Hello fellow Orgers; bought the new Beck LP Guero today and was happily settling back listening to his funky new selection and it struck me (again) how similar Beck and Prince are in so many ways.

Obviously there's (very) noticeable differences but they've followed similar threads in both career moves and output, and of course stylistically there's many similarities, most obviously how they jump from one style to the next. Listenin to Midnite Vultures was like a Prince cut, what with the falsetto voice and slabs of juicy funk.

Odelay is obviously his 'Sign O The Times' too, both of which are just dripping from the seems with diversity,eclecticism and tunes!

Anyways, I'm rambling.

Thoughts?

I think Prince and Beck should make sweet love
and record an album together while making sweet love
then they should sit down and talk about thier differences
and find ways to be more similar, then they
should make more sweet love.

Funkster said:

NO

I think Beck is inspired by Prince and is probably a fan...and even took a few notes on how P does things musically. I also think he's an artist who loves making music and does his own thing. But...They don't sound THAT much alike. They are each unique and very original. I think that in 10 years we can come back to this and have more comparisons certainly.

gvnblkr said:

Inspired.

Anyways, there's just no doubting the comparisons; Peaches and Cream, Deborah etc off Midnite Vultures are pure Prince.

both BEck on his midnight Vultures tour, and Prince (specifically in that '88 aftershow where he is actually singing "Miss You") owe much visual style and mannerism to Mick Jagger from 1969 Altamont concert. Check it out.... rent "gimme shelter"

by the way this concert film had an unknown george lucas working on in it as a cameraman.

A murder happens during that concert and its ensuing chaos is on the film...

I saw Beck live a few years ago and he played "Erotic City" as an encore complete with Princely-esque splits! I think he's a great artists, but I really should make the effort to buy some of his CDs!

prince and beck are by far my favourite artists. i've never been into any other artists as much as these two. in fact there's not a beck record that i don't like. most of them i adore.

'odelay', 'midnite vultures', 'guero' are all incredible records. the production is immaculate and all three albums are extremely diverse. 'sea change' and 'mutations' are less diverse but extremely pure and beautiful records, especially 'sea change', even if it's a little sombre. 'mellow gold' is seriously underated in my opinion. it kicks ass! and all his other lo-fi stuff is really experimental/bootleggy and to me is special as it shows a really intimate side of beck.

as for prince, he has so many records that there are bound to be some i don't really like as much as others but as albums go, 'sign o' the times', '1999', 'around the world in a day', 'dirty mind', 'parade', 'lovesexy', 'black album' and 'purple rain' are my favourites. i was 13 when i fist heard SOTT and was so impressionable at that time that the whole of that era will always be special to me.

I like Beck, I love Prince
Beck is definitely influenced by P
It would be cool to see them do something together
something real funky and electric
yeah

toejam said:

Yeah..I like Beck too...
I gotta grab some of his stuff.....

thekidsgirl said:

Funkster said:

So because dude has a couple songs that sound like P,you wanna group 'em together? If that's the case, then there are a google of artists (myself included) who are "two of a kind with Prince. When Loser comes within close range of Prince's multi-intstrumentalism, production savvy, longevity, dancing,and overall respect, let me know.

Dino produced, arranged, perfomed his shit. In that respects, they are very alike.

thesexofit said:

Exactly

gvnblkr said:

Classic - your powers of discussion are about as impressive as a dead rat.

Of course their similarities extend further than a handful of songs. Amongst other things, one aspect comparable between Beck/Prince is their scope and artistic influence. Where Prince led the field in artistic endeavour in the 80s Beck was rarely equalled by solo artists for leading the mainstream in the 90s. For many both Beck and Prince were the zeitgeist of their respective decades.

Odelay defines an entire decade under one groove; what with its Dust Brothers-heavy samples, the slacker-grunge mentality rubbing off on a generation of bands plus nods to Americana, soul and everything in between.

Another device Beck employs brilliantly is marrying sterotypically 'white-boy' music like college rock with stereotypical 'black' music like hip-hop and soul - few artists manage to do with such mass appeal (and actually pulling it off) - but Prince did it in the 80s and Beck has successfully repeated the act in the 90s. I'd be surprised to find a similar solo artist taking such commercial risks as Beck did too - with the release of the commercially viable Midnite Vultures subsequently followed by the (what some considered) artistic suicide of Sea Change. Again Prince has done this 'n' number of times in his career.

