Beck Suprises Toronto With Secret Show

Halloween came early for Canadians last night when Beck and his band of merry, wig-wearing mates descended on Toronto's Drake Hotel to play a secret midnight show following their Ricoh Coliseum gig. The vibe was frat-party meets alterna-hoedown: Beck and crew downed shots and beer to fuel the lead song "Scarecrow." The bassist announced, "We're gonna try and play some stuff we don't normally get to play," and the band proceeded to cut loose with joyously sloppy versions of "Diamond Bollocks," "We Dance Alone," "Black Tambourine," and a mash-up of David Bowie's "Fame" and Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust." Beck seemed content to sit back and let his increasingly inebriated bandmates entertain the crowd, looking on in amusement as keyboardist/guitarist Brian Lebarton (who insisted on being called "Cameron" all night) stripped off his shirt and repeatedly tumbled into the stage curtains.

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Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

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