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DrMaddVibe
Herf-A-Holic Topic Starter

3 years ago

Jeff Beck has died.

Jeff Beck, Guitar God Who Influenced Generations, Dies at 78

“Jeff Beck is the best guitar player on the planet," Joe Perry, the lead guitarist of Aerosmith, told The New York

Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, has died. He was 78.

Beck died Tuesday after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. The location was not immediately known.

“Jeff was such a nice person and an outstanding iconic, genius guitar player — there will never be another Jeff Beck,” Tony Iommi, guitarist for Black Sabbath wrote on Twitter.

Kiss' Paul Stanley called Beck one of the all-time guitar masters: “Play on now and forever,” he tweeted, while Stanley's bandmate Gene Simmons added: “No one played guitar like Jeff Back.”

Beck first came to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds and then went out on his own in a solo career that incorporated hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera. He was known for his improvising, love of harmonics and the whammy bar on his preferred guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.

“Jeff Beck is the best guitar player on the planet," Joe Perry, the lead guitarist of Aerosmith, told The New York Times in 2010. "He is head, hands and feet above all the rest of us, with the kind of talent that appears only once every generation or two.”

Beck was among the rock-guitarist pantheon from the late ’60s that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. Beck won eight Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again as a solo artist in 2009. He was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

Beck played guitar with vocalists as varied as Luciano Pavarotti, Macy Gray, Chrissie Hynde, Joss Stone, Imelda May, Cyndi Lauper, Wynonna Judd, Buddy Guy and Johnny Depp. He made two records with Rod Stewart — 1968's “Truth” and 1969's “Beck-Ola” — and one with a 64-piece orchestra, “Emotion & Commotion.”

“I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don’t have too much of it. It’s got to be in balance. I just saw Cirque du Soleil, and it struck me as complete organized chaos,” he told Guitar World in 2014. “If I could turn that into music, it’s not far away from what my ultimate goal would be, which is to delight people with chaos and beauty at the same time.”

Beck career highlights include joining with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice to create the power trio that released “Beck, Bogert and Appice” in 1973, tours with Brian Wilson and Buddy Guy and a tribute album to the late guitarist Les Paul, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul).”

Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born in Surrey, England, and attended Wimbledon Art College. His father was an accountant, and his mother worked in a chocolate factory. As a boy, he built his first instrument, using a cigar box, a picture frame for the neck and string from a radio-controlled toy airplane.

He was in a few bands — including Nightshift and The Tridents — before joining the Yardbirds in 1965, replacing Clapton but only a year later giving way to Page. During his tenure, the band created the memorable singles “Heart Full of Soul,” “I’m a Man” and “Shapes of Things.”

Beck’s first hit single was 1967’s instrumental “Beck’s Bolero,” which featured future Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, and future Who drummer Keith Moon. The Jeff Beck Group — with Stewart singing — was later booked to play the 1969 Woodstock music festival but their appearance was canceled. Beck later said there was unrest in the band.

“I could see the end of the tunnel,” he told Rolling Stone in 2010.

Beck was friends with Hendrix and they performed together. Before Hendrix, most rock guitar players concentrated on a similar style and technical vocabulary. Hendrix blew that apart.

“He came along and reset all of the rules in one evening,” Beck told Guitar World.

Beck teamed up with legendary producer George Martin — a.k.a. “the fifth Beatle” — to help him fashion the genre-melding, jazz-fusion classic “Blow by Blow” (1975) and “Wired” (1976). He teamed up with Seal on the Hendrix tribute “Stone Free,” created a jazz-fusion group led by synthesizer player Jan Hammer and honored rockabilly guitarist Cliff Gallup with the album “Crazy Legs.” He put out “Loud Hailer” in 2016.

Beck’s guitar work can be heard on the soundtracks of such films as “Stomp the Yard,” “Shallow Hal,” “Casino,” “Honeymoon in Vegas,” “Twins,” “Observe and Report” and “Little Big League.” Beck recently completed a tour supporting his album with Depp, “18.”

Beck’s career never hit the commercial highs of Clapton. A perfectionist, he preferred to make critically well-received instrumental records and left the limelight for long stretches, enjoying his time restoring vintage automobiles. He and Clapton had a tense relationship early on but became friends in later life and toured together.

Why did the two wait some four decades to tour together?

“Because we were all trying to be big bananas,” Beck told Rolling Stone in 2010. “Except I didn’t have the luxury of the hit songs Eric’s got.”

Beck is survived by his wife, Sandra.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/jeff-beck-guitar-god-who-influenced-generations-dies-at-78/4042454/

Edited by user 3 years ago | Reason: Not specified

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Gene363
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

May he RIP

The escape pod: https://cigarbid.freeforums.net

DrafterX
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

Damn... 😞

Mraia
Connoisseur

3 years ago

😢😢

frankj1
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

I've often thought he was my favorite.
Big loss.

Palama
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

RIP Jeff. 🙏

Definitely one of my favorites.

tailgater
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

Jeff Beck.
Truth.
You Shook Me.
1:50 in.

Even the guitar accepts it's fate. Then throws up at the end of the song.

Proof he was the best. Before he went all jazzy.

New found respect for Rod Stewart on this album.
They are Zeppelin. Before Jimmy Page started stealing riffs.

