“Have you heard Beck’s new album? After about 20 hours with it I’ve still only heard seven songs out of 20. That’s because I’m a mediocre musician, with poor sight-reading skills and no piano handy, and Song Reader, if you didn’t already know, is just sheet music. No CD, no link to downloadable MP3s, nada. I have to puzzle out the melodies on my guitar, drawing on long forgotten undergraduate music theory to get the rhythms right. It is a pain in the ass. The album would sound better if it were professionally recorded, by a real artist. And yet. When I finally manage to play through ‘I’m Down,’ and ‘America, Here’s My Boy,’ and ‘Do We? We Do,’ it is revelatory. I have just channeled Beck’s spirit through printed paper! The first versions of Beck’s songs I hear are my own! This is an amazing feeling.” - Beautiful and Exciting and Profoundly Different: On Beck’s Song Reader by Alan Levinovitz
Pop-upView Separately

“Have you heard Beck’s new album? After about 20 hours with it I’ve still only heard seven songs out of 20.

That’s because I’m a mediocre musician, with poor sight-reading skills and no piano handy, and Song Reader, if you didn’t already know, is just sheet music. No CD, no link to downloadable MP3s, nada. I have to puzzle out the melodies on my guitar, drawing on long forgotten undergraduate music theory to get the rhythms right. It is a pain in the ass. The album would sound better if it were professionally recorded, by a real artist.

And yet. When I finally manage to play through ‘I’m Down,’ and ‘America, Here’s My Boy,’ and ‘Do We? We Do,’ it is revelatory. I have just channeled Beck’s spirit through printed paper! The first versions of Beck’s songs I hear are my own! This is an amazing feeling.”

- Beautiful and Exciting and Profoundly Different: On Beck’s Song Reader by Alan Levinovitz

40 Notes/ Hide

  1. implode-on-impact reblogged this from cakespeare
  2. cakespeare reblogged this from millionsmillions
  3. amerikantimes reblogged this from millionsmillions
  4. honeybadgerchild reblogged this from millionsmillions
  5. mildhorror reblogged this from citylightscomebackinjune
  6. monroelibraryloyno reblogged this from millionsmillions
  7. citylightscomebackinjune reblogged this from millionsmillions
  8. stillcr8ingme26 reblogged this from millionsmillions
  9. monkeybicycle-lit-mag reblogged this from millionsmillions
  10. kthread reblogged this from millionsmillions and added:
    The first versions of Beck’s songs I hear are my own! That’s the genius in it.
  11. chaffandgrain reblogged this from millionsmillions
  12. millionsmillions posted this