a guest series, courtesy of a very friendly lawyer
Beckoning
When I moved to L.A. in 1991 there was a lot of buzz around this skinny kid, Beck, who was some kind of lo-fi folk punk instigator. He’d show up at local haunts like the Alligator Lounge and Jabberjaw with an acoustic guitar and a gas-powered leaf blower. He was quirky and funny, and part of a homegrown scene. Mom and pop record stores carried his vinyl releases, which sometimes included little paintings and drawings he made with his friends.
Then ‘Loser’ came out, and you know the rest.
Since that landmark single was released in 1993, Beck’s made all kinds of great music. It would be surprising that no one’s come up with an ICA for him, but there are so many stellar songs to choose from it would take ages to narrow down a list of 10. Thankfully, he’s been equally prolific collaborating with other musicians, making the selection process for those efforts a bit easier. Here’s a look at some killer tracks featuring Beck on other people’s records. No matter the genre you always know it’s him.
The Valley of the Pagans. Gorillaz.
From their seventh studio LP, Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez. A collection of videos and singles the 2D band recorded with the likes of Peter Hook, Elton John, St. Vincent, and many others.
Wiki tells me that M83 is a pinwheel galaxy. I thought it might be a bus route! Not sure what the French electropopsters’ particular astronomical interests are, but it’s a sweet little number.
10,000 Hz Legend was the band’s second album, released in 2001. In addition to Beck singing and playing harmonica on a couple of songs, the album features a crowd of interesting folks. Justin Meldal-Johnsen and Roger Manning were both in Beck’s band at the time. Dr. Rigberg‘s buddy Jason Falkner shows up on a few numbers, too. The legendary Corky Hale plays harp on one track. She’s had a very long musical career in jazz, ran an eponymous boutique on Sunset Boulevard, was a teacher at Planned Parenthood, and founded Angel Harvest, a charity that distributes restaurant food to the needy. And she’s married to Mike Stoller of the Lieber-Stoller songwriting duo, who wrote a fair number of Elvis Presley‘s hits.
Heaven Can Wait. Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Beck produced and wrote most of the songs on IRM, third LP by the sexy chanteuse. Our friends Mssrs. Johnsen and Falkner also turned up on the record.
Death Valley High. Orville Peck.
Just your average South African gay cowboy in a fringed mask. From his most recent album, Stampede.
Night Running. Cage The Elephant.
From Social Cues, the band’s fifth album. Here the Kentucky outfit branched out musically, adding complex orchestrations. Beck’s dad, David Campbell, is an accomplished conductor and composer, and he did the string arrangements. (He also did the arrangements on the Charlotte Gainsbourg album featured earlier in the set.)
Attracted To Us. The Lonely Island.
Andy Samberg was a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live for seven years. If you’re a successful comedian you get to marry Joanna Newsom and make goofy records with other celebrities. In addition to Beck, Turtleneck & Chain featured famous folks like Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, cult filmmaker John Waters and…Michael Bolton?
Skipping Like a Stone. Chemical Brothers.
This is from For That Beautiful Feeling, released in 2023. It’s cool that more than 30 years after he hit the scene all kinds of musicians are still interested in collaborating with Beck. In fact, most of today’s songs were released after the pandemic.
The Akron, Ohio duo are a couple of the only artists as prolific as Beck. They’ve released 14 albums since their 2002 debut, not to mention solo records, all kinds of guest appearances, and the producing that singer/guitarist Dan Auerback gets up to. This is from 2024’s Ohio Players.
Flavor. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
TVV stalwart Chaval recently observed “Everyone Scottish likes The Proclaimers. it’s the law.” Not all New Yorkers are as devoted to JSBX, but they ought to be (even though they didn’t have a bass player). The band were like NYC in a way–an exciting mix of a lot of different things: blues, funk, punk, garage rock, urban raunch, and rockabilly, with Spencer waving a theremin wand around. Beck literally phoned in his rap for the tune. You can hear him asking, “was that good?” to which Spencer replies, “You got the flava!” Beck also shows up in the video for the song, along with Mike D. from the Beastie Boys.
Jonny
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 