Jeff Beck RIP

[Gil Bang 26071]

2 minutes ago, Deej said:

Dude was just unbelievable. 

 

 

seems so.  really great musicians seem to think so.

So, my brothers are 10 and 9 years older than I am.  The music that they listened to in their teens is still my favorite era of music.  Beatles, Stones, CSNY, Hollies, etc. 

The younger of the two always played guitar.  He had "Blow-By-Blow" on vinyl.  I borrowed it.  Instead of having my 10 year old mind blown, like it was so often when I listened to their stuff, I was like "this sucks, why is this supposed to be good?"

I still don't get it. 

[Gil Bang 26071]

here's another

 

 

 

[cactusflinthead 27609]

4 hours ago, Buzzrock said:

Beato’s recent take
 

I saw this on the feed the other day. I'm glad I saved it until now. 

He was one of those players that didn't get a lot of airplay after the initial British Invasion. I heard Freeway Jam on the Zew every once in a while but he was one of those complex studies that demanded your full attention. When I heard it again earlier today I recalled the days when I first heard and asked, "Who is this? That's amazing! How did he do that? I can hear jazz and blues but wow can he rock."

Uncopyable. I bet old Eric Johnson tried to for a long time and somewhere along the way found his own voice. 

 

[jimmyjazz 46372]

1 hour ago, cactusflinthead said:

 

Stevie always wrote some stanky horn parts, but he let Jeff step in with the stankiest part of all.

[Goredho 17455]

This is worth a watch. It really demonstrates Jeff Beck's unique and beautiful voice on the guitar.  The vibrato, volume swells, pitch gymnastics with the tremolo bar and finding different harmonics all over the place.  There is so much nuance in every note he's playing here, and the sounds he creates and emotion he projects reminds me more of Edith Piaf singing than a guitar god soloing.  It's the anti-Eruption, but no less stunning to me.

 

[G650 14295]

I just remembered one classic Beck bit I'm sure everyone knows, the guitar in Blaze of Glory.

Edited January 12, 2023 by G650

[Shoxthemonkey 1983]

This song, dedicated to guitarist Roy Buchanan, was composed by longtime friend Stevie Wonder as an apology to Jeff for releasing "Superstition" first. This is what Beck is referring to in the liner notes on the back of the album when he says, "thanks to Stevie."

@jimmyjazz

Edited January 12, 2023 by Shoxthemonkey

[Shoxthemonkey 1983]

2 hours ago, Goredho said:

This is worth a watch. It really demonstrates Jeff Beck's unique and beautiful voice on the guitar.  The vibrato, volume swells, pitch gymnastics with the tremolo bar and finding different harmonics all over the place.  There is so much nuance in every note he's playing here, and the sounds he creates and emotion he projects reminds me more of Edith Piaf singing than a guitar god soloing.  It's the anti-Eruption, but no less stunning to me.

 

This is on the playlist for my funeral.

[WhatTheBuck 28824]

16 hours ago, Rip76 said:

 

Yep, that’s the one I own.

RIP

[BrickHorn 18298]

15 hours ago, Buzzrock said:

It’s kinda funny how guitar players seem to universally accept he was a legend even if they don’t know or like his stuff. I’m in that boat myself

Beck wasn’t a riff-writer. At least if he was, he apparently wasn’t any good at it. Beck’s strength is in soloing and extracting unique sounds from the guitar.

I think guitarists appreciate him for stretching the bounds of rock guitar into strange new frontiers and showing what can be done when you break away from cliche blues licks in pentatonic minor. Beck played scales and phrases that most rock guitarists never thought to try. But it turns out most rock fans like rock, not jazz. And rock is simple music.

Edited January 12, 2023 by BrickHorn

[Chad Fuck 17831]

Beck wasn’t a riff-writer. At least if he was, he apparently wasn’t any good at it. Beck’s strength is in soloing and extracting unique sounds from the guitar.
I think guitarists appreciate him for stretching the bounds of rock guitar into strange new frontiers and showing what can be done when you break away from cliche blues licks in pentatonic minor. Beck played scales and phrases that most rock guitarists never thought to try. But it turns out most rock fans like rock, not jazz. And rock is simple music.

It's amazing how many people have played themselves right out of a job by not understanding this simple concept.  It's a great conundrum.  The musician always wants to go further, learn more and surprise themselves - if not the audience too.  The audience just wants a simple tune to feel good.  
 

[Chad Fuck 17831]

[Goredho 17455]

Another Jeff Beck piece that moves me (may be Lizzie Ball on violin, though)

 

Edited January 12, 2023 by Goredho

[Rip76 4977]

[BrickHorn 18298]

In that Beato video posted above, Eric Johnson said this is the first song he ever learned on guitar (maybe first solo - can’t imaging a true beginner jumping into this):

It’s a good example of Jeff Beck playing unorthodox phrases that are entirely unique but somehow also fit the music. Beck was the Yardbirds’ best lead guitarist and that’s high praise considering the other two guys who filled that role. 

[Macanudo 13026]

On 1/11/2023 at 8:56 PM, jimmyjazz said:

I have zero problem hearing Rod Stewart singing gospel.

I really can't imagine another person singing with Beck here.  Rod's raspy voice is perfect.   And it's incredible how the song starts off with Rod in the foreground and Jeff picking up as the song goes on.   

Rod's voice and Jeff's guitar are performing a beautiful duet. 

[BrickHorn 18298]

4 hours ago, BrickHorn said:

In that Beato video posted above, Eric Johnson said this is the first song he ever learned on guitar (maybe first solo - can’t imaging a true beginner jumping into this):

It’s a good example of Jeff Beck playing unorthodox phrases that are entirely unique but somehow also fit the music. Beck was the Yardbirds’ best lead guitarist and that’s high praise considering the other two guys who filled that role. 

One follow up: Jimmy Page cribbed the first five notes of that Beck intro lick (transposed from G down to C) for “Since I’ve Been Loving You.” 

[YGIFS 19453]

Yeah, been listening to "Shapes of Things" all day and Rod Stewart, unseasoned as he was, really grooved nicely with Beck & Co.  

What a shitty week for music.  But good art endures.  and enduring art is good.  

[Deej 77012]

1 hour ago, BrickHorn said:

One follow up: Jimmy Page cribbed the first five notes of that Beck intro lick (transposed from G down to C) for “Since I’ve Been Loving You.” 

That doesn't sound like something Jimmy Page would do.

[tbone_ 14220]

Yeah, been listening to "Shapes of Things" all day and Rod Stewart, unseasoned as he was, really grooved nicely with Beck & Co.  
What a shitty week for music.  But good art endures.  and enduring art is good.  

Gary Moore does a great cover of that

[Buzzrock 15014]

Tal is the shit. I can’t believe she’s 36.

[0xdeadbeef 1653]

The weird thing about Jeff Beck for me was that it didn't look like he should be making that sound.   Take almost any of his videos and turn the sound off.  His right hand looks like someone at Guitar Center who is picking up a guitar for the first time.  He's got that mostly open palm where the thumb just lightly touches a few string. There is no way in hell he should make the sounds he does. And yet, here we are.  

It's such a huge dividing line between rock music and what came before it that when the music stars of the 30s, 40s, and 50s got old and died in larger numbers, it didn't really impact me because I didn't know them or their music.  Now that the young stars of the 60s are are starting to pass, it feels more personal.   U.S. life expectancy for men is 77.  Beck was 78.  Sadly, there are a lot of other Rock-Gods queued up: Gilmour (76), Knopfler (73) , Gibbons (73), Young (77),  Clapton (77), Santana (75), Richards (79), Page (79), May (75), Betts (79) 

[Gil Bang 26071]

59 minutes ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

The weird thing about Jeff Beck for me was that it didn't look like he should be making that sound.   Take almost any of his videos and turn the sound off.  His right hand looks like someone at Guitar Center who is picking up a guitar for the first time.  He's got that mostly open palm where the thumb just lightly touches a few string. There is no way in hell he should make the sounds he does. And yet, here we are.  

It's such a huge dividing line between rock music and what came before it that when the music stars of the 30s, 40s, and 50s got old and died in larger numbers, it didn't really impact me because I didn't know them or their music.  Now that the young stars of the 60s are are starting to pass, it feels more personal.   U.S. life expectancy for men is 77.  Beck was 78.  Sadly, there are a lot of other Rock-Gods queued up: Gilmour (76), Knopfler (73) , Gibbons (73), Young (77),  Clapton (77), Santana (75), Richards (79), Page (79), May (75), Betts (79) 

Stills (78), Walsh (75)

[BoomMF 1399]

The next 5 years or so are going to be devastating.

[PittsburghTiger 6234]

For me it just always looked like the guitar was an extension of Beck. It all looked so effortless. He just never seemed to get flustered, or overly excited. He just played.

I agree with you in that it sometimes didn’t look, or sound, like it should be happening but, it was.

Everyone has their favorite guitar man, the one they think is the greatest, and all that but, I doubt there are many people who would say that Beck doesn’t belong in that conversation.

On 1/13/2023 at 8:36 PM, 0xdeadbeef said:

The weird thing about Jeff Beck for me was that it didn't look like he should be making that sound.   Take almost any of his videos and turn the sound off.  His right hand looks like someone at Guitar Center who is picking up a guitar for the first time.  He's got that mostly open palm where the thumb just lightly touches a few string. There is no way in hell he should make the sounds he does. And yet, here we are.  

It's such a huge dividing line between rock music and what came before it that when the music stars of the 30s, 40s, and 50s got old and died in larger numbers, it didn't really impact me because I didn't know them or their music.  Now that the young stars of the 60s are are starting to pass, it feels more personal.   U.S. life expectancy for men is 77.  Beck was 78.  Sadly, there are a lot of other Rock-Gods queued up: Gilmour (76), Knopfler (73) , Gibbons (73), Young (77),  Clapton (77), Santana (75), Richards (79), Page (79), May (75), Betts (79) 

 

[Deej 77012]

 

[Deej 77012]

 

[Deej 77012]

Not sorry if already posted, but the "But this one goes to 11" sequence in Spinal Tap was supposedly inspired by this.