Tag Archives: beautiful freak

#1085: Eels – Rags to Rags

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I’m not sure if this is something I’ve ever talked about on here. For now, let’s say I haven’t. I had a YouTube account from 2008 – 2011 where I uploaded full albums and other various musical related stuff on there. This was back when you could actually get away with that stuff. But one day I went a bit too far, got my final strike and the account was shut down. Terminated. I was devastated. Three years of my life sorta gone just like that. My own fault, I know. Looking back on it, I think it caused slight bout of depression that coincided with my final two years in secondary school. It wasn’t a fun time. I was still going through that when listening to Eels’ Beautiful Freak album in September 2012. How am I so specific with the month? Well, ’cause it was a year on from when YouTube took my channel down. ‘Novocaine for the Soul’ I’d known prior to that first full listen to the album, but it was ‘Rags to Rags’ that seemed to capture how I was feeling at the time.

The track is written from the perspective of a guy who looks in the mirror, doesn’t think much of what he sees and has something of an existential crisis despite having gone through the ideal American Dream of coming from nothing to suddenly having everything he could ever want. All this is spurred on by the sight of a lone spider crawling on the reflection of the narrator’s eye. Singer/guitarist E might just be singing about himself on this one, correct me if I’m wrong. He’s fulfilled his dream, but still feels worthless like a bunch of rags and rust, coming to the conclusion that this ‘dream’ was ultimately pointless. The only time he gets some solace is in his dreams when he thinks of his hometown, reminiscing about the railroad tracks (something he’d sing about again later in the band’s material) and the pussy willow (something I didn’t know existed until I heard this song).

It’s been 11 years now since that first listen. Some ways it really feels like that amount of time has passed, in others it feels like it was just last week. Either way, the song still provides that feeling-down comfort, even if its lyrical subject matter is a bit of a downer. Some good alternative rock music right here. ‘Rags’ was released as a single in 1996, and from what it looks like a music video was made for it, but the complete version of it seems to be wiped off the face of the earth. You can see a good portion of it, but its beginning and end are missing. Funnily enough, the video finishes before E delivers the line about the American Dream not meaning ‘a fucking thing’. Surely that’s just coincidental, right? If anyone from Eels is reading, let’s get the video back.

#952: Eels – Novocaine for the Soul

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‘Novocaine for the Soul’ is the first song on Eels’ debut album Beautiful Freak and was the band’s first released single back in ’96. It introduced the world to the detached outlook on life taken by frontman Mark Oliver Everett, commonly referred to as E, a theme would carry on throughout a lot of the band’s work. As a ’90s baby myself, I wouldn’t have come across the song until way later, most likely when its video showed on MTV2 out of the blue one day. The visual of the three band members floating in the air was quite the suitable accompaniment for the music, even if the video static censoring of the word ‘fucking’ in there is a bit much. I’ve had the imagery from the video in my head whenever I hear this one.

What the narrator is this track is asking for when they refer to ‘novocaine for the soul’ is basically anything meaningful to get at the least a bit excited about. I don’t know if the opening lyrics are ‘iconic’, I think that’s words thrown around a lot these days. But an opening line of “Life is hard, and so am I/You better give me something so I don’t die,” that’s a pretty good way to start things off in my eyes. Sets the scene straight. He’s a simple man who doesn’t want to die too soon. He knows he’s gotta go someday, but before then could someone give him something to be happy about. There’s a whole bunch of sarcasm going on, but it’s also very sincere in its ways which was what the ’90s in music was all about when it comes down to it.

Track’s got a nice groove, one that I don’t think you’d usually expect from the usual alternative rock of the ’90s. The three-piece of £ on guitar, Tommy Walter on bass and Butch on drums really lay down that foundation. What properly sets the track apart is the inclusion of these grand strings that appear throughout. Not sure whether it’s a real string quartet or a string-setting on a Mellotron. If it’s the latter, they certainly sound very real. Think that may be down to Jon Brion’s hand in the production. Looking at the things he’s worked on, he’s always been handy in getting some good-sounding strings on a song.