Originally, the lyrics to 'Girl' were really upbeat, and then it didn't work for me somehow. You need the dichotomy. If you're doing something happy and light, you need the shadows. That was something that the Pixies did so well. Frank Black is a genius at these happy songs, and then you listen to the lyrics and they're based on (Spanish film director Luis) Bunuel films of cows' eyes getting cut.

• A word about the chorus is necessary. Initially, we had a report of a song called "Summer Girl." Then when the unmastered version of Guero leaked, we matched it to this song, naturally. Only thing was, Beck doesn't really sound like he's singing "summer girl." So, confusion.
  
  Then when Guero was officially announced, the title was changed "Girl." Clearly, that's an inferior title to "Summer Girl," so fans were baffled. Or at least I was. Anyway, we still weren't sure what the chorus was! Beck.com confirms that the early name of the song was indeed "Summer Girl," but it's fairly clear now that is not the chorus.
  
  Beck led us on, as in the liner notes of the album, the chorus is printed as "My...girl." Like that, ellipses and everything. Thanks Beck.
  
  So now we're stuck with lots of theories until someone can straight-up ask Beck, and gets a real answer in return. I'm kind of feeling that it's "cyanide girl" from listening to a bootleg or two; it fits the lyrics, imo. Since this is my site, that's what I'm putting in the lyrics above. Others hear "sun-eyed," or "sinner," or even "cyan eyed." Also one theory is that it's "Masonna girl." Some probably still hear "summer."
  
  UPDATE: Beck was finally asked by a journalist about the lyrics. He's not talking. Neither is his keyboardist, Brian LeBarton, by the way. This is what was written:
  
  Equally unclear is the chorus to Beck's current single, "Girl," a lovely summertime jam which appears to be about killing a girl. In the Guero liner notes, the lyric is written as "Hey, my ... Girl," and Beck isn't about to fill in that ellipsis. In fact, in traditional Beck style, he's claiming that the whole thing is the result of a stream-of-consciousness, off-the-cuff ad lib. Which he decided to leave in, since it fit with the song's overall vibe.
  
  "In the studio I was just vocalizing, 'cause I have the melody but hadn't written the lyrics. Sometimes when I have the microphone I just make up words and I try to go with what sounds good. So that was just me improvising, and we ended up leaving it like that. So what you hear is basically the first time I recorded it," Beck said. "It's kind of a love song, mixed in with some grit and some mystery. Using different words and images to describe the feeling. It's a raggedy love song."
• Early names for the song include "Songy" and "Summer Girl," but in the end, it got changed to the simpler "Girl."