Cause when our POLL did meet, Girl you know I was packin' heat! - ILM Artist Poll #97 - BECK (Voting is open until Saturday, June 1, 2019)

Whiskey-Stained Buck-Toothed Backwoods Creep: The Beck Poll.

bad pun derived from artist lyric >>>>> random cool artist lyric. i don't know how this is even an argument. maybe this particular bad pun for Beck could have been improved (I do prefer "JC POLL-ney") but either is way preferable to even the best lyrical snippet.

i always forget how energetic a performer he used to be

― ufo, Tuesday, May 21, 2019 4:49 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i saw him live a few years ago and: he still is!

bad pun derived from artist lyric >>>>> random cool artist lyric. i don't know how this is even an argument. maybe this particular bad pun for Beck could have been improved (I do prefer "JC POLL-ney") but either is way preferable to even the best lyrical snippet.

― Evans on Hammond (evol j), Tuesday, May 21, 2019 7:57 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Like a POLLL...that's ripe for the votin'

Soy Un POLL-dedor

lol

Beck's lyrical snippets are almost uniquely suited to make good thread titles, but yeah I'm on team bad pun all the way.

Seeing him in 1998 with the Odelay band was one of the most fun & energetic shows I've ever seen. But then I saw him a couple times when he did the tour with Flaming Lips a few years later and he seemed like he was about to fall asleep onstage both times, just completely checked out. I'm not really interested in the new album but I've heard that the shows have been super fun, which is good to hear.

both shows I saw were killers where he just tore it up. Odelay tour in '96 was total insanity with a packed house, first time I heard "Debra" and it stuck in my head for years. then I saw some gig post-Sea Change/Lips tour and it was great again, they opened with "Novacane" and did a buncha Midnite Vultures tunes before he did his sleepy acoustic interlude, then back to more full band action.

My ideas have been polly rejected.

Everybody's Out to POLL YOU Motherfucker

ILX Makes me wanna smoke crack

I'm a loser babe so why don't you poll me?

Don't...Let...The Sun...Catch Ya...POLLIN'

^^ "Deadweight" (where that lyric is from) is a great non-LP single

People roll their eyes when aging artists enter their "great American songbook", but Beck is one artist where I would be way into it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcmmw5HNGOY

Objections stated, but if you've gotta go that way, I like WmC's title.

So meta
Let’s poll a title too

Clementa, I will take it under consideration but I think you're being outnumbered on this one.

Add stupid auto check, I corrected the name three times and it still reverted back

I have been listening to just random songs and there does seem to be some gems in his later work. Will see if it is enough to actually make my ballot.

Clementa's at peace--carry on.

Hope "Pay No Mind" finishes high. Love the video, love the non sequiturs, and most of all love the harmonica, as plaintive and indelible as Dylan in '64 or Toots Thielemans' Midnight Cowboy theme. (I've often thought that Beck has a Midnight Cowboy undercurrent running through some of his work--"Pay No Mind," the "Devil's Haircut" video [where he makes like Joe Buck walking around New York], the mood of "Jackass," maybe more.) Never tire of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d5ZAzrZ94Y

never heard this alt version of Jack-Ass before, really lovely and anticipates the sound of Sea Change except much better than he later did it

https://foxsports-wordpress-www-prsupports-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/PHOTO-Buck-HS-727x727-480x480.jpg

i always forget how energetic a performer he used to be

I remember really enjoying him on Reverb around that time (back when that was my main frame of reference for live music).

speaking of alternate versions - I have distinct memories of a drastically different version of "Soul Suckin' Jerk" with different music and the verse order reversed. Anyone know what I'm taking about?

Satan gave you a taco?

Upon re-reading the lyrics this joke doesn't make sense. Sorry.

a little research has informed me that this is the "Reject" version from the Loser EP. worth a listen.

I had that Loser EP at the time and it kind of melded with Mellow Gold in my mind, I probably dubbed them onto the same tape. Always preferred that reject version of Soul Suckin Jerk, hard to go back to the album version when you know there's a version that ends with a 2-minute organ and trombone breakdown out there.

similarly, "Got No Mind" >>> "Pay No Mind"

i decided to grab a CD on my commute to work today, so i pick Mutations. i had totally forgot about the bonus track and it's actually pretty good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=HeohGiH6v9g

oh, it's called "Diamond Bollocks"

yeah it was on a bonus 7" that came with early vinyl pressings, along with the B-side "Runners Dial Zero"

I was totally obsessed with Beck B-sides and ephemera all the way up to Sea Change, AMA

Runners Dial Zero” will definitely be on my ballot, possibly fairly high. An incredible song, performance, and recording imo. There’s such a wealth of amazing outtakes and bsides from that pre Sea Change period.