Anyways, you've completely missed my point; and attempted to belittle an argument which you clearly aren't up for discussing coherently. I'm not saying Beck is exactly like Prince - for that would be ridiculous - I was merely pointing out the vast similarities and throwing it up for discussion.

Maybe you could offer up some of your artistic offerings so we could add you into the equation; however if your abilities to deliberate are anything to go by I'd consider you to be tone deaf as well as dumb.

Funkster said:

It's not that serious to call me dumb, you generalizing prick. All those 5 o' clock words don't mean shit to me. My cuts are tight. Dead rats ARE impressive. Beck sucks. You ain't funky at all.

gvnblkr said:

Generalizing prick - never had that one before - I like it!

Anyways, since you’re clearly out of the loop both when it comes to music, intellect, discussion techniques, the impressiveness of dead vermin
and Beck's irrefutable talent, means you have no right to judge my funkiness. Apologies on that front. Get back to me when you've done your homework.

But anyways; enough of this '5 o'clock' wordsmithism you so quite oafishly refer to, Beck and Prince's similarities are as a transparent as the day is short; and you Gavin have the foresight of sand-bound ostrich.
[Edited 3/29/05 19:18pm]

Funkster said:

Poor Junkster. Oaf sad you no get laid. Have no life outside thesaurus. But it really not that serious. Maybe if post was called are Loser and Prince alike, not so many problem.





Such nastiness.

I saw Beck in Minneapolis a couple of years ago. Pretty good show. He mentioned that a "special guest" was going to show up. Later in the show he said, "It looks like our special guest isn't going to show up after all, but we'll do one of his songs anyway". Then he went into a pretty good rendition of Erotic City. Too bad Prince didn't show up. It would have been a hell of a show.

Victor333 said:

He woulda shut Mr. Hansen's ass down!!!
[Edited 3/29/05 20:12pm]

Jesus Christ you people who think you're "funkier" than everyone else and that no one can have ANY similarities to Prince?.... just hilarious.

From an artistic perspective, Prince and Beck DO have similarities. Beck doesn't COPY Prince and he doesn't claim to hold a candle to him on an instrumental front. Sure he's been INFLUENCED by him, but if you can't accept the difference between inspiration and plagiarism then God help you. Both of them are GREAT artists who mix and match a lot of styles with ease, so just settle down, ok?

mrdespues said:

Amen to that.

Oh did I mention Beck can do the splits too!

Beck is very average.
Can't sing either.

mrdespues said:

Co-sign . Beck is an amazing artist

Beck is a great musician and there are definately some Prince influences in his music. The problem I have with lifting him up to the level of Prince and my other favorites is that I can never take him seriously. His music does not reveal much about him except that he likes to mix it up and have fun. I need more substance.

Help me out if I have missed something here?

That being said, I do plan to get his latest release.

I would say that some comparisons could be made musically, but lyrically Beck is waaayyyy too spaced out. His lyrics hardly ever mean anything to me. Too cryptic and trying to be too clever.... He never lets the listener get to know him... I think he sounds pretentious at times which diminishes his standing in my opinion... Great music though...

PrinceOscar said:

Have you tried Sea Change or Mutations - both of which reveal the more introspective aspect of Beck's music. Mutations is a must purely for Nobodies Fault But My Own while Sea Change is quite a melancholic affair, so may be quite a shock to the system for those wishing for a repeat of Odelay or Vultures.

I'm going to just give you my thoughts the very first time I saw
Beck perform live...

"That's a poor (very poor) white man's impression of Prince"

I do like Midnight Vultures though...he's crafty in the studio,
but alot of people are. Prince is the TOTAL PACKAGE.

PrinceOscar said:

That's my impression. I must admit it's not an expert opinion because I never really got into Beck enough to say for sure. Like all of the greats nobody really compares to Prince such that they are very similar. Beck is more on the level of TTD which is to say he's gifted but he's not one of those few artists for the ages.

whodknee said:

Beck is no more of a "fun" musician than Prince is, really. Prince has many moments that are equally humourous (eg. "Bob George", etc). Listen to Sea Change and Mutations and you'll see he's not a novelty act, although it's somewhat true that he started out that way.