Last Temptation of Beck: The Untold Story of a Pop Messiah
Last Temptation of Beck: The Untold Story of a Pop Messiah
Last Temptation of Beck: The Untold Story of a Pop Messiah
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Description
Description
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Ringmaster and the Hugo finalist True Believer, a propulsive and stylish account of Beck, who was received as a pop messiah in the 1990s, but whose closest friends and most devoted fans never knew his buried secrets. Once upon a time, there was a man who made himself into a myth. He went by a single name: Beck. He sang songs that didn't make easy sense in plain English, but which were somehow urgent and undeniable to those who heard them. He mined a dizzying array of musical styles from the past to construct albums that were eminently of the zeitgeist. Before and after the smash success of his 1993 single "Loser," he was the hardest-working slacker in America. He went platinum multiple times over. And for a time, he was regarded by journalists and devoted fans alike as the "pop messiah"--a title that referred not just to the new energy he brought to the radio and MTV, but to the devotion he inspired. But something happened to Beck Hansen, right at the dawn of this century. His music, once defiant and bombastic, turned morose and inward-facing. It was more than just a musical shift. Beck destroyed the online forum where his devoted fans had gathered. He cut ties with the small collective of LA-based bohemians he'd come up alongside, surrounding himself instead with sycophants and celebrities. Beck had been born and raised in the Church of Scientology; many in his orbit feared he'd been pulled back to the faith. In the years since, Beck's music has continued to win accolades, including multiple Grammys. But the true story of Beck in the nineties and beyond has never been told. With sensitivity and an arrestingly original style, New York Times bestselling author Josephine Riesman offers a vivid and multifaceted look at a singular artist and the Generation Xers for whom he became a reluctant spokesman. Drawing from interviews with those who've been closest to Beck, as well as troves of never-before-published documents, Riesman offers a story about authenticity and irony, paranoia and belief. Situated at the last gasp of the millennium, it's more than a simple biography--it's a riveting drama about the blurry lines between fandom and worship; between myth and lies; and between the old world that is dying and the new one that still struggles to be born.
About the Author
About the Author
Josephine Riesman is the New York Times bestselling author of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America and the Hugo finalist True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee. She was a longtime staffer at New York magazine and its culture site, Vulture, and her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and Rolling Stone, among other publications. She is trans and lives in Portugal with her spouse and their cats.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"Having read the first two books in Josie Riesman's loose trilogy of biographies of flawed male American icons, I was desperate to read her book on Beck. Much more discursive and digressive than her previous books (in part a function of the subject, who unlike Stan Lee and Vince McMahon goes to great lengths to avoid becoming a public figure, and who is possibly the major star about whom least is known), this reminded me structurally of Orson Welles's F For Fake, and in subject matter somewhat of Philip K. Dick (both of which are references that Josie drops), but stylistically it reminded me of nothing more than, of all people, Stephen King, both in the easy, novelistic, conversational narrative flow and the unremitting horror of the actual story being told. This is, on its face, a book about a single, very talented, musician--a man who has his flaws, but who compared to most rock stars seems relatively benign. But really it's about fascism, and Scientology, and the difference between the true and the "authentic," and about how we deal with trauma, and about how problems in Nineties culture have repercussions we're still dealing with today. It's about hero-worship and fandom and the difference between public persona and private life. It's about how we deal with secrets, and what happens to the people we leave behind when we move on. It's likely the best book I'll read all year, and despite the challenging nature of some of the material, it's one I read straight through in a single sitting. Josie's first two books were great, but this is a masterpiece. And I can't wait to see what she does next."
--Andrew Hickey, author of A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs "A gripping thrill for longtime fans as well as readers who have never followed the trippy, lo-fi output of the Gen X icon. That's because The Last Temptation of Beck is really an incantation on fame, late-20th century L.A., dot-matrix printers and cassette tapes, Prodigy chat rooms and the changing spread of rumor, truth and lies in American society ... It lands as a reckoning."
--Charlie Wells, author of What Happened to Millennials "Josephine Riesman's book is as uncategorisable as Beck's music. It's the story of a Gen X savant from a very unusual family but it's also an investigation into friendship, fandom, Scientology, secrets, and the difference between authenticity and truth. Beck has tried to remain an enigma. Riesman explains why. I found it fascinating. Not what I expected at all. I can't think of another music book like it."
--Dorian Lynskey, author of Everything Must Go "Riesman gathers an impressive array of interview sources [and] brings a great deal of empathy to her subject as a longtime fan.... Every bit as complex and intriguing as the pop star himself... [A] captivating profile of the Gen X pop sensation."
--Shelf Awareness (starred review) "An amazing read, both for longtime obsessive fans and wild-eyed newcomers. Here we have a gripping exploration of Beck, an artist whose persona has long traded in subterfuge and half-truths, told in the backdrop of Scientology, Hollywood, sex, and the fading memories of analog desires. The beauty of Beck is how he defies the trappings of genre and style, just as readily showing you his scars as he does all his favourite tricks. How lucky for us then that Josephine Riesman's book manages to reveal all his carefully hidden truths, while never fully ruining what pleasure comes of bearing witness to Beck's legendary oeuvre."
