Tried listening to Beck today.......

[Beedster]

I'm bloody fortunate to play in a band that rehearses an album for 3-months, gigs it once, and then moves on to the next. It's great fun, it's challenging, and for someone who's really easily bored, it's a great way to be constantly engaged with a band. So, we're doing Odelay by Beck at the moment, gig in June. It's an interesting departure for me coming from a mostly rock/funk/blues background to be playing such an eclectic and informal album. Odelay's often cited as his best album but I felt that musically it wasn't quite where I'd always placed Beck - although I realised that as an artist he'd pretty much passed me by for 30 or so years - so having a day to myself set out to do some wider listening.    

 

f*** me! I'm honestly quite blown away by the sheer creativity, diversity, and musicality of his work. As a bass player (I use the term loosely), I'm drawn not only to some extremely well crafted bass lines but also to some wonderful bass tone, the below being a great example...

 

 

...but over and above the well known tracks (Devil's Haircut, Where It's At etc), there's also a whole load of crazy in there, although also including great bass playing and tone (alongside some lovely impersonation/plagiarism, Prince and Kravitz get on down), the fretless and and upright in this is sublime....

 

 

I'm gonna be spending quite a lot of time working on some of his basslines, once I've mastered the Odelay tracks

[Old Man Riva]

I’m a big fan of Beck, and agree, his creative talent is off the chart at times. I once saw him doing an acoustic set at Cambridge Corn Exchange. I wasn’t really looking forward to it, in the way I would have been had it been a band gig, but it was a fabulous night. Just him and acoustic laid bare just how wonderful the songs were - gorgeous melodies, interesting lyrics, showcasing a genuine songwriting talent.

 

Debra is cool as, but the bass line is actually taken from My Love For You, by Ramsey Lewis. Doesn’t make it any less brilliant, but always good to know where certain parts originate from!

[Beedster]

14 minutes ago, Old Man Riva said:

I’m a big fan of Beck, and agree, his creative talent is off the chart at times. I once saw him doing an acoustic set at Cambridge Corn Exchange. I wasn’t really looking forward to it, in the way I would have been had it been a band gig, but it was a fabulous night. Just him and acoustic laid bare just how wonderful the songs were - gorgeous melodies, interesting lyrics, showcasing a genuine songwriting talent.

 

Debra is cool as, but the bass line is actually taken from My Love For You, by Ramsey Lewis. Doesn’t make it any less brilliant, but always good to know where certain parts originate from!

 

Haha, he's a magpie at times, it's really hard even with some of his more obvious songs to know what's performed and what's sampled, but as you say, the songs are often wonderful, and the creativity in the interplay or performance and sampling is at times breathtaking 

[Beedster]

And this is simply sublime songwriting and performance.......

 

 

[AlexDelores]

I like Beck. Although like your previous self, I’ve not really given him the time much past the singles. 
 

I will say though, that’s a fantastic concept you’ve got for your band! 

[Old Man Riva]

One of the things I really like about his music (especially earlier records) is the sampling/re-cycling of other tracks. He’s never hidden it, and I personally think sampling etc. can be hugely creative in the right hands.

 

I must admit, in most cases it was only some years later that I found out which tracks had been sampled etc. - Devil’s Haircut intro is taken from a track by Them (featuring Van Morrison), but at the time I just thought it was a killer guitar riff, that sounded like a 60s garage band! Again, it doesn’t diminish it in any way, in my humble opinion.

 

If you haven’t done so already, I implore you to have a listen to the Sea Change album. Best listened to alone, and through headphones, it’s his ‘heartbreak’ album, and can be uncomfortable to listen to at times, as it’s so obviously personal. Doesn’t matter how many times I hear it, Already Dead reduces me to a blubbering wreck every time…

 

Though most things do that these days!

 

 

 

[Beedster]

11 minutes ago, AlexDelores said:

I will say though, that’s a fantastic concept you’ve got for your band! 

 

It's lovely, it took close to 10-years of talking to make it happen, but it is a great way to play music. I'm very lucky to be by some distance the least talented person in the band, which is highly motivating 👍 

[Beedster]

5 minutes ago, Old Man Riva said:

One of the things I really like about his music (especially earlier records) is the sampling/re-cycling of other tracks. He’s never hidden it, and I personally think sampling etc. can be hugely creative in the right hands.

 

I must admit, in most cases it was only some years later that I found out which tracks had been sampled etc. - Devil’s Haircut intro is taken from a track by Them (featuring Van Morrison), but at the time I just thought it was a killer guitar riff, that sounded like a 60s garage band! Again, it doesn’t diminish it in any way, in my humble opinion.

 

If you haven’t done so already, I implore you to have a listen to the Sea Change album. Best listened to alone, and through headphones, it’s his ‘heartbreak’ album, and can be uncomfortable to listen to at times, as it’s so obviously personal. Doesn’t matter how many times I hear it, Already Dead reduces me to a blubbering wreck every time…

 

Though most things do that these days!

