Beck: Classic Or Dud

Never saw the pants-wetting deal about this schmuck. Ween is far better and funnier. Mixing genres of music is nothing new and it's NOT an indication of genius.

Two Beck questions:
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.

Belatedly, here is the answer to question 2 (a graphic in PDF):

Out of the 8,000 songs Beck has downloaded onto his hard drive, he's got a rotating mix of hundreds on his iPod that he updates daily. This is what Beck was listening to on Feb. 27, 2002

this thread is sad.

Standing in your office trying to talk to anacondas
Eking solace from the sawdust while your doppelganger stands topless

The Charlotte Gainsbourg album is really good

I was obsessed w everything he did right up until Sea Change. B-sides, mixtapes, all that stuff. Everything I've heard since then is just so dull and boring. The b-sides of Midnight Vultures are probably the apex of his studio career.

Also, OTM on the greatness of "Beercan".

man One Foot in teh Grave and Mellow Gold are still super-duper classic to my ears. i liked Odelay, Mutations and Midnight Vutlures to varying degrees.

Could be a complete coincidence, but it seems like the wind went right out of his sails when he went public as a you-know-what.

yup

Mutations was the first record I ever reviewed (school paper), they didn't ask me back when I panned it

Mutations is probably my favorite of his, love the Bayou/Speakeasy kind of vibe than runs throughout.

One Foot in the Grave is the only Beck album worth listening to anymore.

there's a fume
in this truck
and I don't know if we're dead
or what
the fuck
is go-ing onnnnnnnnnnnn

Steve Threw Up is great too. Plus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co4iSYZAJXE

His 2 verses on the Childish Gambino track are really good!?!? Wish the old Beck would come back and kill new Beck

with a taser gun

stuff salad down his throat and infect his entrails with aphids

Wish the old Beck would come back and kill new Beck

New Beck is Old Beck, who killed Young Beck.

Running through the minimall in my underwear

lol I am the only person on this board who likes Guero

duh

I like all of his post-Midnite albums to varying degrees, but there was a definite dropoff in quality.

Beck is probably the only musician i thought really highly of at 15 that i have no particular affection for, nostalgic or otherwise, now (those records still sound fine, but not as good as they used to)

Same.

Just realized 'Debra' is basically Bowie's 'Win'

Quite a few of his songs from Midnite Vultures on are very derivative of other tunes, e.g.:

Dark Star: Stevie Wonder - Have A Talk With God
Round The Bend: Nick Drake - River Man
Cellphone's Dead: Herbie Hancock - Chameleon
Paper Tiger: Serge Gainsbourg - Melody
Chemtrails: Aphrodite's Child - The Four Horsemen

There are probably more that I don't recognise.

TS: sampling songs vs. using them as jumping off points for originals

lifting the 'win' riff for debra = classic

thx to finefinemusic for the tip on this: http://soundcloud.com/jaylaporte/beck-i-just-started-hating

Beck recently collaborated with Jack White to release a new single on Third Man. The 7″ features the new tracks “I Just Started Hating Some People Today” and “Blue Randy.” White produced both songs, playing drums on the latter and adding “punk vocals” to the former. “I Just Started Hating Some People Today” begins as an old-school country jaunt that suddenly switches up into hardcore punk, and becomes a funky porno groove at the end.

Sounds like crap.

OTM on whoever said Beck became a victim of Scientology, right after Midnight Vulture.

he never wasn't

yeah I don't think that has much to do with it

Maybe he just started sucking.

np JF! If that came on the radio, only a word or two could even come close to cluing me into the fact that that was Beck. Doesn't sound like him at all. Actually sounds like an earnest 70s to 80s(? my knowledge of this genre lacks) country song but I will enjoy it ironically anyway, first thing he's done that interested me at all *since* Mutations.

I like the main part of the song, before it goes all bonkers punk/funk on the way out.

(Those parts are nice too, but I wish the proper part of the song was left unfuckedwith).

this is brilliant.

it is pretty ingenious

however what if the songs suck

Beck makes a big assumption that most people can still read sheet music?

End-around On The Pirating Business.

Here’s the most brilliant part of the idea, and the part that appeals to the marketer in me. You can’t just download this album, you have to buy it. It’s not digital, it’s paper. Beck has successfully found a loophole in our digital addictions. A loophole that will find musicians and non-musicians alike wanting to purchase such a novelty, either to play the music privately, publicly, or simply to follow along while listening to the world bring the music to life. Sure, someone will probably scan the sheet music into pdfs and send them around, but my gut tells me that, since Beck isn’t recording this music himself, the only way for Beck fans to truly experience Beck within this medium is to buy the full-color, beautifully designed package in a store

I'm moderately ashamed to say that I download bootleg pdf sheetmusic all the time.

Second part of that thought being that this will be up on mediafire in short order.

Beck makes a big assumption that most people can still read sheet music?

well I dunno if he assumes "most people" - he's obviously making an assumption about his fanbase and this does limit it. fwiw I can read chord charts but sheet music eh not really (a skill I have forgotten due to lack of use)

Most musicians can't read sheet music, let alone fans.

(He would be much better off doing it in Tab tbh)

Some sheet music has the chords written, maybe even the guitar forms. If not, then EGBDF is the code breaker.

he should have released midi or Finale files, then everyone could just load their favorite plugins and bounce down the tracks.

LOL @ that slobbering article, tho. But cool for Beck. Not sure how 'fresh' and 'genius' this innovation is tho, it's pretty much the standard way things were done before recorded music, back when everybody had a piano in their house. Just swap out 'piano' with 'Garage Band'. Are there going to be specific arrangements?

I could see music teachers in high schools and colleges using this medium as a teaching platform for students.

Sheet music being used to teach students? No way...

Neat idea

LOL @ that slobbering article

yeah really. classic author bio.

I am the Founder & CEO of Ideasicle, a virtual marketing-ideas company pioneering the "Expert Sourcing" model.

the sheet music idea is pretty corny imo. no surprise it's a McSweeney's collaboration.

I absolutely love the thinking behind this idea

however I will probably never buy this