Beck Hansen has been sharing stories with the world for the past thirty odd years, through sound and vision, melding all manner of genres in effortless fashion.
There's little else to be said, really, other than, check him out or revisit his stuff, whichever applies!
Misc
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This is pure joy, to be enjoyed with a large screen and your best speaker system (or headphones). Beck developed this as part of a Lincoln Motor Company promotional campaign back in 2013. His father (David Campbell) conducts. Very apt that he chose to cover a song by arguably the most artistic and creative musician of all time. Bowie passed about 3 years after this was produced (he fully endorsed Beck's use of the song for the event, and mentioned it at the time on his Web site).
Beck remembers DB (from article on relix.com, January 29th 2016)...
Speaking with Rolling Stone, Beck offered his tribute to the late David Bowie, recounting his first experience with Bowieâs music as well as the first time he saw him live. âHeâs always been kind of a guidepost or gravitational force for me,â Beck said. âHeâs someone that you set course to or measure what youâre doing against.â He also added, âWhen an artistic presence infuses so much, when that personâs gone, thereâs such a tremendous absence that it almost feels like losing family.â ..........................................................................................................................On Bowieâs work, Beck said, âHe was a real genuine pop star, but he was more interesting than the other ones. You could sense that there was more going on than just a song thatâs on the radio and an eye-catching video. He could extrapolate what was vital and elemental in music, but somehow edit out the things that would make it more dated or disposable, and reduce it down to something that was art, something unassailable and crystalline.â ........................................................................................................................Beck also dished on his âSound and Visionâ cover with over 200 musicians, saying, âIt was surreal and insane trying to get that many people to play together at the same time. I never heard anything from him about it, but I hope that it didn't make him cringe or anything. I know he was particular, and its always strange to hear one of your songs covered.â ..........................................................................................................................While Beck says the two never worked together, they did speak from time to time and talked very vaguely about collaborating. âI spoke with him a few times. He was one of my favorite conversations ever. He had an electrical conversational wit and was familiar and conversant on so many things. He had an intellect that was so alive and so engaged. Itâs very rare. He was just right there on everything: art, music, new bands, comic books, Japanese temples. It was just everything.â ..........................................................................................................................He added, âI did some remixes for him at one point, and I would have loved to have done more and just been around him more. I wish we could have collaborated. We sent some messages back and forth, and we had some very vague conversations about possibly doing something at some point, and I just figured there would be a right time and place. That would be a dream project for me.â
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This is a list of personal favourites that I compiled recently; not intended to be a "Beck top 10 best songs of all time" kinda deal (but, probably about half of these would appear on every good Beck fan's top 10 đ).
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This mashup was created following a work junket at an all-inclusive American hotel in the tropical paradise of Costa Mujeres. The embedded clip that appears on the left was taken on my drive back to CancĂșn airport. I tend to avoid these kinds of trips... the slightly dodgy airport vibe, the hotel compound, the security checkpoints if you do decide to venture beyond the safe haven, et cetera... Don't get me wrong, the place was great, the food and drink go flĂșirseach, and the staff very respectful and attentive. But, the paradox of it all... The Beck video here celebrates the carnival of Latin neighbourhood life, as seen through the eyes of a "guero" (not really sure how Beck would translate this slang word - but, probably "white-boy", not derogatory, just not pure Hispanic). And, the border is in the mix to boot!
