Beck: Classic Or Dud

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!

1.) I'm trying to figure out what song I recently saw Beck perform on an old SNL. It was with a backing band of about 5 or 6 people (with female vocalist(s)) and was really funky-like. My guess is that it was definitely post-Odelay but pre-Sea Change. It was very good.

2.) Does anyone remember that NY Times Magazine article a few years back that had a graphic of what songs were on Beck's iPod? By chance does anyone know if it is posted somewhere online?

I thank you.

Beck's 198-Track Mind
Published: March 17, 2002, Sunday

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

No, that's not being ironic. That's being retarded.

uh, he was pretty much born into scientology

Candycane Shim-sham

by Beck

Candy-cane shimsham
love to make the door jam
up until the sun rise
thinking 'bout fruit pies

planning for the end days
taking in some heat rays
making all the girls cry
waiting til the pearls dry

ETC. WHATEVA

and the remix album? yipes.

please mentally remove the plural that was a copypaste mistake

re: beck, I also liked his cover of Skip Spence's Oar.