Beck Hansen (born Bek David Campbell, July 8, 1970) is a Grammy Award-winning American musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, known by
his simple stage name of Beck.
With his pop collage of musical styles, oblique, ironic
lyrics, and post-modern arrangements incorporating samples, drum machines, live instrumentation and sound effects,
Beck has been hailed by critics and the public throughout his musical career as being amongst the most idiosyncratic artists of
1990s alternative rock.[4]
Beck rose to underground popularity with his earliest works, which combined social criticism (as in "MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack" and "Deep Fried Love") with musical and lyrical
experimentalism. He first came to wider public attention with his breakthrough single
"Loser", a hit in 1994, which some described as
a novelty song. However, Beck was not easily categorized into a single genre. Some likened
his absurd, free-flowing lyrical style and the lo-fi
folk songs of his early career to Bob Dylan, while the
Beastie Boys were notable templates for his embrace of hip
hop influences, and his later eclecticism sparked comparisons to Prince.[5] In several albums
beginning in the late 1990s, Beck developed a slower, more melancholy sound, merging his trademark style with psychedelic rock, electronic, Brazilian Tropicalia, and the music of English folk icon
Nick Drake and French avant pop star Serge Gainsbourg. He has also cited The Cars, Mantronix, Gary Wilson, Pussy Galore, Willie Dixon, Bill Broonzy, and Sonic Youth as among his influences. To most
listeners, Odelay (1996) and Sea Change (2002),
two of Beck's most popular[6] and acclaimed[7][8] recordings, represented polar opposites in style. Odelay was awarded the title Album of the
Year by Rolling Stone in the USA and by NME and
Mojo in the UK. It was also nominated for the award of Best Album at the
Grammys.
Background
Beck was born in Los Angeles, California to David
Campbell, a Canadian musician, and Bibbe Hansen, a visual artist. His maternal
grandfather was Al Hansen, a visual collage artist of the Fluxus school of art. His paternal grandfather was a Presbyterian
minister, while his maternal great-grandmother was Jewish; although Beck says he was raised
partially in the Jewish religion, he is a Scientologist, as are his wife and his
father.[9][10] Beck's mother also has Norwegian and Swedish ancestry. 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.
After dropping out of high school in the mid-1980s, Beck traveled and educated himself. During
this period, he developed his musical talent through the art of busking. In Germany, he spent time with his grandfather Al Hansen. Beck collaborated with
Al Hansen on the Fluxus book, Playing with Matches, published by RAM USA in 1998[11]. The late 1980s found him in New York City, involved in the punk-influenced anti-folk music movement.
Recording career
(1988–1993) Independent releases
In 1988, Beck recorded a cassette entitled Banjo
Story, which has since become available in bootleg form.[12]
Beck returned to Los Angeles at the turn of the decade. To support himself, he took a variety of low-paying, dead-end jobs,
and even lived in a shed, all the while continuing to develop his music. During this time, Beck sought out (or sneaked onto)
stages at venues all over Los Angeles, from punk clubs to coffee shops and busking on the streets. This is also when he met
Chris Ballew (founder of The
Presidents of the United States of America). They even performed on the streets as a duo for a while. Some of his earliest
recordings were achieved by working with Tom Grimley at Poop Alley Studios, a part of
WIN Records.
The founders of Bong Load Custom Records, Tom
Rothrock, Rob Schnapf and Bradshaw Lambert discovered Beck, signing him to their
fledgling label. "Loser," a collaboration between hip hop nuance producer Carl Stephenson and
Beck, created a sensation when radio host Chris Douridas played the song on Morning Becomes Eclectic, the flagship music program
from Santa Monica College radio station KCRW. That exposure and a subsequent live performance on the show July 23, 1993 led to a
bidding war among 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. Of all the record labels to
offer Beck a contract, Geffen offered him the least amount of money, but the greatest amount of creative freedom.[citation needed]
(1994–1997) Mellow Gold and Odelay
In 1994, Geffen's official debut release of Mellow
Gold, culled from sessions with Rothrock, Schnapf, and Stephenson, made Beck a mainstream smash success.
