R.I.P Jeff Beck

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JackFlash

JackFlash

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R.I.P. January 10, 2023 influential guitar legend Jeff Beck (bacterial meningitis, age 78), best remembered for his work with The Yardbirds ("Heart Full of Soul", "Shapes of Things"), solo (1967 UK #14 single "Hi- Ho Silver Lining", 1975 hit album 'Blow By Blow' & 1976's 'Wired'); The Jeff Beck Group (three albums 1969-72), Beck, Bogart & Appice (1973 self-titled album), The Honeydrippers (with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant & Nile Rodgers, 1984 US #3 single "Sea Of Love"); Certainly one of the most influential guitar players in Rock history.
2022 was bad enough with the loss of Olivia, Judith Durham, Archie Roach, Loretta Lynn, Meat Loaf, Jerry Lee Lewis, Christine McVie, Coolio, Vangelis, Lamont Dozier, Ronnie Spector, Keith Levene, Wilko Johnson, Jet Black, American record executive Mo Ostin who was renowned as a champion of music and musicians and now we start the year off sadly with the passing of a true rock great. 2023 probably won't be a great year for our musical heroes...
 
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Well before my time, and I suspect most of us here, but anyone who is a fan of guitar-based music would have been raised on his work, or at least those who were influenced by him. An absolute titan.

RIP.
 




Bought all his stuff in record bins as Aussies like straight music and the jazz fusion and prog back in the 80's could be bought up cheap on vinyl.

Wired,a classic record.

I heard this song on Joe Zemdeg's fantastic jazz rock show on PBS back in the 80's.

 
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James Colorado said:
Well before my time, and I suspect most of us here, but anyone who is a fan of guitar-based music would have been raised on his work, or at least those who were influenced by him. An absolute titan.

RIP.
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Beck is the guitar players' guitar player. He just never had the mainstream megastardom of his contemporaries. He was Jimmy Pages' best friend as teens, was possibly the first to really use feedback, brought Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood into the limelight, pioneer of fusion. Definitely never a pop artist. People Get Ready was probably his biggest exposure.
He was also well known to gear heads for doing his own modding of hot rods. I mean the American Graffiti old roadsters. Did all the welding, shaping himself.
That's the thing, all the old 60s stars are starting to hear the final siren. They're from a different generation and much beloved by it.
 
RIP Jeff Beck, one of my all time favourites since the Yardbird days, so long ago. 60 years at the top of the music tree. Not too many who can match that!
This is Sleepwalk, originally recorded by brothers, Santo & Johnny using the Steel Guitar.
Jeff had the sublime ability to make his guitar sound just like the Steel Guitar on the original.

Goodbye Jeff, I will really miss the music you made.
 
My dad heard this song from Beck's album "Emotion & Commotion" a year before he passed away and wanted to know what it was called. He asked me if I could get him a copy of the album. I made one and he took it home. My dad a WWII vet, later asked me if I could make sure that "Elegy for Dunkirk" was played at the end of his funeral. I did and to my surprise had a lot of people ask me what the song was and who did it. Beautiful song with the beautiful voice of soprano, Olivia Safe.

​

 
IMO one of the Top 5 guitarists of all time, alongside Hendrix/Clapton/Page/Blackmore.

He kept a lower profile than those guys, and admittedly I only have a passing acquaintance with his work from Rod Stewart, but those in the know have told me that his style and technique were not just unique, but also evolved to somewhat keep with the times. Evolving your style is tricky - Page couldn't really do it, Clapton had mixed fortunes in that regard, and Blackmore outright abandoned the genre for 25 years. But Beck did it.

Although instrumental music has never been my thing, he deserves props for pioneering it. Like Hendrix, he could also combine emotionality with melody, though Hendrix allied it to hit-making in a manner Beck unfortunately couldn't quite accomplish.

Nonetheless, he was as influential as any of the other Top 5 guitarists.

RIP.
 
One of the genuine greats. Was fortunate enough to see him at the Palais in 2009 (almost to the day in fact).

My personal favourite stuff of his is still the first incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group, both the two studio albums and the live stuff that surfaces. Unfortunately as pretty much everyone admitted then and now, he was catastrophically unsuited to be a bandleader in every single way, so what could have been an all-time superstar band - and they had the ability dripping off them - fell apart. They should have played Woodstock but Beck had a meltdown. Close second would be the mid-70s albums. I don't necessarily love the rock fusion pairing, except when he played it.

Small sample of the Beck Group in full swing:



This is the first "proper" lineup (Beck / Stewart / Wood / Micky Waller / Hopkins). Quality isn't the absolute best but the band is on fire. I know Strats are good guitars - but Beck's guitar tone on this with his Les Paul through Marshalls is just otherworldly.
 
videos from the Jeff Beck tribute show yesterday started dropping. I always find these shows interesting as you get a lot more of an unfiltered look at the talent. And on occasion the relationships between famous players. This clip is a blues. Clapton IMO shines at these shows because he's just playing his jam.
 

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I had not seen this one before, the RRHoF rehearsal of Train Kept a Rollin. Much better take than the actual show, and a good demonstration of how Beck is miles beyond those other guys. They're good, but they are conventional.
 
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