"Diamond Bollocks" might be my favorite Beck song tbh

B-side etc. "Search" recommendations:

Clocks
Corvette Bummer
Mexico
Got No Mind
Halo Of Gold
Devil Got My Woman
Dirty, Dirty
Midnite Vultures
Salt In The Wound
Diamond Bollocks/Runners Dial Zero
.000.000
the amazing Cornelius remix of "Mixed Bizness"

I sleep in slime iirc

What about Arabian Nights? B at his best lyrically and the beat is aight too.

https://youtu.be/K5irVZljrFY

Bazookas and fisticuffs medicating in Porches
98-karat stick shift, Chinatown late-night meals
Alfonso giving me a backrub, 2 pm laser vizzaginal rejuvenation
Triple album project, detonatin' tracks like these
Magnums and barrettes, part-time hostages in pottery classes
Blind date at the wax museum
Norwegian hockey players passed out in government limos
Prime ministers with cryogenic faces
Louis Vuitton suitcases
Autographs and paid vacations
Divorce papers and synthetic lubrications
Playin' you like top-40 stations, ah you know the deal

Arabian nights
White satellites
Voodoo is tight
Like a sleek diamond ice

Airbrushed memories strewn like pamphlets into fifth Mississippis
Time-lapse footage of duct-taped lies
Animal frequencies pinching deodorized nerves
Cosmetic procedures on the cartilage of apocalypse
Mannequin tycoons with airport piano bar mystiques
Remodeling conjugal amaracus, flexing like suburban Spartacus
Getting smacked up by unemployed hand models
Running out into the middle of traffic with Beaujolais bottles

Shout Out to "Fume"!

xp Diamond Bollocks is one of the GOAT

xp I never realized "Devil's Haircut" video is a Midnight Cowboy homage til now.

I take it the Noel Gallagher remix of "Devils Haircut" will not figure.

driveby body POLL

this is probably missing the point but i wish there were an entire album of screaming noise rock beck a la "mutherfucker" "pink noise" back half of "fume" etc.

and "Spanking Room"!

anyway the b-side i would like to rep for is "thunder peel," both in stereopathic and odelay forms

wait there's an Odelay version ?!?!?

that song rules, definitely making my ballot

check out the deluxe version of odelay!

just looked it up, whoa man I have gotta get that!

never heard either "Inferno" or "Gold Chains", this makes my day

oh it SOUNDS great, there's just not a whole lot there once you listen past the (admirable) production

finally got my ballot in

Voted. Enjoyed listening to Beck again :)

I'll be getting one in later, before midnight EST!

Midnite Gold > Mellow Vultures
That’s my philosophy, Marty

imago and all other last minute people, the deadline will be extended overnight but i will close this poll when i wake up tomorrow.

it SOUNDS great, there's just not a whole lot there once you listen past the (admirable) production

Ballot sent! (Unranked, but I never would have gotten it submitted otherwise.)

OK now I'm mad I didn't submit an all-Mutations ballot
― Simon H., Saturday, June 1, 2019 3:47 PM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same y’all sleepin

“bottle of blues” ffs

"Tropicalia"!! "Sing it Again"!!! gah

Sent!

I keep trying with 'Mutations'. It's not hate at all--it's just. . . nothing? I listened to the album yesterday and the day before in full, along with tons of other Beck, and I literally can't remember anything besides "Nobody's Fault," which I like fine but it seems like a lesser version of the "Blackhole" or "Ramshackle" mode. I'll keep trying. . . but no tracks made my ballot.

"cold brains" is one of his very best, at least

I guess what's sort of striking me is it's the one album where his homage to various styles just makes me want to listen to the originals? Like, what is he really adding? "Sing It Again" just makes me want to listen to Willie. "Tropicalia" makes me want to listen to Brazilian musics. "Bottle of Blues" makes me want to listen to Skip Spence or Syd Barrett. "We Live Again" and "Dead Melodies" makes me want to listen to Arthur. "O Maria" makes me want to listen to early Tom Waits or Harry Nillson. "Canceled Check" makes me want to listen to "Rowboat," "Nobody's Fault" makes me want to listen to "Blackhole" or "Ramshackle".

I wish when I was 19 when it came out, it had been a gateway album to more of its source music, which other albums of his had been, but it just didn't click enough to get me searching.

None of it is bad at all, it's all perfectly lovely (though "Static" is a bit of a snoozer to end with--the hidden track is the best thing on the album). The album just seems to lack the energy and unique perspective of most other Beck (including the low-key 'One Foot in the Grave'). Like, "Paper Tigers" is pure homage, obviously, and yet it's so perfectly executed and has tons of verve and swagger and so doesn't make me just want to run to Gainsbourg/Vannier.

Not trying to tussle, just working through thoughts here : )

all confirmations emails have been sent.

btw, rollout is now going to start on Tuesday.

Roll Out ... Safely to the shore...

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