--Niko Stratis, author of The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman "One of the best books I've ever read about the forging of an artistic persona--a love story, a ghost story, a family story spanning three generations of bohemia, and a portrait of the artist wrestling the forces of evil in a bozo nightmare."
--Alex Pappademas, Senior Culture Editor of GQ and co-author of Quantum Criminals "This biography has everything: sex, secret societies, fashion, betrayal, Hollywood, rock 'n' roll--it's like Pop-Up Video with way more scandal."
--Colette Shade, author of Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything "This is alt-rock biography as compulsively readable literary thriller. Riesman doggedly follows the trail of the mononymous prophet of the '90s, demystifying both the self-created myth of Beck and the one imposed on him by a zeitgeist that would have invented him if he hadn't existed. This postmodern Gen X fever dream braids together a Pynchonesque cast of characters: the irascible Fluxus pioneer Al Hansen (Beck's grandfather), his Black trans godmother Vaginal Davis, Warhol and Ginsberg, A. J. Weberman-esque Beck garbologists, overzealous zine editors and obsessive message board moderators, Lollapalooza, Beverly Hills stoners, and L. Ron Hubbard. Less a question of whether the 'Loser' wunderkind sold out than a Manichaean tale of good and evil and the increasingly blurry space between, it becomes a Faustian existential battle for the soul of a man, and ultimately, a nation always at war with our better angels. In this riveting salvo in her American Myth series, Riesman has captured the dream of the '90s, but also the nightmare we are yet to wake up from."
--Aidan Levy, author of Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed and Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins
--Andrew Hickey, author of A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs "A gripping thrill for longtime fans as well as readers who have never followed the trippy, lo-fi output of the Gen X icon. That's because The Last Temptation of Beck is really an incantation on fame, late-20th century L.A., dot-matrix printers and cassette tapes, Prodigy chat rooms and the changing spread of rumor, truth and lies in American society ... It lands as a reckoning."
--Charlie Wells, author of What Happened to Millennials "Josephine Riesman's book is as uncategorisable as Beck's music. It's the story of a Gen X savant from a very unusual family but it's also an investigation into friendship, fandom, Scientology, secrets, and the difference between authenticity and truth. Beck has tried to remain an enigma. Riesman explains why. I found it fascinating. Not what I expected at all. I can't think of another music book like it."
--Dorian Lynskey, author of Everything Must Go "Riesman gathers an impressive array of interview sources [and] brings a great deal of empathy to her subject as a longtime fan.... Every bit as complex and intriguing as the pop star himself... [A] captivating profile of the Gen X pop sensation."
--Shelf Awareness (starred review) "An amazing read, both for longtime obsessive fans and wild-eyed newcomers. Here we have a gripping exploration of Beck, an artist whose persona has long traded in subterfuge and half-truths, told in the backdrop of Scientology, Hollywood, sex, and the fading memories of analog desires. The beauty of Beck is how he defies the trappings of genre and style, just as readily showing you his scars as he does all his favourite tricks. How lucky for us then that Josephine Riesman's book manages to reveal all his carefully hidden truths, while never fully ruining what pleasure comes of bearing witness to Beck's legendary oeuvre."
--Niko Stratis, author of The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman "One of the best books I've ever read about the forging of an artistic persona--a love story, a ghost story, a family story spanning three generations of bohemia, and a portrait of the artist wrestling the forces of evil in a bozo nightmare."
--Alex Pappademas, Senior Culture Editor of GQ and co-author of Quantum Criminals "This biography has everything: sex, secret societies, fashion, betrayal, Hollywood, rock 'n' roll--it's like Pop-Up Video with way more scandal."
--Colette Shade, author of Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything "This is alt-rock biography as compulsively readable literary thriller. Riesman doggedly follows the trail of the mononymous prophet of the '90s, demystifying both the self-created myth of Beck and the one imposed on him by a zeitgeist that would have invented him if he hadn't existed. This postmodern Gen X fever dream braids together a Pynchonesque cast of characters: the irascible Fluxus pioneer Al Hansen (Beck's grandfather), his Black trans godmother Vaginal Davis, Warhol and Ginsberg, A. J. Weberman-esque Beck garbologists, overzealous zine editors and obsessive message board moderators, Lollapalooza, Beverly Hills stoners, and L. Ron Hubbard. Less a question of whether the 'Loser' wunderkind sold out than a Manichaean tale of good and evil and the increasingly blurry space between, it becomes a Faustian existential battle for the soul of a man, and ultimately, a nation always at war with our better angels. In this riveting salvo in her American Myth series, Riesman has captured the dream of the '90s, but also the nightmare we are yet to wake up from."
--Aidan Levy, author of Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed and Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Atria Books
Pub date:
2026-11-17
Length:
272 pages
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