stop at KCRW in Santa Monica, CA. It's quite a brilliant rendition, delicate yet confident. Beck's skills are always getting better, and when he's stripped down to just a guitar, you can really feel it.

The song fit well into the many acoustic sets Beck regularly played.

2002-2003 SEA CHANGE tours

"We Live Again" is not far from the mood of the newer Sea Change songs, so it was again a natural and fairly regular inclusion on the August 2002 tour with Smokey Hormel. Beck would play it solo acoustic, and sometimes Smokey would add some guitar.

A full band arrangement of the song returned in the fall of 2002 with the Flaming Lips. They have a good handle on the song, and played it regularly.

Beck did attempt the song at the first two shows with his summer 2003 band, but it did not last past that, as they went for a more rock and funk set.

2003 solo tour of Europe

Beck returned to doing "We Live Again" solo acoustic on this tour in April and May 2003.

2003 summer tours

Beck's 2003 summer band tried this out at the first two "secret" club gigs they did. However, I don't think it fit the show they were taking on tour, and it was never played at a main show.