Beck - Touch Dolphins - Rare Live Songs (2001-2005)

I mentioned in my last Beck post that I'd follow that up with an album of live Beck songs from the same time period. Here it is.

If you've been following this blog much, you've probably noticed that I like to remove the audience noise a lot. That's true, but sometimes that's not a good idea, such as when audience interaction is a key part of the song. That's the case here on many songs, such as "Days of '92." In other cases here, the recording just had a live concert sound to it and/or the audience noise overlapped the music. So I've retained the audience noise for all the songs here.

The music on this album is all over the place. I've organized the songs chronologically, which leads to some strange juxtapositions, such as a funk megajam followed by a cover of an Elliott Smith song! But I think that's kind of neat, to show the vast stylistic diversity of Beck.

Most of the songs here are cover versions. The ones I believe are Beck originals are: "Acoustic Blues," "Evil Things," "Days of '92," "Cherry Blossom Song," and "Touch Dolphins." During this time period, Beck sometimes would make up songs on the spot, or at least have only a rough idea of what he was doing. The last three songs here are like that.

A great case in point is "Touch Dolphins." He only played this song three times, and each time was significantly different. And by the way, I must say I find the song totally hilarious! (More for the overall concept and vibe than any specific jokes.) It's one of my favorite songs by him, and is a good example of why I enjoy his stuff so much. Who else but Beck would ever play a song mocking the trend of touching dolphins?

By the way, note that the songs here often have more variable sound quality. Some of the songs are at soundboard level of quality, but a lot of them were taken from audience recorded bootlegs. 

The song "Back Streets of Scottsdale (Scottsdale Revolution)" is an unusual one. For this tour, about a dozen times, Beck made up a song on the spot about the town he was playing in. All of them were vastly different, and all of them had titles starting with "Back Streets of..." This is the only one I've been able to find in good quality. 

"L'Anamour," a duet with French singer Jane Birkin, is a bonus track. Beck sings in French! It's only a bonus track due to slightly subpar sound quality.

01 Acoustic Blues [Early Version of Farewell Ride] (Beck)
02 Evil Things (Beck & Eddie Vedder)
03 I'm Set Free (Beck & Thom Yorke)
04 Days of '92 (Beck)
05 Grow Fins (Beck)
06 Who Loves the Sun (Beck)
07 Lovesick Blues (Beck)
08 Back Streets of Scottsdale [Scottsdale Revolution] (Beck)
09 You're the One that I Want (Beck & Sia)
10 Cherry Blossom Song (Beck)
11 Funk Megajam [Crazy in Love - Hot in Herre - Under Pressure - Erotic City - Beautiful - Humpty Dance] (Beck)
12 Ballad of Big Nothing (Beck)
13 Clementine (Beck)
14 Nothing in This World Can Stop Me Worrying about that Girl (Beck)
15 Touch Dolphins (Beck)

L'Anamour (Beck & Jane Birkin)
Last Fair Deal Gone Down (Jack White & Beck)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15126542/BeckH_2001-2005_TouchDolphns_atse.zip.html

Since I enjoy the song "Touch Dolphins" so much, I had to make it the title song. I decided to go in a very literal direction with the cover art, using a generic photo of someone touching dolphins.