Beck: Classic Or Dud

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.

Dude got married and became a scientologist and forgot what fuck fun is

Wasn't he always a scientologist?

yes he's born into the church.

I probably would not rate "Black Tambourine" if not for INLAND EMPIRE.

i think it's possible i saw him doing his antifolk thing in NYC in '89-91? When i was at the Sidewalk Cafe to do 5 mins of standup comedy?

otherwise i saw him at M axwell's circa Odelay and he was groovy.

also laffed my ass off first seeing this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdzY49xlvdY

i love that old interview. i loved his Space Ghost appearance too.

why so serious now? Beck was hilarious as fuck.

xenu doesn't like joeks

it's like "That Mellon feeling" has become his MO

Hesitant to put it all on a sciento. People grow boring when they age after all and have kids and mortgages. But I guess more than anything he doesn't see much of anything or anyone outside his sciento world so pretty hard to get inspiration when you are so secluded mentally

iirc he was born into the Church, spent his young adult years kind of avoiding it, ended up coming back around to it and embracing it fully when he married Marisa Ribisi. There was a story Paleface used to tell about Beck in NYC in the early 90s couchsurfing and playing on street corners, but still having wads of crisp hundreds in his wallet, that I think implies that someone in the Church was funding his excursions all along. I dunno, I've read some weird shit on Operation Clambake etc.

People grow boring when they age after all and have kids and mortgages

actually this is backwards, as you get older you realize how boring 20yos are

he was def into it during odelay

and VERY into it during midnight vultures

where can i buy all of his mellow gold-era clothes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNwOJvot5Cc

strong Scientology vibes here w the whole "I feel confident about my career" motivational lyrics. like he's really making fun of the whole thing.

Has he had a plu sign

Plus sign today

Stupid phone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNkOIti-zto

industrial folk! i have a folder called 0000 Beck (Early Beck) that has a dozen or so early tapes and they are all amazing. i have listened to Fresh Meat and Golden Feelings the most but everything is pretty much on those levels. there are some re-recorded songs that appear in different versions. lots of cool sound collage stuff in between the tracks. mixtape style a la Stereopathetic Soul Manure. some minimalist electonic acapella noisey Prince tributes, some really transcendental post-folk as well.

i really love the lofi quality of this stuff. Beck records his voice at different speeds at times, and sometimes it sounds as if the entire track is wobbly. i really love the asthetic. he is a country yokel who found a synthesizer, the kind of misfit stoner troubled white trash kid cartoon character that would be friends with Beavis and Butthead. he sounds so out of it, howling like a drunk train hopper, his voice crackling in a strangled beast yodel. Pee Wee Herman X Tom Waits?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKvmnC7sEok

i like how he really trashes his voice. is it a fluxus technique? it makes me think of Yoko Ono. his folks were all about the art scene back then, i'm sure he had heard those records. i believe he samples his father David Campbell's orchestral compositions at times.

Fresh Meat is still my favorite, mostly cos "Steve Threw Up" is so brilliant and funny and crass. what a great idea for a song.

Yes that early shit is very nice. I like to think of B as broke with his fear and depression fighting it out on tape

Buck Fuck Iowa is great. Satan was way cool.

After many wars, people got bored, so God gave them Jesus. Soon they killed Jesus, and got bored again.

So Satan gave them rock and roll.

Rock and roll became bigger than religion. Everyone wanted to be in a rock and roll band. When Robert Johnson wanted to learn how to play guitar, all he had to do was go down to the crossroads and ask Satan. Satan gave Jimi Hendrix a can of lighter fluid to set fire to his guitar. He even lent Jim Morrison some beads and a pair of leather pants. Satan hung out with all the rock stars. And when they got too famous, or too fat, or their music started to suck, he helped them make the best possible career move. He killed them.

That was so cool.

When the Water Will Take Back the Land feels a lot like early Dylan.

so lol i ended up watching a whole bunch of Beck music videos last night. i've always loved "The New Pollution" ever since i saw it as a kid so i did a lot of reading. Beck directed it himself and there is an animator credited (Andrew Doucette) so alot of things i thought were found footage were likely shot for this video. i wanted to play spot the reference.

we have the dancing girls
https://media.giphy.com/media/EbDtvBwtuE55S/giphy.gif

they are a direct reference to the 1968 Serge Gainsbourg video for "Monsieur William"
https://media.giphy.com/media/UfqyyEq4Tebo4/giphy.gif

we have the Kraftwerk shot
https://media.giphy.com/media/ExgjNz02a9Rvi/giphy.gif

this seems to be a less specific reference. i couldn't find that exact shot but they are wearing the outfits from the "Pocket Calculator" videos. this clip from "We Are the Robots" has that robotic movement. this specific shot is also referenced in "Beercan"
https://media.giphy.com/media/Qlb7uSOdy7nMY/giphy.gif

there are the cool trippy vector animations
https://media.giphy.com/media/47Ysjq2ejjiKY/giphy.gif

these probably refer to 60s computer animator John Whitney Sr.'s 1961 catalog
https://media.giphy.com/media/tOSszzwh1hDz2/giphy.gif

i always wondered what the reference was for the 60s band in the beginning? makes me think of Pink Floyd's "Scarecrow" video where they are just running around in a field. but there are the animal masks. is it the Beatles? Os Mutantes? i've always wondered...
https://media.giphy.com/media/qhyHTOQzLnVOE/giphy.gif

tbf its probably just "random 60s psych band" but it's possible it could be directly based on an earlier music video

HOT MILK