FAME BECKONING A LOSER

Rip It Up, Issue 204, 1 August 1994, Page 22

FAME BECKONING A LOSER

For someone who started off not wanting to draw attention to himself, Beck has surely lost in that department, I am told to ring Beck at his home number which is in Highland Park, East LA, and his phone is a veritable hot line, which tells me there are a lot of people interested in Beck, there are people who want him to be famous whether he likes it or not! :

Beck, he of ‘Loser’ fame (Beck also has a fantastic album out called Mellow Gold, with equally good songs if you bother to listen. What about ‘Beercan’ and ‘Nitemare Hippy Girl’ and ‘Truck Drivin’ Neighbours Downstairs’? Jeez!) has had, from what I have read, the childhood and life that most of us here in New Zealand can only read about in alternative crazy generation novels that come out of America.

Beck grew up in several different places and scenes, he lived with his preacher grandfather in Kansas, and his other grandfather in Europe who was an artist who made things out of junk. Beck also says his father was a bluegrass street musician who carried him around in a knapsack when he played. Beck’s mother reportedly plays guitar in a band called Black Fag, and has played host (i.e let some punks sleep on her couch) to many punk rockers of the early LA 80s punk scene, including the infamous Darby Crash, who apparently crashed on her sofa once.

Yeah anyway . . . Beck’s influences are many and may surprise some people. Beck’s musical career started when he stumbled across some Woody Guthrie records when he was fifteen, just after he left school. Beck spent a year learning to play just about every Woody Guthrie song he had. He then took a trip to New York and hung around the anti-folk scene which spawned the likes of King Missile, and Beck would get on coffee house stages to play songs by Old Mississippi John Hurt and Old Blind Willy Johnson and the waitress gave him beers, which he thought was cool — he was only 15. He returned to L.A to jump on more coffee house stages, sometimes in a Star Wars mask to play music and noise until someone discovered ‘Loser’, and when the record companies heard it they all wanted to sign Beck, and promptly started a bidding war on their heliphones over LA . . .

When I first phone Beck he is talking to another interviewer and the second time I phone he is still on the line and tells me to wait because he’s almost done, so I wait . . . and wait. About ten minutes later Beck comes to the phone and we speak for about seven minutes before he has to

go and do another interview. Ah well. All the press that I have read on Beck is mostly a lot of non-sensical stream of consciousness stuff, (which I am rather fond of) but I can’t help but think in retrospect that the interviewers put all the wacky bits in themselves, because they expected Beck to be all wacky doo, but maybe he wasn’t.

Anyways, when I spoke to Beck he made perfect sense and was a/well spoken young man in all aspects. He sounded a little stressed out. Beck’s success could be attributed to a combination of good timimg and a marketable face, considering there are many folks doing the same things, esecially in America, where you can write about a potato chip and a dirty sock and it is relevant. . .

“I guess it was a mixture of things,” Beck says, “it was strange, because ‘Loser’ was sitting around for two years before anybody noticed it, so you can’t say it was ahead of its time or behind its time, it just found its way onto people’s stereos.” Quite, and many people have stated that ‘Loser’ is the anthem for the people of Generation X, all that outward sarcasm and slackerism, and ‘Loser’ is meant to epitomise that with the line ‘l’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me’. “It’s pretty much bullshit. I think it’s a last minute desperate attempt for people marketing and selling a product. You just can’t sell things anymore to young people cause they just don’t buy it. They’re smarter and more sceptical than any young people that have come before. My whole thing with the record company was I said just put my album out, don’t market it at all, it was kinda anti-marketing. That’s what it’ll be accused of, anti-marketing. I just don’t want it shoved in people’s faces. I want people to like it who wanna hear it. If they don’t like it then fine, but it doesn’t need to be crammed down people’s throats. I grew up when pop music was crammed down people’s throats.” Speaking of people ramming things down other’s throats, what about the fact that you are now a part of the rolling press machine that surrounds artists. Are people trying to tell you what to do?

“No, nobody tells me what to do, I just tell them to fuck off (laughs). I’ve done everything my own way, I’ve put out two albums independent of Geffen and I wouldn’t do it if somebody was telling me what to do. I just do it ‘cause it’s fun, y’know, and when it’s not I’ll do something else.” Has it happened that now that you are a famous sort of person, people who once might have looked upon you distastefully now look at you greedily because they see dollar signs? “Well, there is a certain element of that. But generally nobody treats me special, and I wouldn’t wanna be treated special. I’m not into the star trip and I don’t have a high opinion of myself, I’m a simple person.” Does being involved in an industry with a high male body count make you titchy? “Yeah, y’know that may be reflective of the industry, but in society at large that’s the case. But our sound lady — our soundperson is a woman. And in the industry of recorded music there’s very few woman, and they should definitely be supported. We were just looking for a guitar player, and we were gonna get this girl to play with us, but she couldn’t make it — but I think girls should be in bands and take over.”

Lately Beck has been the victim of the magazine ‘hype’ machine (including this magazine!) and his face has appeared on numerous covers, and for someone that didn’t ask for any of it this could

be scary . . . “It’s sort of bad because I can end up like a victim. They can take my image and make me look sour or dour or totally uninspired, they can do anything they want. I didn’t wanna be on any covers, that was one thing I said when I started, I said ‘I don’t want my picture all over the place’, I think that’s kinda dumb, sorta self-congratulatory. Yeah, so in America I was on the cover of Spin and some others and maybe people will have a bad opinion of me, some cheesy rock guy. But if I talk to them for half an hour and once they see that you think that’s all basically bullshit, which it is, then they open up a little bit. But it’s kinda sad — hopefully over time things will become real, right now it’s all sorta worked up.”

I was thinking today how there are no fat or ugly rock stars. I wonder if you were fat, ugly or pimply but had exactly the same personality and musical talent, would things be the same? “See I don’t know — (raises voice in astonishment) I don’t really think of myself as that (splutters) hot." No, I’m not saying you think that you are . . . (Still astonished) “I haven’t had a girlfriend for like two years." No, no, I just mean . . . (Calms down) “Yeah but I know what you mean, if I was a different colour or something, sure yeah, it’s kind of a weird world that way. Over the years though, when I was sorta trudging from jobs and stuff I was so, y’know, rejected by society, because of being underclass. There was a feeling of not being accepted ... because you don’t wear the right pants. Y’know, I’ve worked in the video store, and have had people coming in and treating me sorta like one of their minions. I know that feeling. Who’s to say, I mean the album sold piles of copies before anyone saw my face, and me being in the magazines kinda gave it all away, but before that I was playin’ shows and kids were coming up to me and telling me they thought I was black, or that I was 65 and that I had a big beard, or that I was this old man or somethin’.”

Well, there are no fat rock .stars in existence these days . . . “Well there used to be and that was a cool period. It’s a lot less now, people are more... you get the feeling that people are more beautiful looking now, the only people you see on TV are these perfect people, but back in like the 50s and 60s culture on TV they weren’t so good looking, they had individualistic features.”

You’ve always played in dodgy coffee bars, but who’s the wierdest person you’ve played with? “Playing with Evil Knevil was pretty strange (laughs). . .oh wait, I’ve gotta go I guess.” Oh okay, see you in Auckland then. “Yeah, I can’t wait. I hope your thing comes out good, have a good day.”

SHIRLEY-ANNE CHARLES