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 in 1994 with a
worldwide tour, followed by a spot on the main stage of the 1995 Lollapalooza tour. Still,
some critics panned him as a one-hit wonder. Audiences' (especially at Lollapalooza)
familiarity with "Loser," and their general disinterest in his other work only reinforced his image as such.
When the time came to record his follow-up to Mellow Gold, he enlisted Rothrock and Schnapf as producers and began
recording an album of moody, low-key acoustic numbers to showcase his songwriting. The songs were melancholy due to[citation needed] several close deaths in Beck's life,
including one of his greatest inspirations, his grandfather. Eventually, Beck shelved the album and pursued a more upbeat
approach. Beck was introduced to the Dust Brothers, producers of the Beastie Boys' album
Paul's Boutique, whose cut-and-paste, sample-heavy production suited Beck's vision of a more fun, accessible album.
What resulted, 1996's Odelay, would finally put the
one-hit wonder label to rest. 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 good 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 a number of industry awards,
including two Grammys.
Also, beginning in 1993, "Loser" co-writer and Mellow Gold co-producer Carl Stephenson
embarked on an experimental trip hop project which eventually resulted in Forest for the
Trees, releasing a self-titled album in 1997, followed by an EP in 1999. Beck contributed to both records, providing
spoken word, harmonica, and assorted instruments.
(1998–2000) Mutations and Midnite Vultures
Odelay was followed in 1998 by Mutations. Though the album was originally supposed to be released on Bong Load Records, Geffen
intervened and issued the record against Beck's wishes.[13][14] The artist then sought
to void his contracts with both record labels, and in turn the labels sued him for breach of contract. The litigation went on for
years and it remains unclear to this day if it was ever completely resolved. [3] Produced by
Beck and 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 fourteen 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. Track 10, "Sing It Again", was written for Johnny Cash, but Beck
never submitted it, considering it "rubbish." Cash would go on to record "Rowboat," a song that originally appeared on Beck's
Stereopathetic Soulmanure.
During 1998, Beck's art collaborations with his grandfather Al Hansen were featured in an exhibition entitled 'Beck & Al
Hansen: Playing With Matches'] and showcased solo and collaborative collage, assemblage,
drawing and poetry works.[15] The show toured from the Santa Monica Museum of
Art to galleries in New York City and Winnipeg, Canada.
A catalogue of the show was published by Plug In Editions/Smart Art Press.
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. The live stage set included a red bed that
descended from the ceiling for the song "Debra" and the touring band was supplemented by a
brass section. Midnite Vultures was nominated for Best Album at the Grammys.
Beck has a number of B-sides and soundtrack-only songs as well, including "Midnite
Vultures" (curiously, not on the album of the same name), a cover of The Korgis' "Everybody's
Got to Learn Sometime" which appeared in the 2004 movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and David
Bowie's "Diamond Dogs" from Moulin Rouge!. He is also credited on the French
band Air’s 2001 album 10
000 Hz Legend for vocals on the songs "Don't Be Light" and "The Vagabond" (as well as harmonica on the latter). He
duetted with Emmylou Harris on Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons,
performing "Sin City".
(2001–2003) Sea Change
After Midnite Vultures, Beck released Sea Change (2002), another airy and emotional album with Godrich, which became Beck's first U.S. Top 10 album,
reaching #8. The album was also met with critical acclaim, earning five stars from Rolling Stone, the magazine's rarely
awarded highest-rating and later placing second in the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for
2002. 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 David Campbell and a sonically dense mix reminiscent of
Mutations. Although some radio singles were released, no commercial singles were made available to the public. Beck
embarked on a solo acoustic tour of small theaters and halls prior to the release of Sea Change, during which he played
several songs from the forthcoming album. The post-album release Sea Change electric tour featured The Flaming Lips as Beck's opening and backing band. Since then Wayne
Coyne, their lead singer, has criticized Beck for his behavior on the tour.[16]
A song Beck co-wrote with William Orbit, "Feel Good
Time", was recorded by pop singer Pink and included on the soundtrack of the 2003
film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.
