Beck released a record last year that wasn’t recorded. It was sheet music for 20 songs that others could play based on the notes on the page, rather than what some rock artist and rock producer imagined. It was called Song Reader, and was sold like a book by the McSweeney’s people.

An excellent idea.

I have to admit that I haven’t spent a lot of time trying to find the best versions of each song, as I should have, but with the release of an actual new Beck album this week, I followed some links to Song Reader covers. Lots of nice music out there, but this somewhat gypsy tune stands out. It sounds a little like Brecht-Weill, but it also features a slicing and dicing guitar solo. Plus animated stills of folks in night clubs and burlesque shows.

Beck gets credit for ceding the credit to the performers. Nicely done.