"In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey. " That's how the Beck's song Loser begins. I admit it, I had never heard of the guy before Loser. So you can say that's how Beck introduced himself to me. Well, I suppose I can relate. Still, although I found the song decent and somewhat catchy, I, perhaps along with a majority of the people who heard Loser, might have pegged him as a one-hitster.
Then he put out the album Odelay. Again, I was not one of the first person I know to get a copy, but once I did, it ended up on heavy rotation. I wasn't alone. It won a Grammy, and was (perhaps more importantly) voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll. Acclaimed Music -- a sort of master consolidated ranking of popular music songs and albums -- ranks Odelay at #55 of all time (today, anyway). Subsequent albums were great as well, particularly the more folky and psychedelic Mutations and somber Sea Change.
Despite owning our share of his CDs, Beck has been on what is becoming a short list of artists who are still out there touring who we really want to see perform live. We were among the people who were excited to see his name atop the Austin City Limits list of artists for 2008. Want to join us? Beck is playing the closing set on Saturday, September 27th at 8:30 p.m.
A younger Beck, with the blues, performing Hollow Log
No comments:
Post a Comment