Beck: Classic Or Dud

a bunch of those extra tracks were singles/b-sides (I don't have them all but I do have a bunch) - good period for him

Give the finger to the rock 'n' roll singer, as he's dancing upon your paycheck. The sales climb high through the garbage-pail sky. Like a giant dildo crushing the sun.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, August 3, 2016 2:12 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol I quoted this to my favorite English prof in college -- he was one of those "I don't watch TV or listen to popular music" types and I wanted to show him that there are like artists today who get it, man, or something.

Lol. That takes me back. Didnt have internet in '94 yet. Me and a pal were listening to Loser on my walkman during biology class, trying to decipher and write down the lyrics (they were in the Mellow Gold cd booklet we got a month later). Got suspended for not paying attention.

What did your teacher make of your effort?

I think he wrote back (email) "Sounds like this Beck is one of us," or something to that effect. I don't think he would have said anything quite as corny as "one of us." He was a fan of Mark Leyner and had this one Jerry Garcia quote about poetry that he would refer to a lot even though his cultural knowledge otherwise stopped at the moment Dylan went electric, so I thought maybe he'd like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v_dng3X7mk

It's just the shit-kicking', speed-taking'
Truck-driving' neighbors downstairs
Yeah...yeah

Whiskey-stained buck-toothed
Backwards creepw
Grizzly bear motherfucker
Never goes to sleep

Literary my own neighbour. I'll give him that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmCcCrPmyAQ
my favorite thing of his. everything after mellow gold is supremely uninteresting imo.

Odelay has its moments. And his channukah rap was sublime. But that's about it.

"Go on mutherfucker! Put your clothes on!"

I always wondered if this was an actual fight B had in pre-fame LA slumming it phase

I believe its for real, but Beck was not involved.

was quite surprised to see our boy featured on the Flume record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_6In1gr36A

not sayin' it's good or anything. It does amuse me. I mean.. imagine making a dance record, ponderin' who we gonna call. we need a great singer. Beck!?!?!

Mellow Gold is my fav Beck record. Have a soft spot for Midnite Vultures

Midnite Vultures is probably my favorite, some worthwhile stuff after Sea Change as well but I have mostly lost interest

yeah i have no interest in hearing anything post-Sea Change, for some reason. his 90s work still sounds fabulous, though. personal favorite definitely Odelay. i recall Stereopathetic Soul Manure being completely batshit and sprawling and fun but it's been a long time since I last heard it.

Stereopathetic Soul Manure

his most "lol 90s" record imo. Reflects that intersection of amateurish flailing + willful sloppiness + "check out how annoying THIS sound is"-style pseudo-avant-garde shenanigans to "freak out the squares" that was in vogue and registered as "challenging" at the time. Contains a lot that qualifies more as sound collage or noise experiment than song, and feels like it's trying to be confrontational as a result. I like a fair chunk of it, but it's more interesting as a cultural relic than as a collection of music that is enjoyable to listen to.

Supposedly the argument from "Truckdrivin Neighbors Downstairs" was a portion of one of many, many actual arguments had by Beck's downstairs neighbors at the time. This particular one got so loud and violent he couldn't record anything in his apartment, so he recorded the fight instead. Legend has it that the fight ended in the street, with a battle axe involved.

yeah i have no interest in hearing anything post-Sea Change, for some reason. his 90s work still sounds fabulous, though. personal favorite definitely Odelay. i recall Stereopathetic Soul Manure being completely batshit and sprawling and fun but it's been a long time since I last heard it.

― brimstead, Thursday, August 4, 2016 10:02 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Same. Love everything up until Sea Change, but with that record it all became full circle: he'd recorded everything, every style, he is capable of. Everything after that has always felt like repetition of something he's done already. But everything up to and including Sea Change is classic imho.

Remember ordering Stereopathetic cd at my go to record store. It was like they were trying to find the holy grail, lol, took absolutely aaaaages for them to finally get that imported.

