Jeff Beck – (1944-2023)
By Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 1/12/23 – Jeff Beck has passed. Sometimes you see it coming. Not this time. 60’s icons are becoming fewer and farther between. However, this loss stings a little bit harder. You see, I just saw him perform a scant two months ago at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Center on November 4, 2022. Beck was on my must-see bucket list along with a host of others. The show was hyped as a Jeff Beck / Johnny Depp twofer. In reality, it was a Jeff Beck guitar master class with Johnny contributing a well-received, 30 minute digestif towards the end of the set.
One allows (and forgives) a bit of age-related entropy in a 78-year-old road warrior who’s been there and done that a thousand times over. However, one doesn’t expect said icon to maintain the same chops they had as a young gun and push the envelope even further as Beck has done. At the concert I saw, no calls of “where’s Johnny?” were heard; just cheers, and sustained applause after each virtuosic performance. From my vantage point (second row balcony), Becks thin, taut build and dark brunette Beatle cut presented just as it would have a half-century previous. His sudden passing left me slack jawed and sad to realize the golden age of my youth is one giant step closer to ancient history.
Jeff Beck came to the attention of the world in 1965 via The Yardbirds; a British Invasion band that rocked just a bit harder than most of its contemporaries. Eric Clapton was their first guitarist and soon left to follow his Blues muse to John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. With Beck installed, The Yardbirds did their best work including monster hits Heart Full of Soul and Shapes of Things. The former a raga influenced torch rocker, the latter a Psychedelic banger that peeled away flowery platitudes and hazy cosmic jive in favor of straight talk about environmental and spiritual wreckage. Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason revealed that the group wanted Jeff Beck to replace original guitarist Syd Barrett after his departure, but none of the Floyd’s had the nerve to ask. He was also approached by The Rolling Stones to replace the deceased Brian Jones.
The scope and expanse of Beck’s talent couldn’t abide the strictures of a hit making pop group for long. He struck out solo with spectacular results. Jeff Beck gave us the masterpiece album Truth (# 15 on Billboard) in 1968. The muscular hard rock sound would set the template for Led Zeppelin, whose debut came out five months later. Jeff Beck had a knack for finding the right singer and introduced the world to a young, pineapple-haired unknown by the name of Rod Stewart. Ron Wood was the bass player. After the demise of this lineup, the band Faces would rise from its ashes and make history of their own. Beck would go on to form The Jeff Beck Group, a band of heavyweights that would foreshadow the Jazz influenced music Beck would eventually pursue.
A super group was the next stop and Beck was top billed in the monster power trio Beck Bogart and Appice in 1973. They barely missed a chart topper when Stevie Wonder reneged on his verbal agreement to write a song for Beck in exchange for his guitar services on Talking Book. Wonder demoed the song Superstition and realized the gold mine he was sitting on. BB&A would eventually release the track and gain FM radio airplay. This writer will always prefer Beck’s version.
After Beck Bogart and Appice folded in 1974, Beck bounced back strong in 1975 and dived headlong into Jazz-Rock fusion; a sub-genre that was making waves in the industry. He alchemized his muse and cranked out the hit album Blow by Blow which employed some of the top fusion players of the era and reached # 5 on the Billboard charts.
Beck never faded away. He was constantly making music when he wasn’t pursuing his other passion, restoring classic cars. He was first call when Mick Jagger surprised the world by going solo. He likewise worked on Jon Bon Jovi’s first solo album. He’s done sessions and toured with a who’s who list of musicians from every genre including; Brian Wilson, Roger Waters, Kate Bush, Kelly Clarkson and even Tom Jones.
Rock, Blues, Psychedelia and Jazz. No genre was beyond his mastery. Do yourself a favor and check out his lost classic Crazy Legs where he trades in his Strats and Les Pauls for a semi-hollow Gretch and delivers an album of grade-A Rockabilly.
Beck was never celebrity fodder but had a steamer trunk full of hardware and accolades from the industry. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice. Both solo and as a member of The Yardbirds. He was also awarded eight Grammys. He was a Guitar God to other guitar gods. Woe to every guitarist who found himself in an onstage smackdown with Beck. He went out at the top of his game and in fighting trim.
The great upward migration continues…RIP Jeff
