Beck was born in Los Angeles, California, to David Campbell (a musician and son of a Presbyterian minister) and Bibbe Hansen (a former dancer for The Velvet Underground, founding member of the satirical band Black Fag, and visual artist). When his parents separated, Beck stayed with his mother and brother in Los Angeles, where he was influenced by that city's diverse musical offerings—everything from hip-hop to latin music—and his mother's art scene – all of which would later reappear in his recorded and published work.
Although Beck's work defies easy description, his eclecticism and genre experiments have sparked comparisons with Prince, though Beck was undoubtedly a less prolific artist, and drew on an absurdist, free-flowing lyrical style totally original when first exposed to mainstream audiences (indeed, some critics labeled him and his breakthrough single Loser as novelties - see below). Despite this individualism, Beck's music was very much a product of the 90s and the media age in general, with hip hop, indie/underground rock, electronic music and genre-benders like the Beastie Boys as notable touchstones; in addition, some critics could not resist likening his head-spinning lyrical aesthetic to a post-modern Bob Dylan sensibility.
After dropping out of high school in the mid-1980s, Beck educated himself and traveled widely. In Germany, he spent time with his grandfather, fluxus artist Al Hansen. His artistic relationship with his grandfather may have influenced both his album art and sense of musical collage. He began the musical activity in 1988. The late-80's found him in New York City as part of the punk-influenced anti-folk music movement.
Beck returned to Los Angeles at the turn of the decade, destitute but motivated. During this time, Beck sought out (or snuck onto) stages at venues all over Los Angeles, from punk clubs to coffee shops. Some of his earliest and most thought-provoking recordings were achieved by working with Tom Grimley at Poop Alley Studios, a part of WIN Records.
In this atmosphere of heady creativity the founders of Bong Load Custom Records discovered Beck. Their 1993 12" vinyl Loser, from an initial run of 530 copies, created a sensation on college and alternative radio that led to a furious bidding war between labels to sign Beck. Eventually, he chose Geffen Records, who offered him terms that included an allowance for the release of independent albums while under contract (he may have owed Bong Load another album or two).
In 1994, Geffen's official debut release of Mellow Gold made Beck a mainstream smash success; it also led to his iconic status as the "slacker" representative of the alternative rock scene, although the title of the song had been ironic.
At the same time, he released Stereopathetic Soulmanure on Flipside Records and One Foot in the Grave on independent K Records. Beck took his act on the road with the 1995 Lollapalooza tour. Still, some critics panned him as a one-hit wonder. Audiences' (especially at Lollapalooza) familiarity with Loser only, and their general disinterest in his other work only reinforced his image as a one-hit wonder. It's been said said that Beck released Stereopathetic Soulmanure and One Foot in the Grave to shake the Gen X-ers that associated themselves with him and made "Loser" their slacker anthem.
The one-hit wonder label was put to rest with the release of 1996's Odelay, a collaborative effort with The Dust Brothers, producers of Paul's Boutique. The lead single, "Where It's At", received heavy airplay and its video was in constant rotation on MTV. Within the year, Odelay had received perfect reviews in Rolling Stone and Spin magazines, having been listed on countless "Best of" lists (it topped the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 'Album of the Year'), receiving double-platinum status, and earning an impressive number of industry awards, including two Grammys.
Odelay was followed in 1998 by Mutations. Produced by Nigel Godrich of Radiohead fame, it was intended as a stopgap measure before the next album proper. Recorded over two weeks, during which Beck recorded one song a day, the sessions produced 14 songs. Mutations was a departure from the electronic density of Odelay, and was filled with folk and blues influences. Songs on the album consisted of older tracks, some even dating back as far as 1994.
In 1999, Geffen released the much-anticipated Midnite Vultures, an orgy of sexual and culinary innuendo supported by a world tour. For Beck, it was a return to the high-energy performances that had been his trademark as far back as Lollapalooza.
After Midnite Vultures came Sea Change in 2002, another airy and emotional album with producer Nigel Godrich, which became Beck's first U.S. Top 10 album, reaching # 8. Sea Change was conceptualized as an album with one unifying theme—the stages following the end of a relationship. The album also featured string arrangements by Beck's father and a sonically dense mix reminiscient of Mutations. The Sea Change tour featured The Flaming Lips as Beck's opening and backing band.
In September 2003, Beck returned to the studio to work on his sixth major-label album. Guero was produced by the Dust Brothers and Tony Hoffer and features a collaboration with Jack White of The White Stripes; it marked a return to Odelay-era sound. The album was released in March of 2005 and despite critical acclaim, the album received a more lackluster response from Beck's indie-oriented fanbase.
