I met you...at JC POLLney - ILM Artist Poll #97 - BECK - the Results Thread

xp whoa I would not have guessed that, thought it came from a kid's record or TV show. do you know what the instrumental bed is?

xp "Asshole" is my #1 Beck song. Voted it #1 and no I'm not "taking the piss" lmao

Up On the Hill by Monk Higgins is most of it

Xp

The synths n sitar stuff is probably overdubbed by Beck and co., dont think those are a sample. None of this is meant as a criticism of the song on my part btw

I've seen the Beck Futurama episode so many times, it's taken over all previous associations I had with this song.

That was a washboard break!

Recap:
Recap
Recap:
21. Mixed Bizness 276 10
22. Rowboat 272 8 1
23. Lazy Flies 262 8
24. Ramshackle 260 8 1
25. Asshole 257 9 1
26. Hotwax 255 9
27. Guess I’m Doing Fine 248 9
28. Fuckin With My Head (Mountain Dew Rock) 230 8
29. Milk & Honey 221 8
30. The Golden Age 218 8
31. Lonesome Tears 215 8
32. We Live Again 214 7
33. Tropicalia 213 9
34. Lost Cause 205 6
35. Sweet Sunshine 202 6 1
36. Paper Tiger 198 6
37. I Won’t Be Long 192 7
38. Truckdrivin' Neighbors Downstairs (Yellow Sweat) 191 7
39. Get Real Paid 189 6
40. Soul Suckin Jerk 182 6
41. Mutherfucker 181 5
42. Whiskeyclone, Hotel City 1997 180 6
43. Blackhole 179 5
44. Sing It Again 163 5
45. Sunday Sun 162 6
46. High 5 (Rock the Catskills) 161 6
47. Little One 146 5
48. Chemtrails 140 6
49. Thunder Peel 136 5
50. Peaches & Cream 133 5

sorry for the triple post, that's weird.

didn't mention this before but for a while Mountain Dew Rock was my most-obsessed-over song on MG, a perfect angry breakup jam, it was in my top ten

i still don't quite get all the Sea Change complaining, i largely agree that the album's too much of a dirge as a whole and his lyrics were much more interesting when they weren't so sincere, but most of the tracks on their own are good to great - well arranged, pretty melodies etc. it doesn't even seem like anything from it is going to make the top 20!

but then again i still don't quite get Mellow Gold either, i can respect the idea of "Sweet Sunshine" but it's not something i'm ever going to want to listen to unfortunately

Melodies?! If I want pretty melodies, I'll listen to Britney. Beats, baby!

Rowboat
Fuckin With My Head
Sweet Sunshine
Motherfucker
Thunder Peel

Most happy to see these so far. I had no idea what to expect.

Doesn’t look like my #1, a deep cut from Guero (which has otherwise never been a favorite record), has a chance of making it, unfortunately.

i still don't quite get all the Sea Change complaining, i largely agree that the album's too much of a dirge as a whole and his lyrics were much more interesting when they weren't so sincere, but most of the tracks on their own are good to great - well arranged, pretty melodies etc.

You're not wrong ufo - most of the songs are pretty good on their own, and nothing on it is really embarrassing or terrible. I think if he had released a highly regarded album of loud weird funky party jams the year after it people would probably have a bit higher esteem for Sea Change now, and look at it as a tasteful addition to his discography rather than an inflection point where he Got Serious.

This poll has inspired me to give a close listen to a lot of sea change tracks for the first time in a long long time, and made me realize that for me, a lot of the issue isn't necessarily the material, but the production, which sounds extremely dated to the early 2000s in ways that dont hold up for me. Listening to Lost Cause when it came up in the poll, I was simultaneously thinking that the song was better than I remembered, and also couldnt believe how distracting all the constant whooshing noises and bleeps and blorps and snippets of distorted vocals and backwards moans were, filling up every inch of the mix and every moment when Beck's not singing. For my ears, they just went way overboard with that stuff in a way that really pegs it to that time period of people going bananas with ProTools. Thats why the live versions of a lot of those songs sound a lot better to me. And I get that they were going for that, but I just think the shelf life of that sound has ended up being pretty short for me.

thewufs I placed a Guero deep cut very high on my ballot, curious to see if we picked the same one

I hope so!

my own #1 is technically a deep cut but it's definitely placing

one eye open otm about sea change's production

I really liked the production at the time! And I'm still a proponent of maximalism obviously - but yeah, much of the album comes off a tiny bit stodgy these days

again it'd be great in isolated moments but it's one huge yawn over 52 minutes

i love "lonesome tears" though and i'm glad it placed, i could not fit it into my ballot at all but i'd say it was the beck song that was stuck in my head the most during this process

first, thanks to those who have been keeping Spotify up to date!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ji3OOkQQzplwXxyZZFt49?si=kFH3qAtASoC3CwXdQRUZaA

Top 20

https://i.imgur.com/QgWn6Tf.jpg
20. Sissyneck
From: Odelay
Single Released: June 17, 1997
287 Points, 9 Votes, 1 Number One

Before performing the song in concert in 1997, Beck said, "This is a song about not being afraid to be whack."

He also said of the song, "It's the morning after a full night of line dancing and cocaine. It's the achey-breaky heart after the triple bypass. It's a get-together at the recreation center Ping-Pong tournament."

