Comments on: Beck's new album is sheet-music only

By: MrJM

MrJM — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:14:00 +0000

And they claim there’s nothing Xenu under the sun.

By: esquire

esquire — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Agreed. It’s a cool idea and maybe lots of cool stuff will come out of it, but I’m thinking Beck had a bunch of songs he wasn’t that into and he said, “Hey, what if…”

By: Trey Roady

Trey Roady — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:09:00 +0000

While this is a fun idea, I can see a direct problem with it. I, for one, will not be listening to this album because I can’t read sheet and don’t have the time or energy to devote to learning sheet.

Also, my playing abilities are likely too subpar to really get a good sound of it.

A few people who are excellent musicians might get a really nice experience out of this, but otherwise the rest of us are going to have to pass on this.

By: Alex Seigfried

Alex Seigfried — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:30:00 +0000

This is cool. There should be a contest on Youtube for who can play the best version of each song.

By: Julianne Sherrod

Julianne Sherrod — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:16:00 +0000

No Dave. You do not. The article states that the music has not ever been released or recorded, and bringing it to live depends on you.

By: kjh

kjh — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 07:13:00 +0000

Surely that’s a bit ejaculatist of you? Not everyone is an ejaculater.

By: mat catastrophe

mat catastrophe — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 03:13:00 +0000

Which is not what I said he was going to do.

By: Halldin Marcus

Halldin Marcus — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 22:22:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUIAc1lFy6E

This is what happens when you let other people cover becks´s music :(

By: Thom

Thom — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:23:00 +0000

Lots of people make money writing music, then collecting royalties when someone else records that music.

By: L_Mariachi

L_Mariachi — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 23:55:00 +0000

He was pretty much born into Scientology. He didn’t join a cult, he just didn’t leave it.

By: mat catastrophe

mat catastrophe — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 23:21:00 +0000

That’s not something I’d hold against him, as it isn’t anything he could really control.

On the other hand, joining a cult is something you can control.

By: lafave

lafave — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 19:02:00 +0000

al bum (noun)

4. a printed book containing an anthology of writings, reproductions of photographs or artwork, musical compositions, etc.

By: RJ

RJ — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 18:36:00 +0000

There’s no question that it is an album, but for brevity’s sake, it would be easier to call it a song book.

By: EH

EH — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 17:25:00 +0000

Crap, I keep forgetting that he’s a Scientooter! Does that mean he’s gay, too?

By: Deidzoeb

Deidzoeb — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 16:25:00 +0000

Agreed, and I’d have to buy it for my wife.

By: Ian Wood

Ian Wood — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:26:00 +0000

My new album isn’t even sheet music. You have to imagine the songs on your own.

Not yet! It’s $10.99.

Stop that! Fucking pirate.

By: Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine

Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:23:00 +0000

It isn’t even a stretch at all: before recordings, collections of songs/piano pieces were the main format that the middle-class would buy music in, and they were known as… albums!

I’ve always assumed that this was what our modern usage of “album” for recordings evolved from, though that’s only a guess.

By: jmdaly

jmdaly — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:19:00 +0000

I think it is completely reasonable to consider this an album. All albums are legally made up of two portions, the publishing side, and the master side. The master side refers to the actual recordings of the music, the sonics, ect. The publishing refers to the concepts, the notes, the sheet music. These two things are separate. For instance if you recorded a song by the beatles and put it on your “album” you would own the master recording, but the beatles would still own the publishing, the concept of the song. This is an album where the master recordings are absent. I think this is a totally exciting thing. When one reads music there are infinite modes of interpretation possible. The music can be executed with infinite variation and always will be depending on the relative tuning of instruments and understanding of time ect. To not release a master recording of these tracks seems a way to keep the music the most physically free while still keeping it conceptually stable. These songs could sound like anything! Yet they are still song’s by Beck. The advent of recordings is relatively recent, why be elitist about them? it used to be all songs traveled from person to person or through sheet music. It’s a more democratic, almost less capitalistic mode in a way. If people can’t deal with the idea of not being constrained to understand music through a specific structure in some ways made to sell radio adds ect. back in the day, then oh well… but, I’m gonna buy this thing and play the hell out of these songs, and not record them.

By: Reg Robson

Reg Robson — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:08:00 +0000

If anyone does want to hear this album, I will gladly play it for you, for a small fee.

By: Reg Robson

Reg Robson — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:05:00 +0000

And then have to perform them themselves on raised platforms so that people could see them.

By: Reg Robson

Reg Robson — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:04:00 +0000

Apparently he is a looser who feels you should kill him, but that might be just a song lyric put into my head by forces of evil in a bozo nightmare.

By: Reg Robson

Reg Robson — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 14:58:00 +0000

I don’t know about revolutionary. All the Young Dudes was written by David Bowie for Mott the Hoople. Bowie later recorded his own version. Same with almost every song on Tapestry by Carol King. The only difference here is that we have to pay Beck (and his publisher) for the ability to play these songs.

By: Reg Robson

Reg Robson — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 14:52:00 +0000

To be fair if Tori Amos put out a sound making stamp album, she would probably turn a profit.

By: ImmutableMichael

ImmutableMichael — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 13:19:00 +0000

In one of the more pleasant corners of my mind, that’s not only true but they also both get a secret thrill out of it.

By: Wreckrob8

Wreckrob8 — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 13:17:00 +0000

Tell me more.

By: mat catastrophe

mat catastrophe — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 13:06:00 +0000

Yep, getting people to record your songs for you so you can make even MORE money is pretty damn creative.

I bet he learned that at Gold Base.

By: L_Mariachi

L_Mariachi — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 12:45:00 +0000

As we all know, it is every artist’s goal to reinforce what people already think.

By: jwkrk

jwkrk — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 12:38:00 +0000

Next thing you know, people will go read movies in “book” form…

By: Drabula

Drabula — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 12:00:00 +0000

It’s just a trick to lure you into Scientology.

By: Deidzoeb

Deidzoeb — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 10:27:00 +0000

The primary definition of album is the one you gave, but obviously not the one people intend or think of in the context of a musician’s “new album.”

Hey, did you hear the new Tori Amos album?
No, how many stamps are in it and what sounds do they make?