(2004–present) Guero and The Information
In 2004, Beck returned to the studio to work on his sixth major-label album. The record, 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 2005 and enjoyed critical acclaim
from most mainstream press, earning four stars from Playboy and Rolling Stone, as
well as a "Critic's Choice" recognition from The New York Times. However, the
album received a less enthusiastic response from Beck's indie-oriented fanbase and a relatively low 6.6 (out of 10) score given
by Pitchfork. Nonetheless, the album debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts, pushing 162,000 copies in the first week and giving Beck his best week ever
in terms of commercial sales and chart position. Since the release of Guero, the first single, "E-Pro", has been well
received by the mainstream rock community, and has seen a large amount of play time. The second single, titled simply
"Girl", is a bright, upbeat song appearing at first to be about summer love; however, a
closer look at the lyrics reveals a darker side to the song. "Girl" received heavy airplay on various college radio stations. The
third and final single was "Hell Yes".
On February 1, 2005, Beck released an EP featuring four
remixes of songs from Guero by independent artists who use sounds from various video game devices like the
Nintendo Game Boy. The EP, titled GameBoy Variations, featured "Ghettochip Malfunction"
[Hell Yes] and "GameBoy/Homeboy" [Que' Onda Guero], both remixed by the band 8-Bit, and also had "Bad Cartridge" [E-Pro] and "Bit
Rate Variation in B-Flat" [Girl], the last two being remixed by Paza {The X-Dump}. The EP cover art shows a long-haired person
headbanging to his Game Boy, which is plugged into an amplifier like an electric guitar. This EP was featured in an issue of Nintendo Power. Also, a music video for "Gameboy/Homeboy" was also produced by Wyld File.
Beck plays at the Sasquatch Music Festival in George, Washington. The screens show puppets that emulated the band throughout the
show.
Beck performed at the music and arts festival Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tennessee on June
17, 2006. He performed many songs from his album Guero. In addition to his band, Beck
was accompanied onstage by a group of puppets, dressed as him and members of his band. Live video feed of the puppets'
performance was broadcast on video screens to the audience. The puppets were part of his 2006 world tour.
Beck's seventh major label studio album, The Information, which again reunited
him with Nigel Godrich, was released on October 3, 2006. The
album reportedly took more than three years to make and was described as "quasi hip-hop." It came with a sheet of
stickers, which were to be used to "make your own album cover."[17] The lead U.S. single, "Nausea", officially went to radio on September 5, 2006. In the UK, the first single was "Cellphone's Dead".[18] The Information in its entirety was leaked onto
the Internet in late September. On September 27, 2006, Beck
released a Yahoo! Music Unlimited exclusive track before the album was released, titled "Think
I'm In Love". Customers who purchased at Best Buy were treated to an exclusive download of an
outtake track titled "This Girl That I Know", whereas Target shoppers received
"Inside Out", both of which were on European versions of the disc. Some U.S. stores also included a bonus disc, featuring the
track "O Menina", which was also included in the Japanese release, along with the other two bonus tracks. Some copies of the
album include a bonus DVD of "homemade" (by Beck and Godrich) music videos for each song.[19] Because of its inclusion of free stickers, The Information was
disqualified by the Official Chart Company from entering the UK albums chart, but in the
U.S. the album gave Beck his third straight Top 10 studio album peak on the Billboard
200, reaching #7.
His latest single, "Timebomb", was released on iTunes on August 21, 2007.
Personal life
Beck married Marissa Ribisi, the twin sister of actor Giovanni Ribisi, in April 2004, shortly before the birth of their
son, Cosimo Henri Hansen. Ribisi gave birth to another child in 2007. [4]
Beck has been involved in Scientology for most of his life. His name appears in
Scientology literature in 2003, showing that he is a member and a donor. His wife, Marissa, is also a second-generation
Scientologist. Both Marissa and her twin brother, Giovanni, were delivered by Beck's mother, Bibbe.[20] Beck publicly acknowledged his affiliation with the
Church of Scientology for the first time in an interview published in the
New York Times Magazine on March 6,
2005. Further confirmation came in an interview with the Irish Sunday Tribune newspaper's i Magazine on June 11,
2005, where he was quoted as saying, "Yeah, I'm a Scientologist. My father has been a Scientologist
for about 35 years, so I grew up in and around it." When questioned by the interviewer about Scientology's core beliefs, he
replied, "What it actually is is just sort of, uh, you know, I think it's about philosophy and sort of, uh, all these kinds of,
you know, ideals that are common to a lot of religions. . . . There's nothing fantastical . . . just a real deep grassroots
concerted effort for humanitarian causes. I don't know if you know the stuff they have. It's unbelievable the stuff they are
doing. Education . . . they have free centres all over the place for poor kids. They have the number one [disputed] drug rehabilitation programme in the entire world (called Narconon). It has a 90-something % success rate . . . When you look at the actual facts and not what's conjured
in people's minds that's all bullshit to me because I've actually seen stuff first hand."[21]
Discography
-
Other media appearances
Television
Beck has performed on Saturday Night Live six times; these shows were
respectively hosted by Kevin Spacey, Bill Paxton,
Christina Ricci, Jennifer Garner,
Tom Brady and Hugh Laurie. He has made two cameo
appearances as himself on Saturday Night Live: one in a sketch about medical
marijuana, and one in a VH1 Behind the Music parody that featured "Fat Albert & the Junkyard Gang".
