Missed Masterpieces: Beck

Several years ago, while driving home after dropping my daughter off at C.S.U. in Price, I threw Odelay (who someone had force-fed me) into the car CD player. One minute into “Devil’s Haircut,” I thought, "HOLY SHIT! NOBODY’S PLAYING ANYTHING LIKE THIS!"

If you want my opinion, Beck wrote three masterpieces and all his other albums are cheap imitations of the three.

Odelay is my favorite. And if I try and describe the music, I’d call it funk/rap. But like I said, it’s almost impossible to describe; nobody’s made anything like it, at least that I’ve heard (and that’s a shitload of music).

If I’m in a … a… what do you call it, more "acoustic" mood, it's Sea Change, which often gets compared to Gordon Lightfoot’s best stuff (“Rainy Day People”). The album couldn’t be more different than Odelay.

And then there’s his first album, Mellow Gold, which is the invention of acoustic punk, a sub-genre I love the hell out of.

I also saw Beck play live on Austin City Limits. The little squirrelly bastard kicks ass live. Who would have ever known?