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.
It's All Gonna Come To Be
Beck Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Of a heartland feeling...sort of approving...)
When all is said and done
Wanna clip my toenails down, down, down, down, down
And put 'em in clear plastic ziplock bags
And take them down
Down to the town
With stevie nicks
The interior, white leather
And you're the last thing on my list
But you're the first thing I'm gonna remember
When I wake up
It's all gonna come to be
The same bad video for twenty years
It's all gonna come to be
Optimistic xerox of yourself
It's easier when you're self-made
You can pack it up and put it on the highway
You can fill up the air with bad breath
'cause it's already polluted and reconstituted
And filtered back into the system
And packaged up
And the space age is running out of distance
It can leap out
And disconnect all the connections
Program the appliances to puke on the floor
It's all gonna come to be
Self-indulgent
Yeah, it's all gonna come to be
The same old noise you never wanted to see
Mexican speed-metals, things
Casserole fruit salad hairgel
Self-inflicted life-affirming hell
Is that slack?
Is that crack?
Are those dogs or are those dogmas?
Are those clogs or platform shoes
On your feet
Take your johnny cashmachine
And your talk about fashions that come crashin' in late at night
Like a plane crash
Survivors comin', pickin' out the fiberglass and styrofoam
And the love that is breathin'
Is the love that is spraypainting
Vandalizing everything you own
'cause it's all gonna come to be
The same bad scene for 20 years
Yeah, it's all gonna come to be
Optimistic xerox of yourself
Predictions of debilitating health
Whining all night long
Whining and dining
Climbing into the rafters
Shredding your afro
Taking karate lessons
Sucking in the bandages
The lyrics of Beck's song "It's All Gonna Come to Be" are complex and hard to understand at first listen. However, a deeper analysis reveals that the song is a commentary on the superficiality and emptiness of modern society. Beck starts by saying that when everything is said and done, he wants to clip his toenails and put them in plastic bags, as if everything else he has done is pointless. He then talks about driving a Monte Carlo with Stevie Nicks, showing his dream of living a flashy lifestyle.
However, despite his desire for this lifestyle, he acknowledges that it's just a bad video that has been played over and over for 20 years. He sings about how people strive to be self-made, but everything they achieve is essentially a copy of what has been done before. He talks about the pollution and reconstitution of everything in society, illustrating how nothing is real or genuine anymore. Beck then sings about how the space age is running out of distance, suggesting that there is no more progress or innovation left.
Line by Line Meaning
When all is said and done
After everything is finished and the dust settles
Wanna clip my toenails down, down, down, down, down
Feeling bored and wanting to do something mundane or irrelevant
And put 'em in clear plastic ziplock bags
Putting the mundane things in life into a preserve for posterity
And take them down
To show people what life was like
Down to the town
Taking the mundane things and showing them to everyone
In a monte carlo
In a flashy car
With stevie nicks
Accompanied by a famous musician
The interior, white leather
Emphasizing the luxuriousness of the car
And you're the last thing on my list
You are not my top priority or concern
But you're the first thing I'm gonna remember
You will be the one thing that stands out in my memory
When I wake up
In the morning
It's all gonna come to be
Everything is going to happen
The same bad video for twenty years
Life repeats itself and nothing ever changes
Optimistic xerox of yourself
Trying to create a better version of who you are, but essentially ending up the same
It's easier when you're self-made
Life is easier when you create your own opportunities
You can pack it up and put it on the highway
You can leave things behind and move on to something new
You can fill up the air with bad breath
You can spread negativity without trying
'cause it's already polluted and reconstituted
Because the world is already filled with negativity and problems
And filtered back into the system
Negativity and problems circulate and are hard to escape
And packaged up
Everything is put into boxes and categories
And the space age is running out of distance
Humanity is running out of time to explore space
It can leap out
The space age advances quickly
And disconnect all the connections
Break the ties between things and people
Program the appliances to puke on the floor
Appliances will fail or break down in unexpected ways
Self-indulgent
Tending to focus on one's own desires and pleasure
The same old noise you never wanted to see
Being stuck in a situation that is unfulfilling or frustrating
Mexican speed-metals, things
Epitome of chaos and stress
Casserole fruit salad hairgel
Comical example of useless or pointless things
Self-inflicted life-affirming hell
Condemning your own choices, despite the consequences
Is that slack?
Asking if there's something wrong or off
Is that crack?
Again, asking if something is broken or wrong
Are those dogs or are those dogmas?
Are these real issues or just entrenched beliefs?
Are those clogs or platform shoes
Misunderstanding or confusing one thing for another
On your feet
Referring to someone's position or choice
Take your johnny cashmachine
Making money through fame and creativity
And your talk about fashions that come crashin' in late at night
Discussing the latest trends or issues that are meaningless in the grand scheme of things
Like a plane crash
Unexpected and devastating events that change everything
Survivors comin', pickin' out the fiberglass and styrofoam
Picking the pieces up after a tragedy or disaster
And the love that is breathin'
The love that exists in the world
Is the love that is spraypainting
Artistic expression and rebellion against the norm
Vandalizing everything you own
Rejecting what society tells you is important and valuable
'cause it's all gonna come to be
Because everything will eventually end
Predictions of debilitating health
Expecting negative outcomes and consequences
Whining all night long
Complaining incessantly
Whining and dining
Complaining while enjoying luxury
Climbing into the rafters
Escaping reality and everyday life
Shredding your afro
Changing something that was once an important part of your identity
Taking karate lessons
Trying to become more self-sufficient or independent
Sucking in the bandages
Trying to hide your mistakes or flaws
Contributed by Katherine V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Spam Me
This is from a KCRW session. It's sounded like this in all the versions I've heard
Smile
He sounds interesting here
Smile
Did you change the pitch?