He has also performed a guest voice as himself in Matt Groening's animated show
Futurama, in the episode "Bendin' in the
Wind"
He performed in episode 10 of the fourth season of The Larry Sanders
Show, in which the producer character Artie (Rip Torn) referred to him as a
"hillbilly from outer space".
He also made a very brief voice appearance in 1998 cartoon feature film, The Rugrats
Movie' and guest starred as himself in a 1997 episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, entitled "Edelweiss".
In the music of other artists
- Beck has made cameo appearances in music videos for The White Stripes' "The Hardest Button to
Button" and The Stone Roses' "Love
Spreads".
- He contributed an infamous "phoned-in" rap and appeared in the music video for the Jon
Spencer Blues Explosion song "Flavor".
- A version of Windows Media Player comes with a sample of Beck's song "Beautiful
Way."
- Beck is featured as one of the artists performing in the North American Halloween Prevention, Inc. song, "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?"
- Beck contributed vocals to the original version of "I Am Music," a collaboration with the late Aaliyah and Timbaland.
- Beck makes an uncredited cameo on Macy Gray's album The Trouble With Being Myself, on the song "It Ain't the Money."
- Beck performed vocals on the tracks "Don't Be Light" and "The Vagabond" as well as harmonica on the latter, for the third
studio album, 10 000 Hz Legend, by the French electro Pop band Air.
- Beck did a remix to Björk's song "Alarm Call", for this song, he put his name as the 'Bjeck Mix'.
- Beck is referenced in the New Radicals hit song You Get What You Give.
- Beck duets with Emmylou Harris on the Gram
Parsons tribute album, Return of the Grievous Angel, performing Parsons' classic "Sin City."
- Beck appears on the tribute album More Oar: A Tribute to Alexander "Skip" Spence, performing the song "Halo of
Gold."
- Grandaddy's song Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground) has the lyrics "I try to sing
it funny like Beck..."
- The Flaming Lips reference their tour with Beck in the song "Thank You Jack White
for the Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me."
Filmography
- (1986), brief appearance playing accordion in a band
- Kill the Moonlight (1994), contributed "Leave Me on the Moon",
"Last Night I Traded My Souls Innermost for Some Pickled Fish" and "Underwater Music"
- subUrbia (1996), contributed "Feather in Your Cap"
- A Life Less Ordinary (1997), contributed "Deadweight"
- Bury Me in Kern County (1998), contributed "Megaboob"
- The Rugrats Movie (1998), contributed "This World Is Something New to Me"
with various other artists
- A Room for Romeo Brass (1999), contributed "O Maria" and "Dead
Melodies"
- Condo Painting (2000), contributed "Computer Girls"
- Heartbreakers (2001), contributed "Tropicalia"
- Moulin Rouge! (2001), contributed "Diamond Dogs"
- Southlander (2001), appeared in speaking role; played and sang "Puttin It Down"
and "Broken Train"
- City of Ghosts (2002), contributed "Blackhole"
- Adaptation. (2002), contributed "Dead Melodies"
- Holes (2003), contributed "He's a Mighty Good Leader"
- Along Came Polly (2004), contributed "Lost Cause"
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004),
contributed "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime"
- Just Like Heaven (2005), contributed "Strange Invitation"
- Inland Empire (2006), contributed "Black Tambourine"
