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

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10. Nobody's Fault but My Own
From: Mutations
Single Released: April 21, 1999
452 Points, 14 Votes

surprised this one made it so high, i do like it but didn't make my ballot.

14 Votes is a high, so far, too.

This indie club we frequented in the early '00s played "Sexxlaws" on the dance floor all the time. We can dance cuz were Latino.

"Nobody's Fault" is so lumbering and dour that it lives and dies by the arrangement, and it's got an excellent one.

I wish Chris Cornell had covered it.

https://i.imgur.com/HJisKRE.jpg
9. Devils Haircut
From: Odelay
Single Released: December 11, 1996
480 Points, 15 Votes

Devils Haircut" shows off the Dust Brothers' production techniques at their finest. The song is a mixture of samples, but to their great credit, the song still sounds very much like a band performance.

A quick breakdown of the samples turns up three main ones (there's probably some minor ones!). First is the four-note guitar riff which leads the song. Like some of "Jack-ass," this comes from Van Morrison's great '60s group, Them. They did a lot of covers, and one was a groovy song called "I Can Only Give You Everything." Beck and the Dusties did not literally sample this song, however, but just replayed the riff, giving it more muscle and a fuller sound. Yet another Them cover, this one of James Brown's funky classic "Out of Sight," was also used. From this, they get the drumbeat heard during the verses of "Devils Haircut." During the choruses (and "good drum breaks") though, the drums are courtesy of another song, Pretty Purdie's "Soul Drums." Purdie is a jazz drummer, who calls himself the "most sampled drummer ever."

On top of all this, Beck sings some unique and bizarre lyrics. A bevy of grotesque, Beat-poetic images like "discount orgies," "bleeding noses," "garbage man trees," and "stealing kisses from the leperous faces" are relatively off-putting. Beck uses them to evoke a feeling, a sense of disorientation, "a devils haircut in my mind," the blues.

And it is in true blues fashion that the song is open to so many interpretations. How do you define "the blues"? Its definition seems to vary for listeners and artists. Beck noticed this "vague" quality himself. When asked, he's offered up numerous possible interpretations (from the silly, to the obscure, to the possible). Beck even made fun of it during his appearance on the TV show "Futurama": "What was that song about?"

"Devils Haircut" does contain a number of references to travel or touring, and it has been reported that the song was written just after Beck finished the difficult Lollapalooza tour, which had given him a few months break during the recording Odelay.

One intriguing comment from Beck was that the song was a rewriting of the famous "Stagolee" blues myth:

I don't know if I ever HAD any youthful purity, but I can understand that you might be tempted to make commercial shit and compromise to do it. I try not to compromise on anything. I think we associate becoming an adult with compromise. Maybe that's what the devil is. In 'Devils Haircut' that was the scenario. I imagined Stagger Lee . . . I thought, what if this guy showed up now in 1996. The song had this Sixties grooviness, and I thought of using him as a Rumplestiltskin figure, this Lazarus figure to comment on where we've ended up as people. What would he make of materialism and greed and ideals of beauty and perfection? His reaction would be, 'Whoa, this is disturbing shit.'

He explained the song further as being "a really simplistic metaphor for the evil of vanity."

But of course, in the same interview, he said the song wasn't planned out at all: "I thought 'Devils Haircut' was a really bad lyric. If I can't finish a song, I'll just put in something temporary. That's what 'Loser' was. Then the temporary one always becomes the best one, because it wasn't all thought out."

"Nobody's Fault" is so lumbering and dour that it lives and dies by the arrangement, and it's got an excellent one.

https://i.imgur.com/xTzJ7s1.jpg
8. The New Pollution
From: Odelay
Single Released: February 28, 1997
485 Points, 15 Votes, 1 Number One

"The New Pollution" is one of Beck's hit singles from his 1996 album, Odelay.

Beck was once asked what the new pollution was. His reply, "Human radios, sex with machines, mad eunuchs." Cryptic, but it makes a little sense. He is observing that in modern times, technology and information can drive you mad. It's everywhere, bombarding your senses.

The woman he is singing about in the song, then, is admirably unaffected by the new pollution, and somehow remains pure. Beck himself called it a "love song," and surely there's some admiration, if not actual love throughout the lyrics. It is a great way to frame his point about modern information.

