From Neil Young to David Bowie: The five best covers by Beck
An alternate universe where Beck is remembered as a Beavis and Butt-Head-flavoured Vanilla Ice isn’t too far removed from reality. His moment in the spotlight could have easily left him branded as a one-hit wonder. As brilliant as his signature song is, lyrics like “goin’ crazy with the cheese-whiz” didn’t exactly help his case. In fact, in a podcast recorded for Audible’s Words + Music series, Beck reflected on being labelled a one-hit wonder for years following the worldwide success of ‘Loser’.
As he recalls, “I just remember myriad articles and headlines of ‘one-hit wonder joke band Beck,’ ‘novelty act.’ I felt very dismissed and kind of, like, a bit of a footnote.” For most artists, escaping an early persona requires reinvention, but for Beck, it felt more like evolution. After all, there was never a sense that he was particularly ashamed of his early work.
What is Odelay but a more sophisticated and more fun version of his early work? No, instead, with every new record, he reveals more about his musical omnivorousness. Making records influenced by everything from 1960s garage rock (Modern Guilt), ’80s funk (Midnite Vultures) and, most successfully, lush ’70s singer-songwriter folk (Sea Change and Morning Phase).
His exquisite taste in covers also shows off the range and versatility of his music. He’s able to take artists from Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan to Sonic Youth and The Velvet Underground and interpret them in a way that’s entirely his own. Here are five of the best of them for your listening pleasure.
Beck’s five best covers:
5. ‘Old Man’ – Neil Young
What is it that makes a cover truly sing? Many would, understandably, turn their noses up at one like this. A version of Neil Young’s masterpiece which sticks to the template set by the world’s only cantankerous Canadian pretty faithfully. To me, that’s only half the story. The other half is the context the artist covering the song brings to the table.
This cover showed that Beck, the poster child for ’90s irony and post-modernist genre-mashing, could also play it straight. He could pay tribute to the greats and embody the quiet melancholy that aches through this song without a hint of a joke or the impressionistic quality he invokes in his own quieter moments. Legitimately powerful.
4. ‘Sin City’ – Gram Parsons (feat. Emmylou Harris)
Beck is not a man known for collaboration. In fact, this was one of the counterarguments to the outrage that greeted Morning Phase’s victory over Beyoncé’s self-titled masterpiece for ‘Album of the Year’ at the 2015 Grammys. While Bey’s effort had a Joyce novel’s worth of writer and producer credits, Morning Phase had precisely one. Beck Hanson.
This collaboration with Emmylou Harris shows just how well Beck can play with others when he wants to. His voice dovetails the country music icon’s own in a way that shows that just because the writer of the song is gone doesn’t mean his spirit is too.
3. ‘Diamond Dogs’ – David Bowie
You may have noticed this list leans heavily on Beck, the troubadour—acoustic guitars and blazers aplenty. Here, however, we see Beck as the complete opposite, collaborating with Timbaland to transform one of the Thin White Duke’s most anarchic, swaggering rockers into a menacing, icy industrial pop jam.
In fact, this is a collaboration within a collaboration. The song came about due to working with Baz Luhrmann on the soundtrack to his jumped-up failure of a jukebox musical Moulin Rouge. Beck was originally going to compose an original score for the film until Baz, in his infinite wisdom, decided to use modern pop songs and thus we got a badly edited showgirls can-canning to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. C’est la vie.
2. ‘Parasite’ – Nick Drake
At first glance, Beck’s discography might not make it obvious, but nearly all of his music is deeply rooted in folk and blues. From his early days busking on the streets and public transport of Los Angeles, he would freestyle about the world around him in a surreal style that bridged the gap between Robert Johnson and De La Soul.
You can see it if you know what to look for. There’s a reason that ‘Loser’ is built around a proudly pre-’50s slide guitar riff. However, in 2005, Beck paid tribute to his roots in a much clearer way, posting three phenomenal Nick Drake covers to his official website. ‘Parasite’ is the pick of the bunch, his elegant production finding new depths in an already classic song.
1. ‘True Love Will Find You In The End’ – Daniel Johnston
Above all, though, Beck is an outsider.
A maverick whose joke song he made with an acquaintance made him a superstar in a way that he never expected, and then responded to this success by continuing to follow his artistic instincts no matter where they led him. With that in mind, it’s clear he felt, if not a kinship, then at least a deep empathy for the icon of outsider music, Daniel Johnston.
Beck’s gruff voice, compared to Johnston’s boyish keenness, gives this song a weary wisdom that deepens the romantic optimism of the original. This cover unites both artists in a way the pair can be proud of. They were never afraid to be anything other than themselves, and we all can learn from that today.
