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

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.

I'd rep for the two LPs by the 'second' Jeff Beck Group which featured Bobby Tench on vocals, a young Cozy Powell on drums and included keyboard player Max Middleton who continued to play with Beck through the fusion records.

Beck definitely took a step back from heavy and was trying to do more funk and soul on those records and while they never caught on really big, I think they hold up pretty well myself for early 70s funk/rock/soul.

This is a good video of the group.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs_KgJlCd84

Speaking of Blaze of Glory, this is super-cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA37c1Nmuhs

This is pretty bonkers. Hard to divide my attention between Beck and Vinnie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEP2gzfezT4

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.

I wouldn't call him second-tier, but I have to admit his recording career is a bit underwhelming for someone of his stature. What he did with the Yardbirds was great and the first two Jeff Beck Group albums are often really good, but I always thought there was something lacking about the rest of his output. I'll check out everyone's recommendations though - would be more than happy to add some more Jeff Beck records to my shelf.

He was a classic rock star known by most classic rock fans who was almost never played on classic rock radio

My all-time favorite festival experience was Bonnaroo 2010 when the Saturday night lineup went Jeff Beck-Stevie Wonder-Jay Z. (Beck didn't guest with Stevie iirc, which you might have thought he would.) Beck was fantastic, playing to a crowd full of people who probably only half knew who he was, but he won everyone over. A great mix of gorgeous lyricism and straight fire, but in the service of the songs, he cared about the melodies.

Beck had a bit of bad luck as a he got sick while on the road with the Yardbirds and got in a car wreck which ended the first Jeff Beck Group band (which was scheduled to play Woodstock). After that, I think he kinda did what he wanted to do and most of that was from what I can tell was more work on old hot rods.

I've read that hearing Mahavishnu was a big influence on him that he did not need to have a vocalist and led him to do the fusion records. Beck had enough success from that and earlier work that he was able to keep going and he turned down some business that might have been more lucrative as he just did not want to do it (auditioned with Stones before Ron Wood, turned down touring with Rod Stewart as he was only going to be featured instead of doing the whole show.)

Seems to me he was able to have success by his own terms.

Earlnash OTM re: the second Beck Group albums -- _Jeff Beck Group_ has the definitive 'Goin' Down' and _Rough and Ready_ the gorgeous 'Raynes Park Blues' ('Max's Tune' on later pressings). RIP.

Mike Campbell:

Heartbroken. I saw him maybe 15 yrs ago in San Diego. He was SO good. His precision and technique. All I kept thing was, “I better go home and start practicing A LOT!”

I was wondering why this thread was so active, RIP.

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

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

yeah I think this misses what Wired really is. Inner Mounting Flame is obv its own thing -- incredibly busy, active, not grooveless but certainly not about the groove, right? and from there McLaughlin continues on his super-busy way. I love it and am into it, I'm an apologist for his 80s shit, don't get me wrong! but Mahavishnu is maximalism imo. Beck is into playing with combos and getting, forgive me, "jazzy" inside the rock stricture -- his tunes are rock tunes, but the stuff he's doing inside them is cagey, slippery, really fun and groovy. idk Wired is such a fuckin masterpiece.

embarrassing confession

i didnt know Rod Stewart was in the Jeff Beck Group!
had never heard anything til now
Truth & BeckOla uh rule?

The Guitar Shop album is '80s HAM at it's finest.

...and what an album cover!

https://i.discogs.com/AA99wuMriiU_Wuvdp2APLYO_jbRlq7CeCvDf9CeVtgE/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:462/w:473/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTY3MTkw/NjEtMTYwMjY5Mzkx/My02NzUyLmpwZWc.jpeg

lmao

To be fair, the title track was a kinda great needling of late 80s gearheads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J21JU6jckls

I had no idea that album cover was painted by surrealist oddball Mark Ryden.

no shit really!?

that main melody of “where were you” from guitar shop is angelic. don’t even know how to describe the sound he gets.

xxp whoa

Beck co-headlined with SRV on one the latter's last tours, and they do a new mber together and the end of the night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKTw0PcBiuQ

"Goin Down"

This is earlier, in 1984 at much-bootlegged appearance at CBS Records junket in Hawaii:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W-vxNZP2AE

"Jeff's Boogie"

do a new mber = would do a number

To be fair, the title track was a kinda great needling of late 80s gearheads

with Terry Bozzio@

!

yeah I think this misses what Wired really is. Inner Mounting Flame is obv its own thing -- incredibly busy, active, not grooveless but certainly not about the groove, right? and from there McLaughlin continues on his super-busy way. I love it and am into it, I'm an apologist for his 80s shit, don't get me wrong! but Mahavishnu is maximalism imo. Beck is into playing with combos and getting, forgive me, "jazzy" inside the rock stricture -- his tunes are rock tunes, but the stuff he's doing inside them is cagey, slippery, really fun and groovy. idk Wired is such a fuckin masterpiece.

Yeah, I was definitely wrong about my previous assessment. I listened to Wired and Blow By Blow last night, and they definitely were more in the jazz-funk zone than Mahavishnu; I made the comparison above to Jean-Luc Ponty's mid 70s albums, and I stand by that much more than the Mahavishnu comparison. Gonna listen to the live album with Hammer and There and Back today.

There's some great material on There and Back. It seems appropriate today to mention its closing track, "The Final Peace", in which Beck improvises soulfully over Tony Hymas's mournful Prophet-5 washes. Vale, Jeff.

I've tried to get into Beck in the past, usually by listening to Truth or Beck-Ola, which haven't really caught on for me. No surprise, as I'm not a blues guy at all.

But a few years back, I was grocery shopping when a soaring instrumental guitar song broke through the mid-level pop they usually play. I soundhounded the thing and learned it was Jeff Beck's 2010 song Hammerhead. The backing track is pretty cheesy for my tastes, but the guitar playing is top-notch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2oxEihXghY

I had a promo copy of one of his early 00s albums—very electronica heavy. It was kind of impressively experimental for someone of that age/stature

My guitar teacher (who worshipped Jeff Beck) always made fun of "Guitar Shop" as the worst sounding best recorded album of its era. Just totally time-stamped. But Beck's playing on it is incredible (and one of the songs is inexplicably on the "Gremlins 2" soundtrack). I used to love "Guitar Shop" at the time. I probably bought it for Bozzio.

Beck, incidentally, was (initially wrote "is" ...) apparently was really into cars, even as early as the '60s, and would show up to sessions with his shirt dirty from motor oil. Beck (and some good anecdotes) showed up in the Phill Brown book, which I just read.

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

I like the BBA record, though I won't argue with this assessment, but I also didn't realize until last night that Stevie Wonder wrote "Superstition" for Jeff Beck, the BBA vers was going to come out first until Barry Gordy heard it.

I've always been sort of curious to think what would have happened if the 80s "sci-fi metal" band of Jagger, Beck, Doug Wimbish and Simon Philips (and/or Terry Bozio) would have really happened. Jagger assembled them for the "Primitive Cool" soul tour under the guise of solo songs and writing new things but it turned out to all just be an end around attempt to get the Stones to reunite (or Jagger lost his nerve depending on who is telling the story)

It did (briefly) happen (sort of), just with Satriani instead of Beck!

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

Jagger's hair and scarf match the solos.

Larger than life!