Beck married Marissa Ribisi in April 2004, shortly before the birth of their son, Cosimo Henri Hansen. 2004 also saw the release of "10 Years of Mellow Gold," a short documentary about Beck's first album.
Beck's next album, The Information was released on October 3, 2006. It is a largely electronic and ambient, filled with blips and beeps. It was produced by Nigel Godrich, who worked on "Sea Change" and a longtime Radiohead and Thom Yorke producer. The first single was Nausea, an acoustic rock hip hop song. The next single was Cellphone's Dead, and the third single was Think I'm In Love.
His next single, Timebomb, was released on iTunes on August 21, 2007, and the limited edition vinyl 12" was released on November 2, 2007, with an instrumental version of the song on the B-side. In December, 2007, it was announced that Timebomb had been nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance.
Modern Guilt was the eighth studio album by Beck. It was released on July 8, 2008. The album fulfilled Beck's recording contract with Interscope Records. Outside of North America, the record was released by XL Recordings. Its three singles were Chemtrails, Gamma Ray, and Youthless.
Modern Guilt features two contributions by Cat Power and was produced by Beck and Danger Mouse.
The album entered both the Billboard 200 and the Canadian Albums Chart at number four, and gave Beck his first ever Top 10 placing on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number nine. The album has also been Beck's best charting album in Australia, reaching 13. It sold 84,000 copies in its first week. Although successful, this does not match the first week sales of The Information, which were 99,000. In December 2008, Modern Guilt was nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 51st Grammy Awards.
Song Reader, a project Beck released in December 2012, is 20 songs presented only as sheet music, in the hopes that enterprising musicians will record their own versions. The idea of Song Reader came about nearly fifteen years prior, shortly after the release of Odelay. When sent a book of transcribed sheet music for that album, Beck decided to play through it and grew interested in the world before recorded sound. He aimed to keep the arrangements as open as possible, to re-create the simplicity of the standards, and became preoccupied with creating only pieces that could fit within the Great American Songbook. In 2013 Beck began playing special Song Reader concerts with a variety of guests and announced he was working on a record of Song Reader material with other musicians as well as possibly a compilation of fan versions.
In the summer of 2013, Beck was reported to be working on two new studio albums: one a more self-contained acoustic disc in the vein of One Foot in the Grave and another described as a "proper follow-up" to Modern Guilt. Beck expects to release both albums independently. He released two standalone singles over the course of the summer: the electro ballad Defriended and the chorus-heavy I Won't Be Long. A third single, Gimme, appeared on September 17.
In October 2013, it was announced that Beck signed to Capitol Records. Beck released his twelfth studio album entitled Morning Phase on 21 February 2014. For the recording of Morning Phase, Beck reunited with many of the same musicians with whom he had worked on the critically acclaimed 2002 album Sea Change. On January 20, 2014, the album's first single Blue Moon was released. Beck released the second single, Waking Light, on February 4, 2014.
4 years later, on October 13th, 2017, Beck released the second album that was supposed to come out alongside Morning Phase. This album was called Colors. Colors is very different from Beck's previous albums, in which he takes a stab at pop music. Beck's expertise, mixing genres, works in this album when he mixes Alternative Rock, hip hop, and a lot of Pop. The album's earliest single, "Dreams", was released in June 2015, and three more ("Wow", "Dear Life", "Up All Night") were released between June 2016 and September 2017. The title track was released as a single in April 2018. The album won the Best Alternative Music Album and Best Engineered Album (Non-Classic) at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.
After a short wait, Beck released Hyperspace on November 22, 2019. There was little marketing for this album. The whole album is a collaboration with Pharrell Williams, as he produced almost every song on the album. The album's first single was "Saw Lightning" released on April 15, 2019, and had a folk-pop sound to it. It doesn't fit with the rest of the album's synth lo-fi sound. Other singles were "Hyperlife" and "Uneventful Days" on October 17, 2019, and "Dark Places" on November 7, 2019.
2) BECK can refer to a fictional rock band from the Japanese Anime series BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad. The fictional BECK's songs feature in the BECK Original Sound Track. BECK's style and members are highly influenced by various different artists. From vocals in the style of Zack De La Rocha from Rage Against the Machine, guitar influenced by Tom Morello of the same band, the band is highly influenced by rap-rock.
