{"id":185,"date":"2008-08-25T11:35:02","date_gmt":"2008-08-25T16:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/?p=185"},"modified":"2008-08-25T11:35:02","modified_gmt":"2008-08-25T16:35:02","slug":"the-beck-oeuvre-song-7-acropolis-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/2008\/08\/25\/the-beck-oeuvre-song-7-acropolis-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beck Oeuvre: Song #7 “Acropolis Now”"},"content":{"rendered":"

This<\/a> odd little recording is next up! It was only released, when it was streamed on beck.com a few years back. This post is a little long so let’s just get started:<\/p>\n

Funkatron<\/b>:<\/p>\n

\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get to dine out on this one much, but I thought it worth sharing with the people who it would appeal to most.<\/p>\n

Back in September 2006 I got to interview Beck for the second time, this time in connection with The Information,<\/i> and this time face-to-face, after the phoner we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d had in 2005. Not only Beck, but also Justin [Meldal-Johnsen], who sat with us on the 40-minute interview, making it the first time I had to interview two people at once. We spoke about a few of his songs, and I might go back to those bits later on The Oeuvre, but for the moment let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s see is anyone cares about this, ha ha..<\/p>\n

After chatting a lot about The Information<\/i>, we got to talking about the back catalogue and Beck mentioned having piles of old cassettes from the early 90s laying about. I thought that maybe some sort of rarities collection could be compiled to take care of all of this stuff.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m like any musician,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the way the music business is structured, you sort of get one shot every year or two. I mean that, every two or three years to put out a record. And you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re inevitably going to end up with a lot of extra stuff that you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really know what to do with, or it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not, you know, the record company won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put any interest in it, or what-not. I started to put stuff up on my website.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

It sounded like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Acropolis Now\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to me, which had been posted online just a few months before, so I thought perhaps this was a good time to bring it up. Beck sort of trailed off with, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yeah, that was my, uh, concept band\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d while Justin gave it an enthusiastic, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the shit!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Beck:<\/b> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been working on for years.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

A concept band?<\/p>\n

Beck:<\/b> “Well, just sort of a concept. I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say it was a band. I did this, uh, performance art piece years ago<\/a>, uh, where I was recreating, sort of, Yanni at the Acropolis<\/i><\/a> concert? Gone horribly wrong [laughs]. So, it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c “<\/p>\n

Justin:<\/b> “My fondest memory. Ever.”<\/p>\n

Beck:<\/b> “Yeah. We all sort of dressed up in these New Age clothes, and I had a sort of headset mic going through a robot voice and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I think we had, like, porpoise sounds. And it just escalated into more ridiculousness, and then the whole thing about how dolphins and technology were gonna save the world. And then a giant dolphin with a giant phallus comes out and starts having sex with this giant cardboard computer we created. And then we chainsawed DX7s and then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 over.”<\/p>\n

That sounds insane.<\/p>\n

Justin:<\/b> “That does sound insane.”<\/p>\n

Beck:<\/b> “Yeah, it is. \u00e2\u20ac\u2122Cause I, I think at the time I was thinking, there was so much of this sort of [Justin laughs] You know, growing up with punk rock and, you know, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the most underground \u00e2\u20ac\u201c what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the most extreme thing you can do?”<\/p>\n

Justin:<\/b> “Yeah, yeah.”<\/p>\n

Beck:<\/b> “And it was kind of \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in the 90s it was getting piercings and tattoos, and bands wearing, like, masks. Kinda taking it so far, and it was sort of becoming so, uhm, such overkill, and it was losing the effect of shock. And so I, I got to a point \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one time we were in Texas somewhere in a rental car, me and the band. And, uh, Enya came on the radio and we all started \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and then we said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Turn that fucking shit up!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d”<\/p>\n

Justin:<\/b> “Turn that shit up!”<\/p>\n

Beck:<\/b> “We turned it all the way up so that the speakers were distorting and exploding, and it just sounded like the heaviest shit you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever heard, and we were all banging our heads. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably where the idea came from. Heavy New Age.”<\/p>\n

