BECKOLOGY

Beck is one of the most unpredictable, interesting and collector-aware artists of his generation. Bob Dylan would like to be compared to him and Jason Draper spoke to him.

In 1994, with his worldwide hit single Loser (essentially a blues riff set to a beat box and rap vocals), Beck (or, Beck Hansen, née Bek Campbell) had arrived to show the world that anything would soon be possible. In 1996, his second major label album, Odelay, set the template for anyone looking to “genre-mix”. The album bounced across hip-hop, country, blues, folk, and funk, fusing it all together and earning Beck the title of “Most Important Man In The World” from Select magazine.

“I went through a long period where rock was just retread, and I wanted to hear something totally new,” Beck recalls. “I wasn’t a band, so I could just do what the hell I wanted. I didn’t take it seriously. I didn’t really think I was gonna be around that long. So I just sort of thought, I’m just gonna do whatever the fuck I want. And if everyone hates it and if I’m back working a menial job in two years, at least I’ll have gone down in a blaze of ridiculousness.”

In a career that will soon enter its third decade (if you include legions of home cassette albums, recorded for coffee house gigs, or friends and family members), this approach has made for one of the more interesting string of album releases to come from one solo artist since David Bowie.

Each new …

by Jason Draper
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