"Cause everybody knows my name
At the recreation center"

heyyy my number one. it snuck up on me during the voting process. the sly stone sample is so joyful. beck has a kinder interpretation of the song than i had when i was listening. i thought it was about a total toolbag who thinks he's hot shit

https://i.imgur.com/1SaDEQ4.jpg
19. Hollow Log
From: One Foot in the Grave
Released: June 27, 1994
293 Points, 10 Votes

my #2, perfect in every way

thats funny voodoo -- i guess youre right, but still feel like its kind of a warm portrayal. Like the singer is a blowhard bending your ear at the bar who everyone rolls their eyes at, but he's funny and him and his dumb friends have a good time at the rec center, no harm no foul

glad to see hollow log made the top 20, totally haunting

also, this one of my fav beck lyrics:
If I could only find a nickel I would pay myself off tonight
Cause nobody knows when he good times have passed out cold

one eye open, i guess that's true--the sly stone sample makes it seem like he's a bit of a clown, but a fun one. amazing song, either way.

hollow log was my #5

https://i.imgur.com/zItRSdr.jpg
18. Girl
From: Guero
Single Released: 4 July 2005 (UK)
340 Points, 11 Votes

a jump in points.

one of the best Guero tracks for sure

i had to make room on my ballot for "Girl," i just had to.

The music video for "Girl" was directed by Motion Theory.

In the video, Beck gets a limousine advertisement entitled "Lester's Big Ass Limousines...Moving Party For Hire" which folds to become "Less Is More". Later on, Beck is in a pharmacy, buying an over-the-counter drug. When he is looking at it, the walls and floor fold, making a skull with red eyes on the shelves and a sign above that saying "Side Effects: Death". The next fold is at what seems to be a garage sale. There is a painting of the Virgin Mary on the wall, which then folds. In the foreground, two toy cars have been folded together. Beck is seen later on in the video driving the car that looks like the car that this fold makes. The next fold takes place on a sidewalk, where a little girl is doing a chalk drawing. She sets down the chalk and walks away, the side walk folds and it takes the form of human outline, with police and the yellow tape around it. The fold after this one is a homeless person begging on the corner when Beck is driving by. The man holds a sign in his hand which says "Loose Change OK Allan's Anyway". The man proceeds to fold the sign, which now reads "Look Away". Later in the video, a sign is folded together to form the words "Where It's At" with 2 records and a microphone, which is in reference to the Beck song of the same name.

The 1972 El Camino Beck is driving in the video has the license plate "3CK 61RL".

MAD references in the video
When Beck is looking at the TV, when the screen's image folds in it says "Al Jaffee", and at the very end where he sits on the bench, the fold-in reveals an Alfred E. Neuman smile. The very use of fold-in scenes is itself a tribute to MAD, which features a fold-in on the back inside cover of every issue.

listening now to remind myself - it's an effective pop song

HEYYYYY MASONNA GIRL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylDuOmEoZx0

A word about the chorus is necessary. Initially, we had a report of a song called "Summer Girl." Then when the unmastered version of Guero leaked, we matched it to this song, naturally. Only thing was, Beck doesn't really sound like he's singing "summer girl." So, confusion.

Then when Guero was officially announced, the title was changed "Girl." Clearly, that's an inferior title to "Summer Girl," so fans were baffled. Or at least I was. Anyway, we still weren't sure what the chorus was! Beck.com confirms that the early name of the song was indeed "Summer Girl," but it's fairly clear now that is not the chorus.

Beck led us on, as in the liner notes of the album, the chorus is printed as "My...girl." Like that, ellipses and everything. Thanks Beck.

So now we're stuck with lots of theories until someone can straight-up ask Beck, and gets a real answer in return. I'm kind of feeling that it's "cyanide girl" from listening to a bootleg or two; it fits the lyrics, imo. Since this is my site, that's what I'm putting in the lyrics above. Others hear "sun-eyed," or "sinner," or even "cyan eyed." Also one theory is that it's "Masonna girl." Some probably still hear "summer."

UPDATE: Beck was finally asked by a journalist about the lyrics. He's not talking. Neither is his keyboardist, Brian LeBarton, by the way. This is what was written:

Equally unclear is the chorus to Beck's current single, "Girl," a lovely summertime jam which appears to be about killing a girl. In the Guero liner notes, the lyric is written as "Hey, my ... Girl," and Beck isn't about to fill in that ellipsis. In fact, in traditional Beck style, he's claiming that the whole thing is the result of a stream-of-consciousness, off-the-cuff ad lib. Which he decided to leave in, since it fit with the song's overall vibe.

"In the studio I was just vocalizing, 'cause I have the melody but hadn't written the lyrics. Sometimes when I have the microphone I just make up words and I try to go with what sounds good. So that was just me improvising, and we ended up leaving it like that. So what you hear is basically the first time I recorded it," Beck said. "It's kind of a love song, mixed in with some grit and some mystery. Using different words and images to describe the feeling. It's a raggedy love song."

"my sonar girl" - the song is sung from the perspective of a blind man who uses his partner's high-pitched clicks and squeaks to echolocate his way around

https://i.imgur.com/Nz5k3EW.jpg
17. Steal My Body Home
From: Mellow Gold
Released: March 1, 1994
341 Points, 10 Votes, 1 Number One

There it is, my #1. Goes from awesome terrifying freaked-out horror-psych Americana to...junkyard carnival party grinning insanity, seamlessly, and it's like that bone becoming a spaceship, it's perfect. Sweet dreams!

great choice for a number one, seems like a imago pick. :-)

it has all the qualities of great literature in the music, let alone the words! it finds some fundamental quality of human darkness! well done Beck!

from YouTube:

I'm surprised the story has been lost that this is a reworking of "In the pines" by Leadbelly, from the point of view of the headless body.

He mentions losing his head under the train wheels, he mentions the pines, and the song finishes with him playing the chords to the original song.

Almost my number one. I love when he busts out the sitar. Good description imago. It almost feels like some kind of thesis statement for the whole album - rustic mardi gras emerging from futuristic bleakness

whoa @ that youtube comment o_0

Do not understand the love for all these Sea Change and Mellow Gold tracks

YEAH THAT'S MY SHIT

The change-up on this song is amazing