Beck sings this song with a fake stutter. He explained to the Metro newspaper June 29, 2008: "On 'Gamma Ray,' I added some fake stuttering; I was trying to sound as bad as I could, for a laugh. I like pop songs where everything's unexpected, otherwise things get too heavy-handed and meaningful.'"
Gamma Rays are very high frequency radiation emitted by the nuclei of radioactive substances during decay. Fortunately most cosmic gamma rays cannot pass through the Earth's atmosphere as due to their high energy content, they can cause serious damage when absorbed by living cells. Beck appears to be using them as a metaphor in this song that deals with environmental matters.
Beck told Entertainment Weekly about this song: "I wanted this one to have the feeling of one of those Chuck Berry songs that straddles the line of being a song about cares, but then resonates with something else you can't put your finger on."
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