Larry Beckett (born April 4, 1947) is an American
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...
,
songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...
, musician, and literary critic. As a songwriter and music arranger, Beckett collaborated with
Tim Buckley
Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years. Buckley began his career based in folk music, but his subsequent albums experimented with ...
in the late 1960s and early 1970s on several songs and albums, including the critically acclaimed "
Song to the Siren" which has been recorded by many artists, from
This Mortal Coil
This Mortal Coil were a British music collective led by Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the British record label 4AD. Although Watts-Russell and John Fryer were the only two official members, the band's recorded output featured a large rotati ...
to
Robert Plant.
He has also collaborated with British group The Long Lost Band, and local Portland indie band Eyelids.
Beckett has had several books of poetry published including ''Songs and Sonnets'', ''Beat Poetry'', and a few book-length poems entitled ''
Paul Bunyan
Paul Bunyan is a giant lumberjack and folk hero in American and Canadian folklore. His exploits revolve around the tall tales of his superhuman labors, and he is customarily accompanied by Babe the Blue Ox. The character originated in the o ...
'', ''
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American lawman and gambler in the American West, including Dodge City, Deadwood, and Tombstone. Earp took part in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which l ...
'', and ''
Amelia Earhart''. ''American Cycle'', a 47-year project, will be published in April 2021 by Running Wild Press.
Early life
Beckett was born in
Glendale, California where his father was an
English and speech teacher and his mother worked in the
career counseling
Career counseling is a type of advice-giving and support provided by career counselors to their clients, to help the clients manage their journey through life, learning and work changes (career). This includes career exploration, making career c ...
industry.
The Becketts moved around for the first decade of Larry Beckett's life, first to
Ashland, Oregon
Ashland is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. It lies along Interstate 5 approximately 16 miles (26 km) north of the California border and near the south end of the Rogue Valley. The city's population was 21,360 at the 2020 ...
, then back down south to
Downey, California and eventually settling in nearby
Anaheim when Larry was 10 years old.
Larry Beckett attended
Loara High School
Loara High School is a public four year American high school in the Anaheim Union High School District, located in the Southwest Anaheim region of Anaheim, California. Loara is a Title I school that serves many students from low-income families, ...
where he developed a passion for
writing
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols.
Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...
and poetry. A high school English teacher helped change his mind from thinking he wanted to be a mathematical physicist, to realizing he was a writer.
Also while in high school Larry Beckett befriended classmates
Tim Buckley
Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years. Buckley began his career based in folk music, but his subsequent albums experimented with ...
and
Jim Fielder
Jim Fielder (born October 4, 1947 in Denton, Texas) is an American bassist, best known for his work as an original member of Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Fielder attended Loara High School in Anaheim, California. While at Loara, the young Fielder befrie ...
, a relationship that would launch Beckett into music songwriting.
Poetry
Beckett read two of his 1966 poems, ''Found at the Scene of a Rendezvous that Failed'', and ''Birth Day'', on the
Rhino Handmade
Rhino Entertainment Company is an American specialty record label and production company founded in 1978. It is currently the catalog division for Warner Music Group. Its current CEO is Mark Pinkus.
History
Founded in 1978, Rhino was original ...
reissue of the album Tim Buckley,
to which he contributed liner notes, including the lyric “1, 2, 3.”
He recited ''Song to the Siren'' and an essay on its composition on the MVDvisual DVD
Tim Buckley: My Fleeting House.
Beckett's lyrics and poems were published in ''Songs and Sonnets'', 2002, by Rainy Day Women Press.
''Beat Poetry'', with twelve central
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
renaissance poems and Beckett’s essays on them reconsidered as literature, was published in 2012.
The
Jack Kerouac chapter was reprinted in the 2019 anthology Kerouac on Record: A Literary Soundtrack, edited by Simon Warner and Jim Sampas.
For 47 years, Beckett worked on ''American Cycle'', a series of long poems: U. S. Rivers: Highway 1, Old California, Paul Bunyan,
John Henry (folklore)
John Henry is an American folk hero. An African American, he is said to have worked as a "steel-driving man"—a man tasked with hammering a steel drill into rock to make holes for explosives to blast the rock in constructing a railroad tunnel.
...
,
Chief Joseph
''Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt'' (or ''Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it'' in Americanist orthography), popularly known as Chief Joseph, Young Joseph, or Joseph the Younger (March 3, 1840 – September 21, 1904), was a leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa ...
, Wyatt Earp,
P. T. Barnum
Phineas Taylor Barnum (; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. He was ...
, Amelia Earhart, Blue Ridge, U. S. Rivers: Route 66. The Cycle's themes are love, local mythology, history, justice, memory, accomplishment, time. Paul Bunyan,
Wyatt Earp, and Amelia Earhart were published as individual volumes, Paul Bunyan with a recording of a performance. ''American Cycle'' is to be published in 2021.
Translations
Beckett's translations include The Way of Rain, a reconstruction of the lost order of the
Tao Te Ching
The ''Tao Te Ching'' (, ; ) is a Chinese classic text written around 400 BC and traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship, date of composition and date of compilation are debated. The oldest excavated portion d ...
; Poems After
Li Po
Li Bai (, 701–762), also pronounced as Li Bo, courtesy name Taibai (), was a Chinese poet, acclaimed from his own time to the present as a brilliant and romantic figure who took traditional poetic forms to new heights. He and his friend Du Fu ...
