#JakeSinclair

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Beck Colors tour breakdown “Take Me With U”

It’s in your eyes

A little busy, so throughout today, I will put up a few of the songs Beck did this year just once or twice.  First up, is this cover, the second track from Prince’s Purple Rain album, “Take Me With U.” Beck of course has been covering Prince for years, and even this year did another one at most of his shows.  In September, Beck started a new leg of his tour in Minnesota, and for the occasion, introduced this cover into the acoustic band portion of his set.  That’s a cool place for it, as Prince’s original is hardly an acoustic song, instead a synthpop masterpiece.  Beck and his band are slightly under-rehearsed on this, but it’s still a joy.   Colors tour lineup: Beck Hansen - acoustic guitar, vocals Jason Falkner - acoustic guitar Alex Lilly - dulcimer, backing vocals Cecilia Della Peruti - backing vocals Jake Sinclair - mandolin Roger sometimes adds keys to these acoustic sections from the background, but he doesn’t seem to be doing that here.  Chris Coleman actually worked with Prince as his drummer for a bit, but he’s not on this one.  Dwayne Moore also is not there, surprisingly. But for whatever reason, this cover was just a one-time, Minnesota-only, thing.  They did not do it again, as enjoyable as this is:

Over the years,  Beck has covered these Prince songs: “Take Me With U,” “Raspberry Beret,” “Controversy” (once with Arcade Fire), and “Erotic City.” He has also done half-covers/references to “Purple Rain” and “Kiss”.

[caramelkhaleesi]

Jeebo and the Vagiants' new single "Jake is the Poop" 😂😂😂 (Posting the videos from last night because I didn't do it last night lol) #jeeboandthevagiants #jeebo #beebo #brendonurie #brendonboydurie #panicatthedisco #patd #beeboandthevagiants #jakesinclair #thevagiants #periscope #scopin

[whiskeyclonenet-blog]

Beck Colors tour breakdown: “Guess I’m Doing Fine”

yellow roses in the graveyard Beck played “Guess I’m Doing Fine” a lot in 2002/2003 on the Sea Change tours, and then a decent amount again in 2005/2006 behind Guero and The Information. After that, it vanished out of his repertoire.  He did it a few times in 2011 and 2012, which is odd because those years had some Sea Change nostalgic anniversary runs.  But then it vanished entirely again, not showing up at all for Morning Phase in 2014, or the years after. This year though it made yet another very slight return, as Beck played it once at a charity show between tour legs, and then showing up at two nights in a row in April.  All three of these performances were within a week.  Since we have video of each one, I’ll just go through them one by one. First, I’ll start with the non-tour show, which was a benefit gig in Los Angeles hosted by Stephen Stills, and included Neil Young and the surviving members of The Heartbreakers as the house band.  Beck did two songs with them, the first being a velvety smooth version of “Guess I’m Doing Fine.”  Mike Campbell of The Heartbreakers adds some cool lead guitar licks, while Benmont Tench gets some soul-filled organ in there.  Here it is, I love this version:

Six days later, Beck had resumed his Colors tour, starting a new leg in Washington, DC.  At the second night in DC, and also the third night in Charlotte, Beck had his band do “Guess I’m Doing Fine.” He must have enjoyed doing it with the Heartbreakers, and decided to give it a go at his own show. Colors tour lineup Beck Hansen - acoustic guitar, vocals Jason Falkner - electric guitar Roger Joseph Manning Jr. - synthesizer Dwayne Moore - bass Chris Coleman - drums Alex Lilly - keyboards Cecilia Della Peruti - acoustic guitar, backing vocals Jake Sinclair - banjo, backing vocals

Here is the first version in DC, which I think is really very good, though I still probably prefer the version with the Heartbreakers above.  Jake’s banjo is a nice new touch for the song, though understated.  

Now you’re probably thinking, “those sound great, why did they only do it one more time?”  And believe me, so am I.  But it may have to do with this last version -- where Beck false starts by playing the wrong song’s intro, and then once he gets the right song going, messes up the lyrics.  Once it gets going, it sounds fine, as Jason adds some terrific lead guitar dives, and Beck decides to add harmonica which really fills the song out (he didn’t use harmonica in the first two). Maybe Beck decided the song wasn’t worth the false starts, and banished it again.  But I do think it’s a lost opportunity, and that this band in particular would have really brought the best of this song out with more tries.  Here is that final version from Charlotte: