Deep Fried Love
By: Beck Hansen

Written by: Beck Hansen

Alternate Titles:

a.k.a. Fast Food
a.k.a. Grease

 
Lyrics:
Deep Fried Love [Version (a)]:

Hello. How're you doing?
Hi. Is this pizza? Yeah, I'd like to order a pizza.
Hello. Hi. Pizza Time? Can I have a pizza?
I'd like to have a large pizza. Do you deliver?
Hello, is this Pizza Time? Do you deliver?
Do you deliver? I'd like to order a large pizza, please.
Hello, can I have a pizza?


Dunk my heart in a vat of lard
It's gettin' all crispy and it's gettin' all hard
Deep-fried love, come on, give me the grease!
Shove that hamburger down your throat
Pass the ketchup, I can, I won't, I don't

Life is short, can I have it to go?
If it's not in the TV Guide then I don't know
Buy buy buy a lot of junk to fill up the time
Shove that chicken wing down your throat
Pass the bucket, I can, I won't, I don't

Shove that hamburger down your throat
Pass the ketchup, I can, I won't, I don't
 
The Song:

"Deep Fried Love" is one of the better songs on Fresh Meat and Old Slabs. This tape was a bootleg compilation Beck made of his own recordings and tapes to give to his mother for her birthday. It's not clear where all of the tunes originated. Some came from Golden Feelings' sessions, some from Don't Get Bent Out Of Shape, some from wherever. Beck surely had a lot of songs and tapes lying around.

Anyway, there are two sides to this catchy folk song. The first verse sounds like Beck wrote it at one of his fast-food mini-mall soul-suckin' jobs. It's not bitter about it like "Soul Suckin Jerk" might be, but silly: "Dunk my heart in a vat of lard / It's gettin' all crispy and it's gettin' all hard."

The second verse stays a bit silly, but now is a commentary on modern society. Not to get too deep about it, but
Life is short, can I have it to go?
If it's not in the TV Guide then I don't know
Buy buy buy a lot of junk to fill up the time
is a strong observation about stripmall commercialism and the modern suburban lifestyle. Beck was a big observer of this in some of his early works, and I love the simplicity in how he expresses it here.
 
Notes: