- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Boxtree Ltd (24 Mar 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0752271431
- ISBN-13: 978-0752271439
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.2 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,431,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Beck Hansen's single "Loser" was the anthem of the slacker generation and since then he has had two million-selling albums "Mellow Gold", and "Odelay", both considered to be amongst the best albums of the 90s, and won a handful of Grammys and Brits. His concerts are always sell-outs. Beck's life story is as extraordinary as the records he produces. His grandfather was one of the leaders of the 1960s avante-garde movement Fluxus, his mother was a Warhol starlet and his father a bluegrass musician. His childhood and adolescence spent in LA, Bible-belt Kansas, and the bohemian scene of Cologne led to the huge range of influences in his music, from hip-hop and punk to blues and spirituals. "Beautiful Monstrosity" tells the full story of Beck Hansen and explores the mythology that already surrounds this young man.
From the Author
Mystic Regulation at the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville
'YOU KNOW THAT FEAR, WHEN YOU GET UP IN THE MORNING, THAT'S ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE, BABY. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU GOT TO DO TO GET OVER THAT FEAR, YOU GOT TO REGULATE!' he exhorts, getting half the audience to respond to his shouted plea. Beck's regulation seems something almost mystic, a means by which to decode the puzzles he is presenting, urging his audience to work their way into a new mode of thinking. To submit to flux and turn off the static; the static that pervades modern culture.
'YOU KNOW THAT FEAR, WHEN YOU GET UP IN THE MORNING, THAT'S ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE, BABY. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU GOT TO DO TO GET OVER THAT FEAR, YOU GOT TO REGULATE!' he exhorts, getting half the audience to respond to his shouted plea. Beck's regulation seems something almost mystic, a means by which to decode the puzzles he is presenting, urging his audience to work their way into a new mode of thinking. To submit to flux and turn off the static; the static that pervades modern culture.
The magic moment that encapsulates Beck's performance comes during an incendiary 'High 5 (Rock The Catskills)' as Beck shouts out the verses with all the maniacal fervour of Luigi Russolo winding his Futurist noise machines. He is dancing like a Jajoukan Pan at the height of his ecstasy, rubbing a soft-shoe at the lip of the stage. He shakes his slight hips with such vigour you pray he won't fall into the pit. Then comes the Zen moment – a low-lying bank of monitors jut out from the stage at an angle, directly in the line of Beck's gyrations. Beck leaps backwards over the monitors, as nimble as Nijinsky, without a glance, chicken-scratching riffs Jimmy Nolan-style on his guitar.
That strikes me like nothing else in his performance. I'm amazed at how sure-footed he is, how he doesn't trip and how he is up there with all the confidence, humour and aplomb so conspicuous by its absence in so much of our generation. It is liberating to see someone shake off the cloak of apathy, the numbness of cynicism. It isn't that he is infallible, but just that he is human, talented and doing it, not just thinking or talking about it. And most importantly, he is succeeding. In Beck's phrase, they were 'doing it to it'.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a little creepy and unsettling, and not in a way that's flattering to the subject or the writer.
The writer uses fictional obserations a lot, e.g.
"This afternoon Beck is taking a walk through the Museum... Beck walks passed the pictures..."
Maybe he did, but Julian Palancios sure wasn't there. And that's the big problem with this book, the writer doesn't know the artist (in fact whilst recounting his single brief meeting with Beck it's obvious the artist thought him just another crazy, obsessive, fan), so it's a book of best-guess observations, personal adoration and dime-a-dozen comments on the fluxus movement all woven together in a discography.
If you're a Beck fan there's no new insight here, if you're new to Beck spend your money on the music instead.
The Information
The writer uses fictional obserations a lot, e.g.
"This afternoon Beck is taking a walk through the Museum... Beck walks passed the pictures..."
Maybe he did, but Julian Palancios sure wasn't there. And that's the big problem with this book, the writer doesn't know the artist (in fact whilst recounting his single brief meeting with Beck it's obvious the artist thought him just another crazy, obsessive, fan), so it's a book of best-guess observations, personal adoration and dime-a-dozen comments on the fluxus movement all woven together in a discography.
If you're a Beck fan there's no new insight here, if you're new to Beck spend your money on the music instead.
The Information
Format:Paperback
Well, imagine a book that trawls through the Delta Blues, takes in the elektro phase of early hip hop in the Bronx, mentions Woody Guthrie, Marshall McLuhan and a seven foot tall drag queen name of Ms. Vaginal Davis. Take the roundabout in Greenwich Village and squatter shacks, bong hits in Los Angeles' Silverlake and about two thousand other things. WTO protestors and folk streamed through punk rock, the Knitting Factory's skronk and some contaption known only as a Discobox. L.A. riots and runny Belgian cheeses on tour, Kraftwerk and Son House. A happening with Mssr. Beck Hansen presiding, breakdancing and offering some insights on America's class problems and the Spectacle. Enough to offend and/or intrigue until the pages are creased and torn. Dig it!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
2 of 7 people found the following review helpful
The Beck Book
10 Jun 2001
Format:Paperback
I think this book is awesome (I am currently reading it), it has tons of stuff included in it. Everything from his background to his discography, and the discography is not only a list, it tells all about his songs and albums. The only reason I did not give it a 5 was because it did not have too many pictures, and the few it had, I did not think they were that good. So if you are looking for a book with lots of pictures, this is not it. But if you just want to learn more about him and his work's affect on people, get it! I think it was worth the price.
1 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Beautiful,Beautiful,Beautiful Monstrosity!
1 Jun 2001
Format:Paperback
This book is probbaly the most worthy of all the Beck books out there, it is VERY insightful and full of wonderfull analisies of concerts and preformances. They actually went to the source for information... unlike some of the other books. I also recommend Beck and AL Hansen Playing with Matches... very inspriational!!! and almost a thesis for life and art. and also Beck on a Backwords river. cute interviews and stories from his childhood!
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