Beck: Classic Or Dud

Well both are midgets, so you can compare them. ;)

I think he's kinda cute'n'cuddly.

I don't think Beck is very good at interviews. When ever I see him on the tv being interviewed, it looks like the most awkward experience for interviewer & him. They aren't much fun to read, either.

Beck & Bjork seem to get the most awful descriptions in their writing. "Man(or woman)-child-fetus-space-pixie-cowboy-enigma" This sort of characterization has actually sort of petered off circa Mutations, for Beck. Bjork's still sadly stuck.

He used to be my favorite artist, now I'm not so sure. He hasn't put out an album in far too long. I want to know what he'll try to do. I get the feeling he's just given up. In the meantime, news about him makes me feel weird. Dating Wynona Ryder and becoming a Scientologist.

That said, I didn't listen to his stuff for about a year. I picked it up again about a week ago. The only album that left me with the feeling it used to was "Odelay".

As for Adam and Ben Williams, they need to get their heads on straight. How can judge Beck's character? You haven't even met him. Do you read Q magazine and say, "Hmm, his personality looks one diemensional. And as for Ben Williams, Beck is not even a Scientologist. If your going to make a lame judgement at least get your story straight.

It pisses me off to no end when people associate Beck with irony. Why is it so hard to believe that a young white male might have genuine fondness for James Brown/Henry Mancini/Hank Williams? Why do ppl assume that Beck's bizarre lyrics and, err, interesting wardrobe represent a will to mock the genres he's using, and not just a will to bring his own personality to the fore in the music he loves? Why do ppl assume that just because *they're* cynical and jaded, everyone else must be, too?

I saw Beck on the Midnite Vultures tour. It was wild. It was funky. It was fun. It had every characteristic that a good Funk concert should have, and of course it's miles away from James Brown, but so what? Beck isn't JB, but he can emphasise with Brown's music and bring his own party to it. And yeah, he has a sense of humor, but so do Outkast. So did Sly Stone and Afrika Bambaata and Prince. Were they being "ironic", too?

So, yeah, I find Beck to be a classic. In a biography of his that I've read he says something to the effect that he considers his music to be a big house, and every genre is a different room that's invariably warm and inviting- that's what I love about the man, his enormous capability to embrace every genre you could care to think of and adapt it to his own personality.

Who has Beck influenced?

Most Quirk Pop in general reminds me of Beck- someone's already mentioned The Beta Band. I'd add Cake and The Eels to that list.

I don't think Beck is very good at interviews. When ever I see him on the tv being interviewed, it looks like the most awkward experience for interviewer & him

Taking sides: Beck being interviewed by Thurston Moore vs. Beck being interviewed by Space Ghost. I love both to bits.

And as for Ben Williams, Beck is not even a Scientologist. If your going to make a lame judgement at least get your story straight.

Actually, Beck has expressed an interest in scientology lately. But Prince's a Jehova's Witness, so whadyagonnado...

Generally speaking I'd call that evidence for the prosecution.

so there...

Nardwaur: Beck why should people care about you and not your haircut?
Beck: Fuck off (hangs up)
One of the reasons I heart E more then Beck.

Funny you should say that...

Well, you lost me right there.

Actually, Beck has expressed an interest in scientology lately.<<

Actually, no he hasn't. And he's been more honest about his relationship to Scientology than any one of the 95,000 asinine gossip threads I've read about this.

Wasn't that bit on Odelay?

I don't believe a thing that comes out of his mouth. His music seems to originate in his pinky finger and his big toe. Then he has the nerve to make an ernest, dark album. And we're supposed to dig it?

Cotton candy with hipster flavoring. Irony to the point of nothingness.

Sorry, wrong. That is Beck. You can say the same thing about the first three Beatles albums, although the comparison ends there.

Who has Beck influenced?

Well, me for one. And Radiohead and everyone who has heard his stuff and realizes that there are no boundries to music and that adding a good melody to the sound of breaking glass is a good thing.

His appearance on MTV's 120 Minutes. The one where he and Thurston Moore smash up a phone. So there.

Also, Beck is so classic it hurts.

I think it's kinda cheeky to sample two songs from the same album, and it sucks that Them Again hasn't gotten the recognition it deserves (it's my second-favorite album of '66, behind that one with the goats and the Cooper Black typeface and Brian Wilson on the cover), but hearing "I Can Only Give You Everything" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" in conjunction with "Devil's Haircut" and "Jack-Ass" makes both the Them songs and the Beck songs sound a bit stronger in a complementary way.

I'm there, dude.

If you want to hear a weird stylistic evolution, listen to the way he attempts to sing folk on some of his 1991-92 demos (thinking Don't Get Bent Out of Shape and/or Fresh Meat and Old Slabs here) -- he does just fine as a screaming anti-folk Fluxus psycho ("Fume") but some of the songs which seem to be geared more towards a straight-faced folk/blues/roots sound are almost unbearable; stuff like "Why Can't I Believe In You" are halfway competent but just croaky and nasal enough to make it somewhat grating. It's a voice more suited for singing weird songs about getting cut in half than it is for Woody Guthrie-style folk. Fortunately he got his shit together around '93 or so, when he recorded parts of Stereopathetic Soulmanure and One Foot in the Grave and sung those sorts of songs with a more subdued and controlled voice. (All you have to do is compare his '92 recording of "Hollow Log" from Fresh Meat with the one from One Foot -- though maybe it's part in the recording technique.) Now compare that '93/'94 stuff -- and songs like "Whiskeyclone, Hotel City 1997" and "Ramshackle" (recorded in '94, tacked onto the end of Odelay) -- to "Jack-Ass"... and then compare "Jack-Ass" to anything from Sea Change.

anyone dare argue?

