Backed by 157 Musicians, Beck Reimagines David Bowie’s 1977 Classic, “Sound and Vision”

The last time we looked, the singer-song­writer known as Beck con­tributed to the fall musi­cal pro­duc­tion, Rework: Philip Glass Remixed, before pub­lish­ing Song Read­er, a series of 20 songs released not as record­ed music, but as sheet music meant for oth­er musi­cians to inter­pret and per­form. (Lis­ten here to what the Port­land Cel­lo Project did with the Song Read­er col­lec­tion.) Now, Beck turns to an entire­ly dif­fer­ent project. On Sun­day night, the ver­sa­tile musi­cian appeared on a sound­stage at 20th Cen­tu­ry Fox in L.A., where he per­formed David Bowie’s 1977 song, “Sound and Vision,” backed by a 157-piece orches­tra con­duct­ed by his own father, the com­pos­er and arranger David Camp­bell. Accord­ing to Rolling Stone, the event was spon­sored by Lin­coln, the Detroit car­mak­er, who is using Beck­’s ver­sion of “Sound and Vision” for a new ad cam­paign. Hap­pi­ly, David Bowie gave his enthu­si­as­tic bless­ing to the project.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Sto­ry of Zig­gy Star­dust: How David Bowie Cre­at­ed the Char­ac­ter that Made Him Famous

Hear Beck’s Song Read­er Song­book Per­formed by the Port­land Cel­lo Project

How “Space Odd­i­ty” Launched David Bowie to Star­dom: Watch the Orig­i­nal Music Video From 1969