In Rolling Stone in 2008, it was written that Beck was "trying to evoke the Sixties glamour of femme fatales from Nico to Brigitte Bardot" in the line about having a cigarette on each arm. The ability to "throw her troubles to the dyin' embers" is admirable. The image of her being a boat alone in a "stripmine ocean" is wonderful. There's something very comforting in that, if at the same time, slightly dangerous. This is a slanted, but effective, portrait of a femme fatale.

"The New Pollution" is an amazing song, and Beck seems quite proud of it: "...a song like 'The New Pollution,' I mean, pollution, it's a presence in our lives. And isn't it interesting to use a word like that-something with such horrible connotations-in the context of a love song? That's where you create friction. That's where you can start to get someplace where you aren't dealing in the banalities of everyday, pedestrian rock lyrics. Not that I mean to be snobby about it, I can appreciate the good ol' song, and I still like to write that way sometimes." It's interesting to note that Beck uses this type of contrast often, including songs like "Asshole" or "Sweet Sunshine."

Integral to the song's core is the sublime sax sample. It makes the song what it is. More generally, Beck calls the song "inverted funk." He explains, "Some of the other songs are a little bit too loose. We had to pull in the reins, make it a little more tight, bring in the Mormon feel. Mormons are funky."

"Diamond Bollocks" as track 2 might have stuck Mutations with comparisons to OK Computer simply based on its sequencing. I wrongly assumed it was a leftover from Odelay.

Well I know "Fume" and "Forcefield" and "Totally Confused" and about 9 other picks of mine are not making it LOL.

I think it's time for a complete BECK go around for me. Just like I found out with Prince, I think I'm missing out on some jems.

Hey! My #1!

I like Mellow Gold fine but it is what it is, a relatively half-assed debut album powered by a justifiably huge hit single, a couple other decent songs, and a bunch of hastily slapped together filler

You might not like Beck.

Hearing the Jack Ass arpeggios in Them’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” Dover was a real mindfuck for me

is there a comprehensive list of Odelay samples anywhere?

XP to that Devil’s Haircut blurb

i didn't vote for these last two hit songs, i have just heard them enough as great at they are. i just preferred to use more deep cuts when it came to my votes off this album.

NFBMO was down in the lower reaches of my ballot. it's totally not my sort of thing...except somehow it is. way weirder and more luminous than first meets the eye

/ear

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7. Debra
From: Midnite Vultures
Released: November 23, 1999
519 Points, 16 Votes, 2 Number Ones

for all the haters, this video is so great and had to repost:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwXeCuhEch8

Simon H at least it's not #1!

shit, my #5 is either not here at all or it's gone the fuck off

debra is good, memorable, a bit embarrassing etc, didn't vote for it but i respect it

Step inside my Hyundai

good placement imo, not too low & not too high

saw him do this live in '96 and lived on my memories until Midnite Vultures came out, one of the longest times I've ever waited to hear a studio version of a tune I first heard live (see also Pink Martini, who waited for years and years before releasing 'Hey Eugene").

also I fucking love it so so much, the whole "I think" thing totally makes the song (i.e. "I think your nametag said Jenny")

plus "lady, step inside my Hyundai" xp!

very much enjoying the song notes today, Bee

which features a fold-in on the back inside cover of every issue.

pfft at this bullshit though. since 1964 there have been SEVEN issues which did not feature a fold-in!

(one got pulled for school-shooting-related reasons in 2013, but finally run this year: this was the first time since 1997 that the now-98-year-old Al Jaffee had not written and painted a new fold-in.)

Debra is awesome—Clearly inspired by Prince’s Adore, and it gets much closer to the original than it seems like it should

Wasn't the "That was a good drum break" bit borrowed from The Frogs' "I Don't Care If U Disrespect Me (Just So You Love Me)"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lysotgmS9FY

where's it at

i was one of the number one votes for "Debra." seeing it live is what put it over the top for me as well.