...well founded criticism more than welcome..

So did he, apparently.

purist.
i say 'odelay', of course. 'sea change' is a great record, too, despite the fact that some critics couldn't manage that he was being serious all of a sudden. it didn't fit in with their preconceptions of him so they slagged it with the usual "he's just wearing another mask" type of bla bla.

looking forward to the next one. i hear it's a really upbeat, messed-up record. great!

That's what I remember too. Smokey was also there (not at the very start, he joined him a little later).

A friend just saw him with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. I asked about "Loser," but evidently he played that without the orchestra.

Checking in as also at the Evanston concert in '02! What a great memory, left my body at a few points...

Wish I still had my bootleg of it. The audio quality wasn't great so I deleted it thinking a better one would surface, but it never happened and I haven't been able to find the same recording.

Another thing I remember - it was a sold out show but there was an empty seat in the very front row, right in the center in front of Beck. Beck pointed this out and made a running gag out of it, about how it bothered him and how he wondered what happened to that person. Near the end of the show when he let Smokey take an extended solo, he went down and sat in that seat, even borrowing a pair of sunglasses from the girl next to him because she wore them the whole time and he wanted to see what her POV was like. He was like "this is nice!" and just sat there and smiled while nodding his head as Smokey kept playing.

Poked my head into this thread and unfamiliar with anything post-Odelay so I looked for some 2002 footage and this odd SXSW gig popped up where he's solo acoustic for the first 30mins and then the Flaming Lips join in and are his capable backing band for the remaining 90 mins?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsNNZ5tYNFM

I mean, I first have to admit none of this is appeals to me, but I have to remark how strange to see the FLIPs ca. Yoshimi, some 20 years into their career, playing straight backing band for someone else. Was this their only gig together?

Sorry ACL not SXSW

No, they did a tour like that. Apparently it put Wayne off of Beck and he did some shit talking afterwards. I saw them in Oakland and it was really good, I just wish it had been for a different album. The Lips and Beck sounded great together but that particular set of songs doesn't really take full advantage of the potential mayhem. "Loser" was good.

Ariel Pink opened up and they/he suuuuuuuuuucked.

I did the best parallel parking job of my life before that show. I didn't think there was anyway I'd fit in there and bingo-bango, first try. I will never park better than that.

yeah, i them on that tour - thought it was good.

The Lips put out a lovely live version of "Golden Age" as a B-side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvYxNBx4Sg0

That must be the tour I caught when he came through Atlanta. He cover VU’s Sunday morning on a xylophone

― Heez, Friday, 25 July 2025 02:20 (yesterday)

Goddamn I was at that show and I have no memory of this. I remember some little kid asked him to play Satan Gave Me a Taco

In Oakland someone asked for that and he said something to the effect of “we don’t play that” or something.

I also saw Beck in Oakland but it wasn't with the Flaming Lips. It must have been around '97 or so, great show. He was on top of his game.

Yeah, I saw that xpost Acl (Austin City Limits) ep: first half was good solo, then I was thinking, "Well, that's enough of that," and then he said,"Well, that's enough of that," and brought out the Lips for second half (think it was a whole hour with Beck; it's usually two different headliners). Also enjoyed his seaside set (with his regular touring band, I think at Newport Folk several years late, audio-video streamed on NPR. Rambling Jack Elliot popped up, and Beck greeted him a little shyly; Jack looked like a genial cowboy parrot, digging the music.
I haven't followed Beck, though really liked Mellow Gold, which led me to the Forest For The Trees s/t and a little more subsequent, but seems like Carl's problems caught up with him again.

several years later, not late atall.

My favorite was (and still probably is) One Foot in the Grave, so I was hoping for some of that seeing him solo in '02, but that was the only distraction for me.

You know how some superheroes are regular people who turn into super beings via a simple action or catch phrase? I feel like every time Beck strums an E chord, he turns into Sea Change Beck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuCgArBTl7Q

Actually, maybe it's Beck strumming an E chord and turning into sad Beck Hansen?

My view is that Beck was once Beastie Boys for soft boys and that anything else that followed is less relevant to soft boys

Ever since the war in Iran started I’ve been imagining Trump stumbling around the White House singing “outcome is different than I expected” to himself

You know how some superheroes are regular people who turn into super beings via a simple action or catch phrase? I feel like every time Beck strums an E chord, he turns into Sea Change Beck.

I can't tell if you meant this post as praise.

https://heartleafbooks.com/book/9781668043547

New Beck book by a gal I follow on Bluesky who I like. I haven't followed his music for years but his story is pretty interesting.

That blurb is just a blurb (presumedly not the author’s voice) but it scans as so manipulative and score-settling. That said I’ll def read it, I’m a “passionate fan who got off the bus at Mutations” guy who is curious as to why the toast got milqued

The blurb is awful, not indicative of Josephine’s voice at all.

Good, I Am Glad For That