To me, this will always be THE Beck song........

This is one of my boys' favorite songs. When they hear the slow strums begin, they tell me what's coming. A long time ago, I talked with them about what the phrase meant: "Nobody's fault but my own." It's song about admitting when you did wrong, about how it makes you feel, about how you can apologize, make things right. It's a challenge I try to praise for them.

People can suspect what they want about Beck's spirituality. He grew up in a Scientologist family and married a Scientologist. But as his albums should make clear, his true religion is Musician. He is a creator, one of the most gifted we will ever know. He fully understands artifice, the strategies of persuasion. And that includes the stories of our spiritual gurus. He is a guru all his own.

The words of this song are Ecclesiastical in weight, with better wordplay:

"Who could ever be so cruel,
Blame the devil for the things you do
It's such a selfish way to lose
The way you lose these wasted blues
These wasted blues"

And:

"When the moon is a counterfeit
Better find the one that fits
Better find the one that lights
The way for you"

There is unsurpassable power in the melodies of this song. The exquisite drones of sitar and strings impute the import of this message. When the refrain returns in harmony at the end, I am ready to be saved.