As the series develops, other influence appear, including guitar in the style of Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, and Red Hot Chili Peppers John Frusciante. During the series, the band covers a famous The Beatles song, 'I've got a Feeling'. The name BECK could have possibly been influenced by the first artist Beck, mentioned above. Harold Sakushi, the original author of the series, has confirmed that BECK is generally based around the Red Hot Chili Peppers, being his favourite band.
Heartland Feeling
Beck Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
They gave me so many drugs. But, uh... I'm gonna be here... Alright,
what we're talkin about here is... is kind of a...
it's a heartland feeling... like, uh, Mellencamp, you
know, kind of a Mellen feeling. Ok, what you gotta
get together is a... some... a heartland folk singer. Uh,
we're gonna need a real quick... uh, John Cougar Mellencamp,
Bruce Spingsteen, Bob Seeger... that type of feeling. A Mellen feeling.
uh, just powerful straight-forward music. And if you can't get just
the right type of feeling, find someone who will pass and change them.
Old man johnson got his head in his hand
Makin' his way across state in a fiddlin' band
With hair all down in his eyes
And the microphone all covered with flies
When he gets done playin, goes back to his room
Climbs in the bed in his cowboy boots
And he picks up a magazine, turns on the TV
Lights a cigar as he's fallin asleep
Well he's only a person
Who doesn't know shit
Yeah, nothin happenin
That's about it
Yeah
Well little Rosanna came from Texarkana
Had fourteen dollars wrapped in a bandana
Came into town not lookin for much
Well she found a hound dog and she named him Dutch
She got a job at the arcade takin' quarters
But she was never too good at takin' orders
So one night she stopped givin out change
She kicked the boss in the shin and unplugged the games
She's only a person
Who doesn't know shit
Nothin' happenin
That's about it
Ooo ooo
Yeah yeah yeah
Sam got canned at the cannery
He punched out the clock that night
His knuckle was bleeding as he walked home
He was cold and he had a headache
Well his wife was cookin canned beans
He took out all the money out of his jeans
And he set it on fire in the kitchen sink
As his wife handed him a drink
He was only a person
Who didn't know shit
Nothin happenin
That's about it
Oh yeah
Ooo ooo ooo
Smiler was lookin' for handouts
Sleepin' in an abandoned lighthouse
Down at the mini-mall shakin his hat
Washin' windows with his bare hand
He found a sports car
With the keys in the ignition
It just seemed so easy
He took a joyride, drove it into a hedge
Came out with the steering wheel wrapped around his head
Well he's only a person
Who doesn't know shit
Nothin happenin
That's about it
Ooo ooo yeah
Well Janie was born in a small town
Everybody just standin around
They had bingo games and the raffle
Everybody chewin tobacco
Well she grew up kinda restless
All her boyfriends wanted to be dentists
Well, she got a job at the truck stop
And she got old fast and never did what she wanted
She's only a person
Who doesn't know shit
Nothin happenin
That's about it
Yea yeah yeah
Oh yeah
[etc.]
The first stanza of the song has the singer talking about how they are “totally fucked up” and how they've been given so many drugs. They go on to talk about a distinct “heartland feeling” they are trying to create with the music. They ask for a “heartland folk singer” and compare this feeling to the music of John Cougar Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Seger. The singer notes that this is powerful, straightforward music that needs to be just right.
The following stanzas of the song tell the brief stories of various characters who aren't necessarily succeeding in life. There's Old Man Johnson, who plays in a band and goes back to his room to smoke a cigar and read after his gigs. Little Rosanna from Texarkana who kicks her boss and unplugs the video games she manages, resulting in her termination from the job. Sam, whose knuckles are bleeding as he walks home after being fired from a cannery. Lastly, there's Smiler, who was a homeless man and took a joyride in a sports car before crashing. All of these characters are only people who “don't know shit,” and nothing really happens in their lives.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm totally fucked up. I can barely speak. I'm totally fucked up.
I am heavily drugged and unable to communicate properly due to the excess of medication I received.
They gave me so many drugs. But, uh... I'm gonna be here... Alright, what we're talkin about here is... is kind of a... it's a heartland feeling... like, uh, Mellencamp, you know, kind of a Mellen feeling.
Despite being heavily drugged, I am able to recall the type of music that corresponds to my current situation, which is a heartland feeling similar to that conveyed by John Mellencamp's music.
Ok, what you gotta get together is a... some... a heartland folk singer. Uh, we're gonna need a real quick... uh, John Cougar Mellencamp, Bruce Spingsteen, Bob Seeger... that type of feeling. A Mellen feeling.