I'm an alien from another sphere

kind of want to revisit One Foot In the Grave now -- deeply loved that album in college and then somehow just tossed it and never thought about it again.

Extra tracks on that one kinda forgettable but one track, Your Love is Weird, includes some low energy beer/fear and cash/stash couplets

One Foot in the Grave is also v lol 90s but has actually good songs on it

Beck sort of invented lol 90s

Stereopathetic will probably always be my favorite, if only for the juxtaposition of the absolutely chaotic swirling conclusion of "Pink Noise (Rock Me Amadeus)" into the smooth classic Nashville sounds of "Rowboat", one of the best songs he ever wrote

Johnny Cash thought so, too.

odelay dates a bit better if you delete all the songs with rapping.

Modesto is pretty nice as well. love that pedal steel.

Beck had an awesome ear for sounds

Anyone ever heard this Lonnie Smith album Boogaloo to Beck?

https://open.spotify.com/album/5kyJQJqRYP2TlCtvwprAkf

what the hell leave lonnie smith out of the beck thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyCkhPTU13w

...

o_o

cool video. too bad about the song tho

was trying to think of what the beat reminded me of - "Drop It Like It's Hot"?

disappointing

yeah it's the Neptunes-fill. very generic, at this point.

i feel like Beck channeling Madonna's Don't Tell Me with his lasso moves.

He was briefly a lot of fun, wasn't he?.

Good write-up and fine choices if Mutations hadn't been made ;)

I saw him at lollopalooza in 95 and he was awesome, a whirling dervish dust cloud spinning across the stage, leaping up into the air getting juiced up behind belief

“My natural bent can go to an acoustic thing, melodic, much more introspective.” But for his new record, in the works for four years and scheduled to come out this spring, Beck has finally realized that “really happy” set of songs. He says these are the hardest to write.

“It’s much easier to go out and get really down. There’s a multitude of things that will oblige you in misery in the culture and there’s only so many that will produce true happiness. It’s like comedy. Comedy is harder in that only certain things are going to make you laugh. I think it’s closer to the child nature in us, which the culture, for a lot of reasons, will discourage or crush. Or you mature out of it in other ways. I see it with kids. There’s that age where if you let that personal joyous side of yourself out, it’s almost more vulnerable than being emotionally vulnerable, like if you’re going through something difficult. It’s not the most clever, sophisticated part of you, but it is the most joyous.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/t-magazine/beck-tom-waits-kendrick-lamar.html

Hmmm, wait and see

No "Jack-Ass" or "Mutations"?? :-/

i've revisited "Morning Phase" and it's way less interesting now that the novelty (the novelty of it being insanely boring) has worn off.

It was never interesting imho. Dude got married and became a scientologist and forgot what fuck fun is

I think being a scientologist almost qualifies anyone for instant dud status

Morning phase seemed like a dull attempt at Pink Moon part deux

How does it compare to Sea Change?

Stick with Midnite Vultures

Morning phase seemed like a dull attempt at Pink Moon part deux

Spoken like someone who has never actually heard neither Morning Phase nor Pink Moon.

No "Jack-Ass" or "Mutations"?? :-/

― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross)

I've got a few Mutations tunes on there

is 'diamond dogs' supposed to be 'diamond bollocks' in which case yes, yes i fully concur

"Minus" and "Diamond Bollocks" are top 5 for sure.

"Outcome" too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwG52KzCOa4

Ah shit, sorry Alfred - being a dolt. I love "We Live Again" and "Diamond Bollocks" blew me away as a teenager hearing that rip through the end of the album

How does it compare to Sea Change?

Sea Change is a lot better, it has more depth, in the string arrangments, in the vocals even. Morning Phase is just a lazy sunday morning record. So I guess at least the title was apt.

Morning Phase is just a lazy sunday morning record.

Not a bad thing. Pairs well with coffee and the morning paper.