I guess the dolphin thing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interesting, since Beck had also played what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s become known as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Touch Dolphins<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in Amsterdam in June the same year<\/a>. The best thing about this whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Acropolis Now\u00e2\u20ac\u009d part of the interview, however, is that they were both laughing throughout \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Justin in particular \u00e2\u20ac\u201c yet totally committed to the idea behind it. That it only ended up online for a short period of time for no fee is testament, I guess, to how prolific Beck is, and that he clearly just pounds out the music for his own sake. Not many people would go to the bother of full costumes, props and stage design for something no one else is going to see? I kind of feel that, in that respect, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much like Prince, who records umpteen full-production videos in Paisley Park for his own enjoyment. Pharrell Williams once said Prince, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He will continue to make great records as long as he wants to. A man like that cannot be stopped,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and I think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a definite parallel to be drawn somewhere.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Vitamin.Deb<\/b>:<\/p>\n

\n

When this first showed up at beck.com, I listened to it once, laughed, and promptly forgot about it until now. On this listen, I got a much heartier laugh out of it and it sort of gave me a mini-anxiety episode. It’s just very evocative of that feeling of bliss I get when my baby falls asleep \u00e2\u20ac\u201ceverything’s good, lah-de-dah, flowers and rainbows, and then BOOM, I sneeze really loud, or my husband drops something on the kitchen floor, or a car alarm goes off outside \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and she wakes up. Waaaahhhhhh!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Brian LeBarton<\/b> (Beck’s keyboardist, on his MySpace around the time this was recorded):<\/p>\n

\n

Twas a wondrous week of Yanni and Cannibal Corpse.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Newt<\/b>:<\/p>\n

\n

Some thoughts as I listen:<\/p>\n

More like aCRAPolis now! Ohhhh burn!<\/p>\n

Nah, I’m just kidding. This song’s alright, I guess. This is the kinda thing I would expect people to release on their websites: far too weird and far too crappy for a real release, half-assed production, etc. It isn’t that it’s bad, really, it’s just that it’s…I dunno, filler?<\/p>\n

Most of it is pretty I guess. I kinda wonder who is playing the piano or whatever, and if any of the piano bits were written\/planned, or if the person was just kinda jamming on it.<\/p>\n

Actually, this kinda reminds me of the little date interlude things (“11.6.45 \/ 8.4.82 \/ 8.6.82”<\/a>) that Beck did, only more modern. Beck has better technology and equipment, but he’s still just kinda fucking around and playing with sound and stuff. This is like Stereopathetic 2006<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I was about to write that the song was longer than I thought, and that it should have been over by now. Then I realized I had it looping. Heh.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

AlmostAGhost<\/b>:<\/p>\n

\n

I wrote a drabble<\/a> (a story with exactly 100 words):<\/p>\n

“Acropolis Now”<\/p>\n

We’re here! The cruise across the Mediterranean has finally arrived. The sea air would do us good, and the chance to experience Greece? Excitement. This Greek trip was a long time coming.<\/p>\n

Visions of history \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The Olympics! The Parthenon! Aristotle! Yanni!!! — swam around our minds. It was a beautiful sunny day. Where to first? Clearly, it had to be the Acropolis, now. The cab ride was not long, stopping at the hotel could wait.<\/p>\n

The real journey began\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhalfway around the world, headed to the Acropolis. We arrive, the impressive building before us. A strange man approaches, carrying a…. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And finally, if you haven’t heard the song, here it is for download<\/del>. (file since removed, sorry!)<\/p>\n

“Ain’t Your Time To Go” from one of Beck’s legendary KCRW shows is next!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This odd little recording is next up! It was only released, when it was streamed on beck.com a few years back. This post is a little long so let’s just get started: Funkatron: I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get to dine out on this one much, but I thought it worth sharing with the people who it would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beck","category-oeuvre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197,"href":"https:\/\/whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions\/197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskeyclone.net\/papertiger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}