To properly convey my current situation, we need to find a heartland folk singer who can create music that resembles the feeling conveyed by John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Seger.
You know, real, uh, powerful, approving music, uh... of a heartland quality, uh, just powerful straight-forward music.
To achieve the heartland feeling we are looking for, we need to create powerful, straightforward music that resonates with the heartland quality we are trying to capture.
And if you can't get just the right type of feeling, find someone who will pass and change them.
If we cannot find the right musician to create the heartland feeling we are looking for, we need to continue searching until we find someone who can create it for us.
Old man johnson got his head in his hand
Makin' his way across state in a fiddlin' band
With hair all down in his eyes
And the microphone all covered with flies
When he gets done playin, goes back to his room
Climbs in the bed in his cowboy boots
And he picks up a magazine, turns on the TV
Lights a cigar as he's fallin asleep
Old man Johnson is a fiddler who travels around the state, playing music and resting in his room wearing cowboy boots. He relaxes by reading a magazine, watching TV, and smoking a cigar before going to bed.
Well he's only a person
Who doesn't know shit
Yeah, nothin happenin
That's about it
Despite his musical talent, old man Johnson is just an ordinary person who doesn't know much and doesn't have much going on in his life.
Well little Rosanna came from Texarkana
Had fourteen dollars wrapped in a bandana
Came into town not lookin for much
Well she found a hound dog and she named him Dutch
She got a job at the arcade takin' quarters
But she was never too good at takin' orders
So one night she stopped givin out change
She kicked the boss in the shin and unplugged the games
Rosanna is a girl from Texarkana who arrived in town with only fourteen dollars wrapped in a bandana. She got a job at an arcade but didn't like taking orders from her boss, so she stopped giving out change and kicked him before unplugging the games.
She's only a person
Who doesn't know shit
Nothin' happenin
That's about it
Though Rosanna took a stand against her boss, she is just an ordinary person with not much going on in her life.
Sam got canned at the cannery
He punched out the clock that night
His knuckle was bleeding as he walked home
He was cold and he had a headache
Well his wife was cookin canned beans
He took out all the money out of his jeans
And he set it on fire in the kitchen sink
As his wife handed him a drink
Sam was fired from the cannery after punching out his time card. He walks home with a bleeding knuckle, a headache, and no job. His wife was cooking canned beans when he returned home, and he proceeds to burn all his money in the kitchen sink while accepting a drink from his wife.
He was only a person
Who didn't know shit
Nothin happenin
That's about it
Despite being fired from his job and destroying his money, Sam is just an ordinary person with not much going on in his life.
Smiler was lookin' for handouts
Sleepin' in an abandoned lighthouse
Down at the mini-mall shakin his hat
Washin' windows with his bare hand
He found a sports car
With the keys in the ignition
It just seemed so easy
He took a joyride, drove it into a hedge
Came out with the steering wheel wrapped around his head
Smiler is a man who is homeless and sleeps in an abandoned lighthouse. He begs for money by shaking his hat and washes windows with his bare hands. One day, he finds a sports car with the keys in the ignition and decides to take a joyride. However, he crashes into a hedge and comes out with the steering wheel wrapped around his head.
Well he's only a person
Who doesn't know shit
Nothin happenin
That's about it
Smiler may have stolen a sports car, but he is still just an ordinary person with not much going on in his life.
Well Janie was born in a small town
Everybody just standin around
They had bingo games and the raffle
Everybody chewin tobacco
Well she grew up kinda restless
All her boyfriends wanted to be dentists
Well, she got a job at the truck stop
And she got old fast and never did what she wanted
Janie was born in a small town where everyone played bingo and chewed tobacco. She grew up feeling restless, but all her boyfriends wanted to be dentists. She eventually got a job at a truck stop, but feel old and never achieved what she truly wanted in life.
She's only a person
Who doesn't know shit
Nothin happenin
That's about it
Despite her unfulfilled dreams, Janie is still just an ordinary person with not much going on in her life.
Contributed by Adeline N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@ldoron
Performed on The Larry Sanders Show, S4 E10, "Conflict of Interest"
@SnazzyDetritus
that performance is actually much better than this recording
@globalinvestor9440
" Is he making it up as he's going along?" Larry Sanders 🤣
@mrjoeingram
total tune!
@mckshrmptn
god
@Rob-jg8gh
This is “my America”
@melaniebethcurran
ohhhhhhhhhh shit ohhhhhhh my god i just heard this
@jmmcquillen5561
🇺🇸 America 2020 🇺🇸