Beck’s Record Club draws Wilco, Feist, and others for Skip Spence remake
The very idea of Beck’s Record Club, where he gathers famous guests and plows through a classic album in a single day, makes us swell with joy. So much so that we’re satisfied with the other efforts. But wait, Pitchfork is telling us of another collaboration? And this one involves Wilco, Feist, Jamie Lidell, AND ’60s icon Skip Spence? OK, now we’d like some more sonic deliciousness. Please.
The aforementioned artists have joined forces for a remake of Spence, formerly of the Moby Grape/Jefferson Airplane, and his 1969 classic Oar. The album stands as Spence’s greatest contribution to the psychedelic movement before he eventually succumbed to lung cancer in 1999, undoubtedly thanks to years of struggling with a drug problem. We’d say to stay off the stuff, but have you heard some of his work?!
On top of those luminaries, drummer James Gadson sat behind the kit and even Jeff Tweedy’s son Spencer got to help cut some of the tracks. The album’s leadoff track entitled “Little Hands” is up on Beck’s site now and you can hear it below. The previous works tackled by the club are The Velvet Underground & Nico with Radiohead maven Nigel Godrich and Songs of Leonard Cohen with MGMT and Devendra Banhart.
Stay tuned each week to the club site for more wondrous, wondrous installments.
Bill: I’ve always loved Oar, and Spence’s work. I didn’t know that you were in on the More Oar project. As they would say in New Zealand, “good on you!”
Doug
When I’d finished assembling the More Oar tribute album and took Skip a copy, he was in intensive care in a coma. I sat in the room with him an hour trying to telepathically communicate with him. I think I did. I let him know how much all the musicians on the album loved him, and how deeply his music and his soul had touched us. His life had changed ours. When I was leaving the hospital in Santa Cruz I swear I think I saw him smile slightly. When he passed away a few days later, his family played him More Oar right before he left us. Bless his heart. Skip Spence RIP.
Thanks for that. Very sweet song we love it!