 

 

 

 

Will listen to it, thanks

 

Re sampling, it's the extraordinary way you simply can't tell unless you REALLY listen and REALLY know your music, more than once I've heard a Radio 6 DJ play an obscure tune from the 60s or 70s followed by 'And of course Beck sampled that in.......". Mostly CC of course 👍

[Beedster]

Again quite poppy, but I love this, elements of Beach Boys and Devo, a heady mix...

 

 

[Old Man Riva]

3 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

Will listen to it, thanks

 

Re sampling, it's the extraordinary way you simply can't tell unless you REALLY listen and REALLY know your music, more than once I've heard a Radio 6 DJ play an obscure tune from the 60s or 70s followed by 'And of course Beck sampled that in.......". Mostly CC of course 👍

I’ve lost count of the amount of original tracks I’ve ‘discovered’ due to them being sampled by someone else. The Ramsey Lewis track being a case in point. I’d not heard (of) it until someone told me it was where Beck took the bass line for Debra from.

 

As I say, I think sampling can be hugely creative… 

[Old Man Riva]

… who says there’s no fun in music anymore?!

 

 

[Beedster]

6 minutes ago, Old Man Riva said:

… who says there’s no fun in music anymore?!

 

 

 

That vocal ain't sampled 👍

[Old Man Riva]

3 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

That vocal ain't sampled 👍

No sir! It’s positively spiritually uplifting, is what it is!

 

(not to mention the fabulous JMJ on Guild Starfire)

[Killerfridge]

Becks always been an artist I will forget about, then every few years remember exists and will listen to nothing but him for a month before forgetting again. I adore his creativity and his novel approaches to music (e.g. the album he released as sheet music only, so you had to "make" the song yourself). Guess I'm listening to only Beck for a month!

[LukeFRC]

2 hours ago, Old Man Riva said:

 

If you haven’t done so already, I implore you to have a listen to the Sea Change album. Best listened to alone, and through headphones, it’s his ‘heartbreak’ album, and can be uncomfortable to listen to at times, as it’s so obviously personal. Doesn’t matter how many times I hear it, Already Dead reduces me to a blubbering wreck every time…

+1 - it's fantastic - the string arrangements especially. 

Colors album also really good. 

 

[Beedster]

Oh shit, to play bass like JMJ here......

 

 

[KingPrawn]

He's a real talent and surrounds himself with great players, notably Jason Falkner, originally from Jellyfish and Air's go-to guy. 

[Killerfridge]

2 hours ago, Old Man Riva said:

… who says there’s no fun in music anymore?!

 

 

Debra is one of my all time favourite songs, it's great seeing him do it live

[Lozz196]

I’m afraid I just can’t take Beck seriously, solely because he is pretty much the double of a mate from back in the 80s, whenever I see him I just think “Alan, what are you doing up there singing & being cool, that’s just not you”. Because Alan really was not cool - as of course neither was I (and am still not and unlikely to ever be).

 

Great clip though, band look like they’re really having a blast, JMJs bass is great.

[Beedster]

10 hours ago, Beedster said:

Oh shit, to play bass like JMJ here......

 

 

 

Lovely quote from JMJ about the recording of the bassline 

 

“The guys were getting some amusement at the fact that I was sweating bullets trying to correctly play this monster I had created. That's my favorite thing to do: write things that are at the threshold of my ability.”

 

Nice short article here

 

https://www.guitarworld.com/features/justin-meldal-johnsen-on-becks-sexx-laws

[Burns-bass]

Never really got Beck. Always seems too contrived and the lyrics just a continuous stream of non-sequiturs.

 

Will reflect on this during a car journey next week and will play one of the albums and see what it’s like. 

[tegs07]

15 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

Never really got Beck. Always seems too contrived and the lyrics just a continuous stream of non-sequiturs.

I can relate to this. They are good musicians though and are not turgid. When it works, it really works but they don’t always hit the mark and then for me it does just seem too contrived. That said would rather there were more Beck types out there than re-hashed Beatles.

[Beedster]

21 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

Never really got Beck..

Which was me until we started rehearsing Odelay 👍

[pst62]

After hearing the over played and dreadful Loser, I ever really took any notice of his stuff until I saw him a few years ago on TV live in Northern Ireland and was blown away. Colors is a fantastic album!

[Mediocre Polymath]

13 hours ago, Killerfridge said:

Becks always been an artist I will forget about, then every few years remember exists and will listen to nothing but him for a month before forgetting again. I adore his creativity and his novel approaches to music (e.g. the album he released as sheet music only, so you had to "make" the song yourself). Guess I'm listening to only Beck for a month!

This is very much my relationship with Beck's music as well. What will usually happen is that I'll discover some album of his that I'd never much listened to before, become obsessed with some track or other, and then go off binging the rest of his stuff.

 

My favourite album of his is Midnite Vultures. It's silly and over top, but I'd also argue his most consistent bit of work.

 

There was an interesting interview I saw a while back with the guy who produced "Loser". He was talking about how they recorded it in either the very early 1990s or late 1980s, but agreed that no label or radio station would be interested. They passed it to a few contacts just to be sure and got told emphatically no, so they shelved it. Then one day the producer heard "Smells like teen spirit" on the radio and immediately phoned Beck to say they should try shopping "Loser" around – this time getting loads of airplay and a record deal.