Jeff Beck: C/D, S/D, RFD

An old two-fer, Truth/Beck-Ola, was one of the first LPs I bought when I started collecting in the mid-'70. I like their "Shapes of Things" almost as much as the original.

he's way too prolific to narrow down to one album or era, let alone song, but fuckin "plynth" is one of the best barroom rockers ever

Possibly the world's greatest master of the whammy.

RIP

Earlier this year I decided to listen to his mid-80s synth stuff and his late 90s dance stuff. Some surprising (in a good way) moments in both periods.

Got a nice vinyl copy of the BBA live album for (relatively) cheap a couple months back--such an artifact: a double from a band who'd only recorded a single lp, recorded in Japan and only ever released there.

RIP

Absolute whammy bar legend, rest in power!!

Letterman's people had this up in near-record time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJErzI-aP1M

so gorgeous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiOPvOBd8IA

made so many great records

I need that BBA Japanese live lp!

In some ways, one the most true to his own muse musician of those 60s artists. Jeff Beck never really quit trying to improve or try different things.

RIP

Earlier this year I decided to listen to his mid-80s synth stuff and his late 90s dance stuff. Some surprising (in a good way) moments in both periods.

I got both of the Beck 'Original Album Classics' early last year and listened to them all the time in the car. It actually led me to get his CD "Jeff" a couple weeks ago and oddly enough I listened to last night before bed.

I really like both of his drum and bass type records. They sound of their time but they hold up pretty well as he gets all sorts of weird sounds out of the guitar. Weird sounds and the love of making them with an 'electric' guitar seems to be a big thing with Beck in that BBC documentary about him in the 60s.

I love his track "Nadia" off 'You Have it Coming' and there is a good live version on 'Live at Ronnie Scotts'.

Always loved that he wore a Runaway Radio enamel lapel pin from 101 KLOL (the Houston AOR station) on his Flash jacket.

https://rock101movie.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/timeline-80-runawayradio80s.png

What Andrew Sarris called "Antonioniennui" (actually, no):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSJGEn4FDys

I don't think I've heard a Beck album, just an assortment of cuts, a dozen at most, over the years.

where to start?

I’d recommend Truth. It’s the blueprint for (and superior to, imho) Led Zeppelin I, and contains the greatest-ever recorded scream by a drummer.

I love Truth but the all-instrumental Blow by Blow and Wired are the ones I've played the most

Good a time as any to revisit this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaGfW2Ifuts

There was a 2cd Rhino comp called The Ultimate Yardbirds that did a great job of summarizing the band

yeah, his fusion albums from the '70s are probably the best, but I think the key thing with Jeff Beck is that when you listen to Jeff back you are mostly listening to/for Jeff Beck. The context almost doesn't matter, he is indomitable.

yeah I love the bbb/wired/there and back trifecta.. the live one with the Jan hammer group from around that time is pretty insane too.

He's a loud guitarist, right? Description, not criticism. What I've heard sounds like a strafing.

yeah he’s kind of one the original “stunt guitarists I guess but he has a really unique way of making his guitar emote, lots of gorgeous sunset evoking swells and visercal textural synesthesic metallic scrappage

xpost Try this, as recommended by Nate Patrin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHsPjWBqOZg

Jeff Beck in 1985 in his own goddamn plane:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sfc-datebook-wordpress/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/MERc20e10f2f41eb9bda2823220642b6_beck_obit-1008x1024.jpg

CHAPMAN STICK!

"It actually led me to get his CD "Jeff" a couple weeks ago and oddly enough I listened to last night before bed."

some of jeff really rips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvGDTnvj2jM

What I've heard sounds like a strafing.

Then you haven’t heard “Lookin’ For Another Pure Love” (but I assume you have):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY2fz5RBgvQ


“Do it, Jeff.”

He's a great musician who did most of his best work in other contexts than his own records. This Roger Waters track from 1992 is about half guitar solo and there are some terrifying bits in it, without any showing off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OccmcfZ9ZnY

No, I love that solo, and I like his version of "People Get Ready" w/Rod Stewart, to name two.

the recentish album with the bald eagle playing a strat on the cover was rather good

I’d recommend Truth. It’s the blueprint for (and superior to, imho) Led Zeppelin I

Truth and Beck-Ola are interesting because they give a chance to hear what Zep would have sounded like it they'd been saddled with Mickie Most as a producer.

He plays a great solo on Jon Bon Jovi's "Blaze of Glory."

Beck is a "so close, but..." for me.

I've listened to Beck-Ola and Truth and they just made me want to listen to Led Zeppelin and/or something that doesn't have Rod Stewart singing.

I've listened to Blow By Blow and Wired (not in full, TBF) and they just made me want to listen to Mahavishnu Orchestra.

I've listened to Beck, Bogert & Appice and their version of "Superstition" is world-crushingly awesome but everything else is a boring ballad or a generic blooze riff.

Talented guy, but always second-tier because nothing he did was ever exactly right, and he either couldn't or wouldn't write a hit as cheesy as any of Clapton's.

lol second tier.

lol second tier

I only mean that in terms of commercial success. He was just never as popular as Clapton or Page (via Led Zeppelin, obviously).

Of all the big deal 60s dudes for some reason his fame/rep didn't carry over to subsequent generations

He's probably just after Hendrix in terms of the most innovative rock guitarists of the era. Without him there's no Eddie Van Halen and everything that followed.

Of all the big deal 60s dudes for some reason his fame/rep didn't carry over to subsequent generations

..unless you played guitar. My teacher had me learn "Cause We've Ended as Lovers" as an assignment, and other pieces of his were often transcribed in the monthly guitar magazines.

yeah he’s kind of one the original “stunt guitarists I guess

Probably as good a place as any to point out he was a key inspiration for Nigel Tufnel.

Is there any relationship between "stunt guitarist" and "stun guitar"? (i.e. as credited on many a Blue Oyster Cult and Husker Du LP. Umlauts appear!)

I think this Lewis Shiner story was my intro to music nerdism:

“Felix was 34. He worked four ten-hour days a week at Allied Sheet Metal, running an Amada CNC turret punch press. At night he made cassettes with his twin TEAC dbx machines. He'd recorded over a thousand of them so far, over 160 miles of tape, and he'd carefully hand lettered the labels for each one.

He'd taped everything Jeff Beck had ever done, from the Yardbirds' For Your Love through all the Jeff Beck Groups and the solo albums; he had the English singles of "Hi Ho Silver Lining" and "Tally Man"; he had all the session work, from Donovan to Stevie Wonder to Tina Turner.

In the shop he wore a Walkman and listened to his tapes. Nothing seemed to cut the sound of tortured metal like the diamond-edged perfection of Beck's guitar. It kept him light on his feet, dancing in place at the machine, and sometimes the sheer beauty of it made tears come up in his eyes.”

oh yeah -- I can hear a tonal similarity between him and Van Halen.

Felix would have known, if Lewis Shiner didn't, that Beck didn't play on "For Your Love".

Is there any relationship between "stunt guitarist" and "stun guitar"?

I believe "stunt guitar" was coined by Zappa for the likes of Belew or possibly more specifically Steve Vai. The gist was that Zappa couldn't sing/solo and play at the same time, so he'd have to call in the stunt guitarist.

Going back to the instrumental albums and...yeah, I'm into Wired. Funky instrumental rock, kinda stylistically similar to mid '70s Jean-Luc Ponty (minus the electric violin, of course). I've got some work to do, so I'll listen to Blow By Blow and the live album with Jan Hammer next.

The gist was that Zappa couldn't sing/solo and play at the same time, so he'd have to call in the stunt guitarist.

Interesting, I didn't know that was the meaning. I always thought it was that Vai was playing stuff that was more like stunts than music, basically.

I think they both might be right!

Anyway, for the record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d11yIXP4xJ0

Pretty sure he is *not* using a slide on this, which is cool/nuts.

Was just looking up the Yardbirds' history because of the book I'm writing — Cecil Taylor opened for them at the Fillmore West for three gigs at the end of May 1968. Beck was long gone, though; Jimmy Page was the sole lead guitarist by that point, and the band broke up in early June.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, January 30, 2023 2:34 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Just hit me that it's kind of weird to me to realize that 1968 Page and 1968 Taylor existed at the same time

The women acted insulted. I liked that as much as any solo I heard heard him play.

Maybe she was trying to get him to say, "Well, I'll bring the guitar---special delivery," boom-chakka-wow-wow. I mean, those were the Sixties, after all. But easy to see how it could have come off as too lofty, baby.

Maybe Marcus was just thinking of the scene in "Blow Up."

along with a sort of implicit transaction that she wasn’t trading sex for the guitar, it wasn’t worth that much, but merely by appearing before him offering him the priceless opportunity to keep her in his mind forever as an unobtainable erotic object.

Griel is overthinking this. When you're hot people give you guitars all the time.

Don't I know it

BBA Box Set:

https://www.houstonpress.com/music/things-to-do-listen-to-the-beck-bogert-and-appice-live-box-set-16323062

Includes the first domestic release of Live In Japan

Awesome!

Nice! Here's the link on the Rhino site.

oh fuck yes

Will not forgive him for breaking up Cactus