Beck had originally attempted to record "Debra" with the Dust Brothers for Odelay, but was either not happy with the recording, or felt it didn't fit on the album, or both. ("I thought it was too jokey," Beck once admitted.) But the song was a natural for the stage: "What happened is we started playing it live and it became the centerpiece of the whole set. It was the song that people would react to more than the songs that they'd heard on the radio. So we kept playing it and playing it." It took on a life of its own, and the energy that was breathed into the song was clearly noted. "I think its life began as being tongue-in-cheek and silly, but somewhere along the way, like the way we performed it every night, it acquired some other dimensions," Beck explained.

When Beck put together the Deluxe version of Odelay in 2006, he mentioned including the original recording of "Debra" as a bonus treat. However, it did not end up there: whether he could not find it or what happened to it, I do not know. Hopefully, he still has it and it can be released sometime.

Anyway, after playing the song live for a few years, Beck went and recorded the song again for Midnite Vultures. In fact, I would not be surprised if the live success of "Debra" drove the direction of Vultures: both the song and album are melanges of soul, funk, humor.

Still, in many ways, the album version does not compare to the excitement of live versions, which could and would go off on tangents on Beck and the band's whims. Nonetheless, "Debra" still shows off many dimensions, including Beck's "seventeen-octave vocal range," his humor, his natural ability with melody, his ease at absorbing influence. The song, as often thought, isn't a mockery either, but a tongue-in-cheek ode to the R&B phenomenon. Maybe it was borne as a bit of a joke, but it ended up more a tribute. As Beck explained, "It's fascinating to me, these guys singing R&B with a very sweet, smooth groove, but they're singing about how they want to get some girl's panties off and do them real good. Very explicit, but very sensitive at the same time. It's a really weird juxtaposition." Musical juxtaposition is basically Beck's main goal (especially on Midnite Vultures), so the song fits perfectly.

"Debra" has grown a lot over the years. One constant (besides the lyrics) is the skanky bass riff, which was lifted from a Ramsey Lewis track called "My Love For You" on his album Funky Serenity. On record, Justin Meldal-Johnsen plays the lick on his upright. I have a feeling that David Bowie's own Vultures-soul record, Young Americans, was a big influence on the sound here, especially the song "Win." Beck has mentioned numerous times R. Kelly's song, "I Like The Crotch On You" being an inspiration, and lo and behold, one of the first lines of that song is "I wanna get with you." Not there originally, the "Lovely lady / Girl you drive me crazy" coda developed on stage, and was lifted in from Kool Keith's "Lovely Lady." Beck of course uses all of these as launching points for his own tale of seduction, and over time, it surely has become one of the classics of Beck's career.

holy heck, "Orphans" hasn't surfaced yet?

is there a comprehensive list of Odelay samples anywhere?

https://www.whosampled.com/album/Beck/Odelay/

Yeah I'm happy to see Debra place where it did. I feel like it nails the sweet spot of what Midnite Vultures was going for, it's funny without being a parody, but also just a really joyful celebration of what's fun about a certain kind of song. I get why some people think why Midnite Vultures might veer too close to mockery or w/e, but imo its impossible to listen to Debra and not think that it was made by musicians who really love that sound

xp thanks!

obligatory:

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

Didnt know about the version from the Odelay sessions mentioned in that blurb! I'd be curious to hear it, but I can also imagine it being a little too much on the jokey side at that point. It's hard to imagine a better version than the Vultures recording

nicely said One Eye Open.

xxxpost

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6. Pay No Mind (Snoozer)
From: Mellow Gold
Single Released: April 1994
521 Points, 16 Votes, 1 Number One

Debra is awesome—Clearly inspired by Prince’s Adore, and it gets much closer to the original than it seems like it should

Great song, weirdly haunting, had to vote

I hate Debra.

I love "Win."

this was number 12 for me, so this placement makes sense.

And the drugs won't kill your day joooooob

Said to be one of the oldest songs on Mellow Gold, Beck has claimed that he wrote it as a struggling musician, at the age of 18 or 19. Beck claimed that the song originally had ten verses, which were cut down for commercial release. On a limited number of Mellow Gold 12" vinyl albums, one can hear a version with an added stanza, which is inserted between the first and second verses of the standard Mellow Gold version.[1] It should also be noted "Got No Mind," a re-recorded, electric full-band arrangement of "Pay No Mind,", features three of the seven verses of "Pay No Mind" that were cut on Mellow Gold and is included on the single for "Beercan."