,; Poems After
Li Shang-yin; The Wisewoman's Song, from the
Poetic Edda
The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic med ...
; The Logos, by
Heraclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἡράκλειτος , "Glory of Hera"; ) was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire.
Little is known of Heraclitus's life. He wrot ...
; East-West Divan, by Johann
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...
; Heroic Sonnets, by
José-Maria de Heredia
José-Maria de Heredia (22 November 1842 – 3 October 1905) was a Cuban-born French Parnassian poet. He was the fifteenth member elected for seat 4 of the Académie française in 1894.
Biography
Early years
Heredia was born at Fortuna ...
.
[Author Page , Beatdom Books]
Songwriting
With Tim Buckley
Beckett, Buckley, and Fielder frequented
Hollywood together where they were introduced to the area's art and music scene.
Buckley and Beckett started writing together in the mid-1960s as members of Southern California rock band The Bohemians, with Buckley on rhythm guitar, Brian Hartzel on lead guitar, Beckett on drums, and
Jim Fielder
Jim Fielder (born October 4, 1947 in Denton, Texas) is an American bassist, best known for his work as an original member of Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Fielder attended Loara High School in Anaheim, California. While at Loara, the young Fielder befrie ...
(later of
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as "BS&T") is a jazz rock music group founded in New York City in 1967, noted for a combination of brass with rock instrumentation. In addition to original music, the group has performed popular songs by Laura N ...
) on bass. They recorded a
demo
Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to:
Music and film
*Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release
* ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes
* ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...
for
Elektra Records, ''I Can't See You'', but the company was only interested in Buckley as a solo artist, not the group.
Beckett contributed to Buckley's first two albums, ''
Tim Buckley
Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years. Buckley began his career based in folk music, but his subsequent albums experimented with ...
'' and ''
Goodbye and Hello'', both as co-songwriter and as a collaborator on arrangements.
The lyrics Beckett wrote, such as "No Man Can Find the War", "Morning Glory" and "Song to the Siren", were characterized by their literary tone.
The title track of ''Goodbye and Hello'' was originally constructed by Beckett as a piece in which two voices would sing different words and melodies.
Beckett and Buckley resumed their songwriting partnership for ''
Starsailor'' in 1970, and Beckett was sporadically involved in Buckley's later work until Buckley's death in 1975.
Other collaborations
In 2014, Beckett began working with a group of musicians from
Lancaster,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, The Long Lost Band. He toured with them in the UK in 2015, and contributed poetry and song lyrics to a full-length studio album, ''One More Mile''. The presence of Larry Beckett in the UK was covered in an extensive feature in ''
Record Collector
''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine. It was founded in 1980 and distributes worldwide.
History The early years
The first standalone issue of ''Record Collector'' was published in March 1980, though its history stretches ba ...
'' magazine which also covered his relationship with Buckley. Beckett continued his working relationship with Stuart Anthony of The Long Lost Band in 2018, releasing a full-length album ''Love & Trial''.
An admirer of the 5-piece Portland indie band Eyelids, powered by singer-songwriters Chris Slusarenko, from
Guided by Voices, and
John Moen
John Moen is a musician and member of The Decemberists, Black Prairie, Boston Spaceships, Eyelids, and Perhapst. Moen has played the drums since he was 15 years old.
Prior to joining The Decemberists, Moen played with over 20 bands including s ...
, of
The Decemberists
The Decemberists are an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon. The band consists of Colin Meloy (lead vocals, guitar, principal songwriter), Chris Funk (guitar, multi-instrumentalist), Jenny Conlee (piano, keyboards, accordion), Nate ...
, Beckett began a collaboration with the band by opening his book of songs to them.
Beckett also wrote new lyrics. The resulting album, ''The Accidental Falls'', produced by
Peter Buck
Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. He also plays the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his ca ...
, from
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...
, made several Best of 2020 lists. The album includes the lost 1966 Beckett/Buckley song "Found at the Scene of a Rendezvous That Failed" with Beckett on piano and Buck on bass.
Personal life
Beckett has remained a poet and songwriter while working as a computer programmer and analyst, based in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...
.
Larry Beckett profile at LinkedIn.com
Retrieved 7 February 2013
He is married to photographer
A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs.
Duties and types of photographers
As in other ...
Laura Fletcher and they have two children - Susannah Beckett (born 1990) and Liam Beckett (born 1999).
References
External links
American Cycle
Reviews in Brief - Songs and Sonnets by Larry Beckett, 2002
Tom Clark essay on Morning-Glory, 2010
Beat Poetry Book Review by Lydia Pyne 2012
A Careful Reading of a Literature's Underdog: Larry Beckett's Beat Poetry, 2013
Beat Poetry review by Ryder Miller 2013
20 Questions: Larry Beckett 2015
Walking on the Clouds - Interview 2015
Paul Bunyan Book Review 2015
An American Epic Larry Beckett's Paul Bunyan 2017
Flight Patterns: Q&A with 'Amelia Earhart' Author Larry Beckett 2018
I Guess it Must Be Up to Me: Larry Beckett's Western Cries, and Whispers 2020
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beckett, Larry
1947 births
Living people
Songwriters from California
Poets from California
Writers from Glendale, California
Musicians from Anaheim, California
Musicians from Glendale, California
American poets
American male writers