His music was never without care, though. At least, that's what it was when you talked about Beck. Slacker Rock was grunge and anti-folk and psychedelia mixed together. ![]() If you wanted something tight, Beck wasn't the way to go in the early '90s. He embraced flaws and oddities, confusing critics who had grown accustomed to slick studio work. On his indie records and his Geffen debut, Mellow Gold (which was compiled to sell "Loser"), you can hear him slowing down or gaining speed within songs, tossing out tempo. Perhaps critics mistook Beck's drawn-out vocal delivery, seemingly thrown-together lyrics and experimental instrumentation as carelessness. That slacker stuff is for people who have the time to be depressed about everything." I was working a $4-an-hour job trying to stay alive. To that claim, Beck had his own thoughts: "Slacker my ass," he told Rolling Stone in 1994. They made him the leader of the disaffected rock movement countering '80s glitz. It had critics and MTV personalities crowning Beck as the King of Slackers-the "Slackers" being a group of Gen X-ers who were seen as chumps not willing to make anything of merit. "Loser" was one of those freak tunes that had Beck rapping about "dog food stalls with the beefcake pantyhose" and getting "crazy with the Cheez Whiz" while sampling a twangy slide guitar and singing "I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me?" in a lazy drawl. "Country," however, is a loose definition in this sense. On Mutations, he brought back a shuffling tempo, harmonica and horns for "Cancelled Check." Johnny Cash himself eventually covered Beck's "Rowboat." He even brought that bluesy Rolling Stones-branded country to "Scarecrow" on 2005's Guero. I suppose that's Beck in a nutshell, really.īeck never quite ditched his country influences. ![]() He added outlandish lyrics and song titles like "Ziplock Bag" and "Asshole." When you're listening, you can settle in calmly to one tune while getting deeply uncomfortable with another. While Beck's style comes from the Delta, it wasn't pure in the least bit. Beck's early influences were clearly drawn from the Delta Blues.īut where do you start if you're into the folky guitar stuff? Try One Foot In the Grave, which features reworks of Skip James' "Jesus is a Mighty Good Leader" and the Carter Family's "Lover's Lane." The album was recorded before Beck really made it big, and it was released on K Records by Calvin Johnson, who lent his garishly low vocals to the mix. He was a huge Mississippi John Hurt fan when he quit school in ninth grade, and he practiced guitar until he could mimic Hurt's finger-picking style and took on a deep, laid-back tone in his voice. He started with country influences and ended up weaving in hip-hop. All you have to do is dive in.īeck pretty much has something for everyone. Lucky for you, we've got five different entry points for you. With his 13th studio album, Colors, out, now is a crucial time to get into Beck. ![]() And there's the new, radio-friendly hits that you've been hearing in FIFA and Acura commercials throughout this year. ![]() There's the Grammy nominations, the Grammy wins, and the near Kanye interruption. There's the rap-rock of Guero, the R&B-funk of Midnite Vultures, the dark '60s pop of Modern Guilt. If I was just trying on a bunch of silly outfits, then there wouldn't be any weight to what I do. "But to me, there's a definite continuity in what I do. "People have this conception that I put on different characters," he told Rolling Stone in 1997. There's banjo on his hip-hop songs, subtle rapping on his more rock tunes and hidden meaning within "nonsense lyrics." Beck's not just jumping from theme to theme he's working within himself and the musical encyclopedia of his brain. And that's why you have a whole discography to comb through.īeck has distinct phases, and it seems important to point out that these phases are somewhat connected. But "Loser" launched Beck's career in more ways that one-yes, it introduced him to the world, but it also pushed him to prove that he was anything but a loser. You're probably well acquainted with "Loser." It's an odd karaoke tune and a staple on local alternative radio stations stuck in the '90s.
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