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

it is / was such a ubiquitous UK wedding / school disco / pub singalong anthem though i'd guess a lot of people who know the song don't know who it's by. i asked my wife about it earlier and sher said she had always thought it was a beatles song!!

..and while he famously hated it, he was persuaded to play it one time at least -

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

xxxpost, "The Dog Presides" indeed! Totally refreshing, bird, thanks so much!

Here's one somebody just sent me:

This one, from 2007, is worth it too. Not just because he does the track from Blow by Blow that was all over the airwaves back in the day, but for the solo by Australian bassist Tal Wilkenfeld, who was 22 at the time. The entire show at Ronnie Scott's is available on YouTube, and it's really good...includes a version of Billy Cobham's "Stratus" (from his first solo album, "Spectrum") that is every bit as good as the original!

David Torn said on of Beck winning a Grammy for "Plan B" which featured mix and music by Torn.

splatt said:
that's what Jeff said, and it meant a lot to him..... and to me. he called me immediately upon hearing the Grammy news, and enthusiastically blasted me with, "It's your Grammy, it's yours!"

freaking dude.

ya know, he was really incredibly supportive of me as a player, pointing out the inspiration he'd gotten listening to my playing & music, my uses of pitch-expression on the guitar over the years, and my Oud playing of all things..... completely unbidden, and without any hint of hesitation.

mensch.

i went to a gig with him, once --- his gig, after dinner --- which was fantastic.
me & my friend Hector went backstage afterwards to see what was up, thank him for his brilliance, see how he felt, make after-show plans, but the room was sooooo over-crowded --- maybe 85-100 people jammed together in a pretty small ante-room? --- with a sizeable percentage of guitarists present.

it was waaaay too crowded for me, and i was getting guitarplayerly-claustrophobic..... couple of well-known players saw me, came over & said "hey"; one of 'em said, clearly condescendingly, "what are you doing here?".
(like, why would i attend a JB show?" damn. WTF?)
i said, "well, i came to hear Jeff play", turned to Hector & said "let's split & see Jeff later." Hector disagreed, "f*** that merde, let's hang for another few minutes!"

so, a few minutes later:
Jeff pops through the curtain and is just peering around the crowd, then grabs a chair & stands up on it so's he can see better, sees me & points at me & yells across the room "TORN, TORN! Didja hear me playin' your licks, TORN? Didja hear your licks, TORN?"
and, as if i were a kid..... i just felt so good in that moment. crazy, of course, but kinda validated, maybe even relieved somehow? and Jeff knew, he def knew what that meant to me.

freaking dudistic mensch.

Great story, thanks.
A bunch of shows, incl w xpost Jan Hammer Group and Stanley Clarke---also, scroll all the way down for his Bowie show, guesting on "Jean Genie" and "Round and Round":
https://zensurfingarcher.blogspot.com/

why didn’t “classic rock” radio latch onto anything from the first two records?

I used to hear "Beck's Bolero" and a few others from those records, plus "Going Down", on the local classic rock station.

On the subject of the tour with Jan Hammer, there's a Spinal Tap-worthy quote from Beck from a guitar magazine:

I couldn't believe how I misjudged the role he was to play. Not musically, because his playing is superb, and if he fell on his arse on a piano, it would come out a magnificent chord. He's that sort of bloke.

Flash has weirdly really grown on me. I first heard it last March and only enjoyed the more bizarre songs where the LinnDrum seems to be wanting to do free jazz or 777-9311. Now I have time for all of it except People Get Ready.

The opening seconds of this cannot fail to make me laugh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s7r9n4jspM

That's a Dirk Diggler single they've got there.

Written and produced by Nile Rodgers!

But check out this bonkers/shit song (also written by Nile Rodgers) and time capsule video from the same album:

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

Crazy solo starts around 3:40.

I am saddened by the news of Jeff Beck’s passing. Here’s a clip of a video I did with him in ‘85. It was this video that really paved the way for the success of my hit, Soldier of Love. 

I’ll always be grateful to Jeff for that opportunity.

RIP, my friend. pic.twitter.com/7FTDYMLp3r

— Donny Osmond (@donnyosmond) January 12, 2023

Greil Marcus was asked about Jeff Beck and recalled a bizarre incident at one of his Yardbirds shows. Here's the relevant section:

Jeff Beck shocked me in the Yardbirds. What he did in “Shapes of Things” seemed unreal, but it erased the song. With the much stronger number “Mister You’re a Better Man Than I” he becomes part of the body of the song; he is the song. I admired him in the Jeff Beck Group but Rod Stewart was so good it was hard to listen to Jeff Beck. Listen to their “I’ve Been Drinking.” It’s built to showcase the solo but when it comes, and the rest of the instrumentation builds to it, it’s a distraction. Maybe that’s why for so long that record, buried as a B side, was almost impossible to hear.

I’m glad he carried on. I would have thought he was pretty much forgotten. A full page obituary in the New York Times almost didn’t make sense. Someone there loved him.

A memory, though: In June 1966, we went to a small place in Brixton, in London, to see the Yardbirds: the Ram Jam Club. Before bands came on they played only reggae—its rock steady form. We had no idea what it was but it slithered through the room. Then a soul band called the Heatwaves came on. They were good. They built their set so that when they ended with “Heatwave” it was pure satisfaction.

By this time it was late and the place was so hot and steamy it felt like sweat was pouring down the walls. The Yardbirds came on and the reality of the night took a step up. They were both explosive and careful, anarchic and precise. It was an unstable combination of values and it seemed to make every song feel like a risk, where anything could happen.

When they finished everyone was milling about. Two beautiful Swedish women went up to Jeff Beck, gave him huge smiles, talked for a minute, and then one of them asked Beck for his guitar. As a souvenir: “I will take it home,” she said. I was shocked. There was something so condescending, so trivializing of the show, 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. Something like that. I could see him freeze with rage. He picked up his guitar and proceeded to smash it to bits. Then he kicked the pieces to the back of the stage and walked off. The women acted insulted. I liked that as much as any solo I heard heard him play.

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.

Jeff Beck shocked me in the Yardbirds. What he did in “Shapes of Things” seemed unreal, but it erased the song

wrong

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