In January 1967, the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco popularized hippie culture, leading to the legendary Summer of Love on the West Coast of the United States, and the 1969 Woodstock Festival on the East Coast. Hippies in Mexico, known as jipitecas, formed La Onda Chicana and gathered at Avándaro, while in New Zealand, nomadic housetruckers practiced alternative lifestyles and promoted sustainable energy at Nambassa. In the United Kingdom, mobile "peace convoys" of New age travellers made summer pilgrimages to free music festivals at Stonehenge. In Australia hippies gathered at Nimbin for the 1973 Aquarius Festival and the annual Cannabis Law Reform Rally or MardiGrass. In Chile, "Festival Piedra Roja" was held in 1970 (following Woodstock's success), and was the major hippie event in that country.
Hippie fashions and values had a major effect on culture, influencing popular music, television, film, literature, and the arts. Since the 1960s, many aspects of hippie culture have been assimilated by mainstream society. The religious and cultural diversity espoused by the hippies has gained widespread acceptance, and Eastern philosophy and spiritual concepts have reached a wide audience. The hippie legacy can be observed in contemporary culture in myriad forms — from health food, to music festivals, to contemporary sexual mores, and even to the cyberspace revolution.
Nitemare Hippy Girl
Beck Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I got sucked inside of her apartment
She's got dried-up flowers, flaky skin
A beaded necklace and a bottle of gin
She's a nightmare hippy girl
With her skinny fingers fondling' my world
She's a whimsical, tragically beauty
Self-conscious and a little bit moody
It's a new age letdown in my face
She's so spaced out and there ain't no space
She's got marijuana on the bathroom tile
I'm caught in a vortex
She's changing' my style
She's a nightmare hippy girl
With her skinny fingers fondling' my world
She's a whimsical, tragically beauty
Uptight and a little bit snooty
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
She's a magical, sparkling' tease
She's a rainbow choking' the breeze
Yo, she's busting' out onto the scene
With nightmare bogus poetry
She's a melted avocado on the shelf
She's the science of herself
She's spazzing out on a cosmic level
And she's meditating with the devil
She's cooking salad for breakfast
She's got tofu the size of Texas
She's a witness to her own glory
She's a never-ending story
She's a frolicking depression
She's a self-inflicted obsession
She's got a thousand lonely husbands
She's playing' footsie in another dimension
She's a goddess milking her time
For all that it's worth
In "Nitemare Hippy Girl", Beck describes a peculiar girl who has taken him by surprise. The singer of the song gets sucked into her apartment and realizes she is not what he expected her to be. The girl has dried-up flowers and flaky skin, and she possesses a bohemian style with a beaded necklace and a bottle of gin. Although she is a hippy girl, she is not easy-going, and she is self-conscious and moody, which makes the singer feel that he is in a new age letdown.
The song ridicules the girl's behavior and lifestyle, making fun of her and describing her as a spacy and snooty character. Beck emphasizes the girl's peculiar traits, such as cooking salad for breakfast, having tofu the size of Texas, and being a witness to her own glory. But despite her quirky and self-indulgent ways, the singer finds her attractive and gets caught up in a vortex that changes his way of life. The overall message of the song is that even though the girl may not be what he had in mind, the singer is still drawn to her.
Line by Line Meaning
She took me off my guard with disappointment
She surprised me in a negative way
I got sucked inside of her apartment
I got caught up in her world
She's got dried-up flowers, flaky skin
She has dead flowers and dry skin
A beaded necklace and a bottle of gin
She's wearing a necklace made of beads and has a bottle of gin
She's a nightmare hippy girl
She's a difficult to deal with hippy woman
With her skinny fingers fondling' my world
She's messing with my life and personal space
She's a whimsical, tragically beauty
She's a beautiful yet troubled person
Self-conscious and a little bit moody
She's insecure and has mood swings
It's a new age letdown in my face
She's a disappointment in the era of new age thinking
She's so spaced out and there ain't no space
She's aloof and taking up all the room
She's got marijuana on the bathroom tile
She has a mess in the bathroom with some cannabis on the floor
I'm caught in a vortex
She has me in a whirlwind of emotions
She's changing' my style
She's influencing the way I dress and present myself
Uptight and a little bit snooty
She's uneasy and somewhat pretentious
She's a magical, sparkling' tease
She's a charming but misleading person
She's a rainbow choking' the breeze
She's overwhelming and suffocating
Yo, she's busting' out onto the scene
She's making herself known
With nightmare bogus poetry
She's expressing herself in a way that's insincere
She's a melted avocado on the shelf
She's a wasted potential
She's the science of herself
She's obsessed with figuring herself out
She's spazzing out on a cosmic level
She's freaking out in a grand way
And she's meditating with the devil
She's engaging in reckless behavior
She's cooking salad for breakfast
She's doing something unconventional with her morning meal
She's got tofu the size of Texas
She has an absurd amount of tofu
She's a witness to her own glory
She's proud of herself
She's a never-ending story
She's a constantly evolving person
She's a frolicking depression
She's actively enjoying her sadness
She's a self-inflicted obsession
She's her own problem
She's got a thousand lonely husbands
She has many admirers who are unhappy in their relationships
She's playing' footsie in another dimension
She's emotionally distant and uninvolved
She's a goddess milking her time
She's taking advantage of every moment in her life
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Beck Hansen
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind