OT: Rick Beato YouTube Discussion on Music

[Knight Shift]

With 3.44 Million subscribers, Beato, a producer and player has one of the best YouTube channels covering rock music. Lot's of interesting discussions. One of my favorites was his discussion with the bassist from Nirvana, Kim Thayil from Soundgarden and the SubPop Records producer (or owner). What are you favorite Beato episodes?

@T2Kplus10 , @RU848789 , @bac2therac , @RU4Real , @ashokan , @RUGuitarMan

Here he rips on the Top 10 songs.



Giving major props to Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme:

 

[bac2therac]

I like the Flowers song and would take Miley every day and on Sunday over boring phony Taylor

 

[RU Cheese]

Big Beato fan. Enjoy his content.

 

[ashokan]

I've liked a lot of his vids (spesh the one with Keith Jarrett)
The Cure is one of his fav bands
I hate shredders - its gimmick playing - feels like watching someone type fast - impressive but meh.
I tolerate some from Buckethead but that's it

 

[RU848789]

I've posted a few of his videos in other music threads, but I'm kind of partial to his "What Makes This Song Great" entries, below. They're not in any order and they're missing quite a few he can't do, because they'll be deleted for permission reasons (any Beatles song, for example and they're clearly his favorite band, but none are on his list because he can't play/analyze them).

The biggest surprise to me is the lack of 60s songs, since he clearly loves that decade's music (maybe permission issues?). He also has more than a few newer songs, despite not loving a lot of new music (for good reasons, although I think he's a little too dismissive at times). And as I just posted in the new music thread, he's clearly a big fan of both Taylor Swift and Adele, two current artists I like a lot also.

I also like his "What Is Band X's Best Song" videos, where he'll go through 8-9 of a band's best songs, in his opinion. I enjoy watching him break down songs he loves a lot more than watching him whine about autotune and programmed drums (as annoying as they can be...sometimes). Here's one of my favorites, from one of his and my favorite bands, The Cure.



1. blink-182 - All The Small Things
2. The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
3. Steely Dan - Kid Charlemagne
4. Nirvana - On A Plain
5. Pearl Jam - Jeremy
6. Linkin Park - Numb
7. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - I Won't Back Down
8. A Perfect Circle - Judith
9. Toto - Rosanna
10. Soundgarden - Superunknown
11. Metallica - Enter Sandman
12. Alice In Chains - Them Bones
13. TOOL - Schism
14. Foo Fighters - Everlong
15. Boston - Hitch a Ride
16. Ariana Grande - Into You
17. Rush - Closer To The Heart
18. Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline
19. Van Halen - Runnin' With The Devil
20. The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
21. Train - Drops of Jupiter
22. System Of A Down - Chop Suey!
23. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give It Away
24. Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes
25. David Bowie - Let's Dance
26. Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds
27. Alanis Morissette - You Oughta Know
28. Coldplay - Clocks
29. The Police - Every Breath You Take
30. Muse - Starlight
31. Steely Dan - Don't Take Me Alive
32. Yes - Roundabout
33. Incubus - Pardon Me
34. Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing
35. Oasis - Wonderwall
36. Adele - Rumor Has It
37. TOOL - Parabola
38. Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love
39. Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box
40. The Chainsmokers - Closer ft. Halsey
41. PERIPHERY - Absolomb
42. Pearl Jam · Garden
43. Tears For Fears - Head Over Heels
44. Mastodon - Stargasm
45. U2 - In God's Country
46. Tom Petty - Free Fallin'
47. The Beatles - Her Majesty
48. Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
49. Faith No More - Epic
50. Avenged Sevenfold - Shepherd Of Fire
51. Alice In Chains - Man in the Box
52. Genesis - Dance On A Volcano
53. The Doors - Touch Me
54. Weezer - Hash Pipe
55. At The Drive-In - "One Armed Scissor"
56. Van Halen - Jump
57. Soundgarden - Outshined
58. Rush - Limelight
59. Failure- Stuck on You
60. Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song
61. Metallica - Master Of Puppets
62. Megadeth - Symphony Of Destruction
63. Slipknot - Duality
64. Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
65. Pantera - Walk
66. Boston - More Than a Feeling
67. Plini - Electric Sunrise
68. The Rolling Stones - Angie
69. Jeff Buckley - Vancouver
70. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under The Bridge
71. XTC - Mayor Of Simpleton
72. R.E.M. - Losing My Religion
73. Deftones - Minerva
74. Foo Fighters - The Pretender
75. Kansas - Carry on Wayward Son
76. Stevie Wonder - Superstition
77. Elton John - Rocket Man
78. The Cure - Just Like Heaven
79. Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger
80. Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life
81. Led Zeppelin - Ramble On
82. The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
83. Karnivool - Goliath
84. Korn - Freak On a Leash
85. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
86. Joni Mitchell - Amelia
87. Pearl Jam - Black
88. Coldplay - The Scientist
89. Gordon Lightfool - If You Could Read My Mind
90. Crowfield - Cardinal Motion
91. The Who - Love, Reign O’er Me
92. A Perfect Circle - Weak and Powerless
93. Phish - Waste
94. The Cars - Just What I Needed
95. Peter Frampton - Do You Feel Like We Do
96. Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone
97. U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
98. Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence
99. Radiohead - Paranoid Android
100. Rage Against The Machine - Killing In the Name
101. Polyphia - G.O.A.T.
102. Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
103. Seal - Kiss From A Rose
104. Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way
105. Queens of the Stone Age - No One Knows
106. Slipknot - Before I forget
107. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
108. Chicago - Make Me Smile
109. The Police - Muder by numbers
110. blink-182 - What's my age again?
111. Bon Jovi - Living on a prayer
112. Tears for Fears - Everybody wants to rule the world
113. Elton John - Tiny dancer

1. The Killers - Mr Brightside (list restarted in March 2023)

 

[RU848789]

I've liked a lot of his vids (spesh the one with Keith Jarrett)
The Cure is one of his fav bands
I hate shredders - its gimmick playing - feels like watching someone type fast - impressive but meh.
I tolerate some from Buckethead but that's it

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Wow, we just posted the Cure's best song video at the same time, lol.

 

[ashokan]

Wow, we just posted the Cure's best song video at the same time, lol.

That's a good sign.
Beato gets Cure's layering and acoustic sophistication that can be so subtle its often missed on recordings (stands out more live).
Some people make music on guitar and some do finger gymnastics.
Something I learned in my art studies is that the most gifted artists technically often do boring stuff
A kid drawing his butt off at 12 will be doing it at 21 and 35. It will always look good but be kinda empty.

 

[NiTeKnight]

I thought you meant The Cult.
Here is my favorite Cult song.

 

[Knight Shift]

I thought you meant The Cult.
Here is my favorite Cult song.

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Such a great band. Saw them live at Tradewinds in Sea Bright about 20 years ago

 

[famousbill19]

I thought the episode he did with Seal for "Kiss from a Rose" was terrific. We have all heard that song a million times so it does not have its original impact, but as Beato breaks it down with Seal the nuances emerge and it was like hearing it for the first time. Trevor Horn is a wonderful producer.

 

[bac2therac]

I thought the episode he did with Seal for "Kiss from a Rose" was terrific. We have all heard that song a million times so it does not have its original impact, but as Beato breaks it down with Seal the nuances emerge and it was like hearing it for the first time. Trevor Horn is a wonderful producer.

Its an incredible song by a cool artist not given the credit he deserved. I wore out the first Seal cassette my senior year at RU and turned my roommate who was a big Overkill/ Maiden fan into a Seal fan

 

[famousbill19]

Its an incredible song by a cool artist not given the credit he deserved. I wore out the first Seal cassette my senior year at RU and turned my roommate who was a big Overkill/ Maiden fan into a Seal fan

LOL, my girlfriend at RU had "Crazy" on a cassingle. Turned this metal fan into a Seal fan.

 

[RUGuitarMan]

I think Beato is one of the best YouTube music segments. He is extremely knowledgeable and informed. I’m going to post some of my favorite episodes. A discussion on the current state of rock music, a discussion on the declining interest in jazz, a series on the history of guitar players/playing and an interview with one of my favorite contemporary
musicians Derek Trucks which is one of the best music interviews I’ve seen:

Why Do People Hate Jazz?

In this live stream I ask the simple question and try to answer why people hate jazz.

www.youtube.com

 

[RU4Real]

Beato is entertaining for a wide variety of people but is actually pretty important to guitarists. His music theory explanations are as clear and concise as anyone's and he provides great examples. Things like modal interchange set against the 6 guitar solos in the live version of "Lines on My Face" have helped me considerably, along the way.

 

[RUGuitarMan]

Some of these didn’t attach:

 

[RutHut]

The bottomless abyss of nostalgia won't be limited to this thread. Good try though.

 

[RU848789]

That's a good sign.
Beato gets Cure's layering and acoustic sophistication that can be so subtle its often missed on recordings (stands out more live).
Some people make music on guitar and some do finger gymnastics.
Something I learned in my art studies is that the most gifted artists technically often do boring stuff
A kid drawing his butt off at 12 will be doing it at 21 and 35. It will always look good but be kinda empty.

Beato does a really nice job exploring, in much more detail, the sonic landscape on Just Like Heaven, in his "What Makes this Song So Great" piece on what is probably my favorite Cure song (was our wedding song) and one of the greatest love songs ever written. It's fascinating to watch him pull out the various instrument tracks individually (including Robert Smith's voice, the most important "instrument" in the song) and in combinations, showing how they create that amazing melancholy mood of the song.

 

[Knight Shift]

The bottomless abyss of nostalgia won't be limited to this thread. Good try though.

You've got my thread's back. 😉

 

[ashokan]

Beato does a really nice job exploring, in much more detail, the sonic landscape on Just Like Heaven, in his "What Makes this Song So Great" piece on what is probably my favorite Cure song (was our wedding song) and one of the greatest love songs ever written. It's fascinating to watch him pull out the various instrument tracks individually (including Robert Smith's voice, the most important "instrument" in the song) and in combinations, showing how they create that amazing melancholy mood of the song.

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Yes that a good Beato breakdown and he's good at that sort of analysis
My least fav Cure songs are the 80s romantic bits (Friday I'm in Love, Boys Don't Cry etc).
"Pictures of you" is good and got me into The Cure via a girl from UK.
Honestly though its the live shows that grabbed me
They use a lot of sounds you might not notice at first so its like being in a river of sounds and not just having a stack blow your ears off .
My fav song that way is "Open" and one YT upload of it live still captures layers.
So are you going to Cure gig in NYC or Philly?
They have't been to MSG since 2016 and might not be back again
They sound as good or better than they ever did
They have some new songs
Speaking of NY and like that Reeves Gabrels is from Staten Island (he;s been play a Les Paul a lot lately)


Song begins @ 3:00 - long video opening
Smith likes to play this.
A guitar band.

 

[RU848789]

Yes that a good Beato breakdown and he's good at that sort of analysis
My least fav Cure songs are the 80s romantic bits (Friday I'm in Love, Boys Don't Cry etc).
"Pictures of you" is good and got me into The Cure via a girl from UK.
Honestly though its the live shows that grabbed me
They use a lot of sounds you might not notice at first so its like being in a river of sounds and not just having a stack blow your ears off .
My fav song that way is "Open" and one YT upload of it live still captures layers.
So are you going to Cure gig in NYC or Philly?
They have't been to MSG since 2016 and might not be back again
They sound as good or better than they ever did
They have some new songs
Speaking of NY and like that Reeves Gabrels is from Staten Island (he;s been play a Les Paul a lot lately)


Song begins @ 3:00 - long video opening
Smith likes to play this.
A guitar band.

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Probably not going this time around, but agree they're an amazing live band. Saw them in 85 and 87 and then again in 2014 at the Garden, where they had a fantastic sound system. Open is a good tune and Wish is a very underrated album of theirs, IMO.

 

[Knight Shift]

Probably not going this time around, but agree they're an amazing live band. Saw them in 85 and 87 and then again in 2014 at the Garden, where they had a fantastic sound system. Open is a good tune and Wish is a very underrated album of theirs, IMO.

 

[Jm0513]

Yes that a good Beato breakdown and he's good at that sort of analysis
My least fav Cure songs are the 80s romantic bits (Friday I'm in Love, Boys Don't Cry etc).
"Pictures of you" is good and got me into The Cure via a girl from UK.
Honestly though its the live shows that grabbed me
They use a lot of sounds you might not notice at first so its like being in a river of sounds and not just having a stack blow your ears off .
My fav song that way is "Open" and one YT upload of it live still captures layers.
So are you going to Cure gig in NYC or Philly?
They have't been to MSG since 2016 and might not be back again
They sound as good or better than they ever did
They have some new songs
Speaking of NY and like that Reeves Gabrels is from Staten Island (he;s been play a Les Paul a lot lately)


Song begins @ 3:00 - long video opening
Smith likes to play this.
A guitar band.

View embedded media

I want to go. I’m going to see how much tickets are. I’m not paying $200 to see them. lol
I have too many other concerts I want to attend in the next few months.

 

[T2Kplus20]

Just watched this last night.....a masterpiece! The song and breakdown video.

Great line about Kurt Cobain:
“It doesn’t matter if people know what they are doing if they can just do it intuitively”
This sums up natural genius in any walk of life.

This is such an iconic song, you don't think you can learn more about it. After listening to Beato, I realized I didn't know this song at all! He really pumps up the importance and power of DG's drum line.

 

[RU4Real]

Just watched this last night.....a masterpiece! The song and breakdown video.

Great line about Kurt Cobain:
“It doesn’t matter if people know what they are doing if they can just do it intuitively”

This sums up natural genius in any walk of life.

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Perfect example of Beato's content.

It's easy to figure out basic chord progressions, but Rick is helping us along the path to that next level - understanding the structure of the song so that, when we're done, how it's written makes perfect sense.

I love this stuff.

 

[T2Kplus20]

Perfect example of Beato's content.

It's easy to figure out basic chord progressions, but Rick is helping us along the path to that next level - understanding the structure of the song so that, when we're done, how it's written makes perfect sense.

I love this stuff.

Beato's breakdown of Boston More Than a Feeling came up in my YouTube account last weekend. Never heard of his channel before. Watched it and was blown away by his analysis. Love how he isolates the tracks and talks about each one.....vocals, guitar, bass, drums, etc. Chord progression is awesome! Makes me want to start playing guitar again.

 

[Knight Shift]

Beato's breakdown of Boston More Than a Feeling came up in my YouTube account last weekend. Never heard of his channel before. Watched it and was blown away by his analysis. Love how he isolates the tracks and talks about each one.....vocals, guitar, bass, drums, etc. Chord progression is awesome! Makes me want to start playing guitar again.

Love Boston's music. Live, hands down, one of the worst live acts I have ever seen.

 

[RU4Real]

Love Boston's music. Live, hands down, one of the worst live acts I have ever seen.

We all knew this, back in the day - to the extent that it was actually predictable. When the first album came out in '76 the consensus among the musicians in the high school hallways was that it could never be reproduced on stage.

All the vocals are doubled. All the guitars are doubled - many of them harmonically.

The actual guitar sound - the "Boston tone", so to speak - is easily achievable. As Beato notes in Ep.71, the guitars are run through an EQ that is sharply peaked at 1k, so that the EQ band basically resembles an arrow. This really punches the midrange.

 

[T2Kplus20]

As Beato notes in Ep.71, the guitars are run through an EQ that is sharply peaked at 1k, so that the EQ band basically resembles an arrow. This really punches the midrange.

Yes, that was a great part of the video. The arrow to crank the midrange seems unique. Any wannabe guitar player in the 80s had a Boss EQ pedal. Can't ever remember setting it up like that. LOL!

 

[Knight Shift]

We all knew this, back in the day - to the extent that it was actually predictable. When the first album came out in '76 the consensus among the musicians in the high school hallways was that it could never be reproduced on stage.

All the vocals are doubled. All the guitars are doubled - many of them harmonically.

The actual guitar sound - the "Boston tone", so to speak - is easily achievable. As Beato notes in Ep.71, the guitars are run through an EQ that is sharply peaked at 1k, so that the EQ band basically resembles an arrow. This really punches the midrange.

That's what you get when an MIT guy is the guitarist!

Still great songs though! Love that song- "All I want is to have my Pizza Pie!!" 😉

"Before his musical career, Scholz received both a bachelor's degree (1969) and a master's degree (1970) in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked for Polaroid Corporation as a senior product design engineer."

EDIT- I have met and know quite a few electrical engineers and other engineers who are guitar players. My father was a professional musician, and my brother made a run at songwriting and recording. I love music, but I had little aptitude to learn how to play. Maybe in my next chapter . . . . .

 

[ashokan]

I want to go. I’m going to see how much tickets are. I’m not paying $200 to see them. lol
I have too many other concerts I want to attend in the next few months.

The Cure dont do dynamic pricing and they just cancelled 7000 scalped tickets
Tickets aren't too bad and they will come down by June gigs
Seating location doesn't matter too much because they fill the whole place and acoustics are good
The sounds seems like its just outside your ear the way good speakers do
I got a Ticketmaster ticket for $76 total
Stubhub has them now for 90ish but then around $30 in fees.
In 2016 I paid $100 but the week of the gig they were 50ish for one ticket (always easier for one ticket)
I buy from Stubhub when I can

I hardly play Cure tunes at home
Live Cure shows though are the best I've been to, and the only band I'll go see in MSG on a summer night in 2023 lol.

 

[RUGuitarMan]

Just watched this last night.....a masterpiece! The song and breakdown video.

Great line about Kurt Cobain:
“It doesn’t matter if people know what they are doing if they can just do it intuitively”
This sums up natural genius in any walk of life.

This is such an iconic song, you don't think you can learn more about it. After listening to Beato, I realized I didn't know this song at all! He really pumps up the importance and power of DG's drum line.

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We all can learn a lot from Beato’s analysis. My take aways are the importance of a very good drummer in a rock band. There are not a lot of rules in rock and great songs do not have to be and often are not overly complex. Does it sound good? The feel, emotion and essence created are the important factors. Although I will say … as an amateur guitar player working at it for 18 years, intuition only goes so far, it really helps to know what you are doing, it takes a lot of work to get decent on an instrument.

 

[RU848789]

Just watched this last night.....a masterpiece! The song and breakdown video.

Great line about Kurt Cobain:
“It doesn’t matter if people know what they are doing if they can just do it intuitively”
This sums up natural genius in any walk of life.

This is such an iconic song, you don't think you can learn more about it. After listening to Beato, I realized I didn't know this song at all! He really pumps up the importance and power of DG's drum line.

View embedded media

Good post. The line in bold is so important. He makes similar comments about the Beatles not being able to read music, but how that just doesn't matter given their brilliant musical knowledge, experience and intuition., as per the video below. If formal musical knowledge were so important, Beato and many others with his knowledge, would've written a ton of hits by now. So many try, but so few succeed, because so few have that natural genius.

I also recall watching the Teen Spirit video as well as a couple of Nirvana documentaries and it's amazing how much one can learn from these - although at the end of the day, nothing is better than just enjoying the music.

 

[ashokan]

Beato on Placebo is good.
Personally I never resonated with Placebo though.
It was obvious Cobain would be dead and soon
Courtney Love was like a black window
So the whole Placebo thing was kinda morbid to watch unfold
Sure you know rockers are inclined towards self-destruction but with Cobain it was stage 4 terminal beyond doubt
The only other person to remind me of Cobain was Amy Winehouse and Cobain was much worse

 

[RUGuitarMan]

Beato on Placebo is good.
Personally I never resonated with Placebo though.
It was obvious Cobain would be dead and soon
Courtney Love was like a black window
So the whole Placebo thing was kinda morbid to watch unfold
Sure you know rockers are inclined towards self-destruction but with Cobain it was stage 4 terminal beyond doubt
The only other person to remind me of Cobain was Amy Winehouse and Cobain was much worse

Winehouse is one of my favorite singers from the past 30 years. She was not meant to be a pop star. If she stuck with jazz and R&B in small clubs and didn’t have so many hangers on ( which always happens) she would still be here singing her a@@ off.

 

[RUScrew85]

I thought you meant The Cult.
Here is my favorite Cult song.

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She Sells Sanctuary
Rain

 

[RUScrew85]

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Well he hasn't gotten any better looking over the years. LOL.

 

[RUGuitarMan]

She Sells Sanctuary
Rain

Ian Asbury channeling Jim Morrison on vocals and appearance :

 

[CJ1987]

Ian Asbury channeling Jim Morrison on vocals and appearance :

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I've seen them a half dozen times or so......once at Starland Ballroom, Ian chastised a parent for bringing a 10-year child with them to the show, for some reason that stuck with me, he seemed ornery the whole show.

 

[BIGRUBIGDBIGredmachine]

Whole Lotta Love. Still the gold standard for hard rock. Beato breaks it down masterfully. Bonham: "full-on caveman".

 

[RU848789]

Winehouse is one of my favorite singers from the past 30 years. She was not meant to be a pop star. If she stuck with jazz and R&B in small clubs and didn’t have so many hangers on ( which always happens) she would still be here singing her a@@ off.

Agree, she was amazing. I'm guessing you saw the documentary on her, which was really well done. Her Back to Black album is one of the finest of the last 20 years.