Sunoverbeach
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

RIP Mr. Beck

Palama
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

I’ve always been partial to this one:

Saw JB only twice:

May 8, 1973 - Beck, Bogert & Appice - sat in the front row, stage left and my ears rang for a few days.

July 30, 1975 - “Wired” tour - played both a Strat and his old trademark black Les Paul.

frankj1
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

#10

tailgater wrote:

Rod's only great stuff was on the 2 Beck albums Truth and Beck-o-la and Rod's first solo album, The Rod Stewart Album...the one with Man of Constant Sorrow. Great album.
I'd consider a vote for Gasoline Alley as well, couple of cuts from the Maggie May album, but then he went all Do You Think I'm Sexy and worse.
Had the voice but lost the soul of the music from his days as a laborer.

I had some trouble wif the jazzy stuff initially but eventually accepted new directions that still weren't sell out crap like Rod did. No Jet Setter crowd for Beck. Some albums that never got air play. Forgot specifics but think he had a bad crash/near death experience prior to switching gears.

Edited by user 3 years ago | Reason: Not specified

Mr. Jones
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

#11

Jimmy page is Felix the copy cat

RayR
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

#12

I saw both Jeff Beck and John Mclaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra on Apr 24, 1975 at the old Century Theater in Buffalo.
Two Jazz Fusion bands, each with iconic guitarists in one concert. It was amazing.

DrMaddVibe
Herf-A-Holic Topic Starter

3 years ago

#13

Jimmy page is Felix the copy cat

Mr. Jones wrote:

OH....KAY....If'n you say.

There's only so many chords on a guitar. Only so many notes. What you do with the tunings, timings and tech is on the individual. There's going to be some "borrowing" no matter what you do when you're crafting your own "sauce".

Out of the Yardbirds I would take Page 1st in any draft each and every day. When you look at the depth of his career vs the other big 3 that came from them, his is undoubtedly the best and finest of them all. I'm not taking away anything from the other 2 but they're not Page and neither can even come close to Led Zeppelin and their impact on Rock, guitar playing and influencing others.

Beck's talents were brushed aside and you really had to seek them out. If you stumbled onto them you were hooked. If you ever saw him live, he would mesmerize the crowd with what he could do with no pick. He always assembled a top notch cast to surround himself with...no matter what direction he wanted to sail in. I loved his early solo work but where he hooked me was with "There & Back". That was when I heard a full embrace on tech in Rock and the material on that was so diverse from what was out there at that time.

- Studio

- Live...so you can see that there was NO studio wizardry when it came to his playing.

Jeff Beck not only belonged in the RRHOF but listed on any Top 25 guitarists of all-time. His last album with Johnny Depp shows him never slowing down with where he wanted to go. "This Is A Song For Hedy Lemar" is a fantastic story wrapped in a song. His playing on covers on this...just take it in...he's really letting you know how those songs mattered to him and you can hear it.

Even Marvin Gaye had to wonder what was going on.

RIP Jeff Beck.

Edited by user 3 years ago | Reason: Not specified

tailgater
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

#14

DMV, Page has been proven to be a thief and a cheat.

I don't care that he stole the riff. Or the lyrics. Hell, the whole song.
But they didn't give credit. Maybe now, but only because of the courts.

Talented. Yes.
But c'mon man.
That's not a situation with "only so many chords".
That's theft.
And it isn't the only example.

DrMaddVibe
Herf-A-Holic Topic Starter

3 years ago

#15

DMV, Page has been proven to be a thief and a cheat.

tailgater wrote:

And that he took so long to file suit?

For years, Holmes didn’t seem to be too bothered by the uncredited cover. He told Zeppelin biographer Mick Wall about his reaction when he first heard their version: “I didn’t give a ****. At the time I didn’t think there was a law about intent. I thought it had to do with the old Tin Pan Alley law that you had to have four bars of exactly the same melody, and that if somebody had taken a riff and changed it just slightly or changed the lyrics that you couldn’t sue them. That turned out to be totally misguided.”

https://www.covermesongs.com/2019/01/the-story-behind-led-zeppelins-dazed-and-confused.html

To be honest, I really thought that he had worked with him on that song as a session player. The Dixon stuff we already know how that worked out.

The Spirt "Taurus"...they knew of each other...but they were in California and Led Zeppelin was in the UK. There was no internet or file sharing. The beginning is eerily similar but the courts ruled on that.

tailgater
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

#16

DrMaddVibe wrote:

We can try to explain it all away, but the fact remains that almost half their songs on their first several albums were stolen to some degree and without due credit.

Doesn't mean I don't appreciate them.
Hell, I think Led Zeppelin is the best cover band in history!

🇨🇮

Palama
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

#17

tailgater wrote:

Hahaha! Some folks ain’t gonna take too kindly to them words! [gonzo]

It’s one thing to “borrow” songs, riffs, chord progressions, etc. but at least acknowledge the lift and give credit where credit is due!

tailgater
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

#18

Palama wrote:

They eventually did.
The courts made sure of it.

I think the Jeff Beck Group 2.0 were pretty good.

Palama
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

#19

They eventually did.
The courts made sure of it.

I think the Jeff Beck Group 2.0 were pretty good.

tailgater wrote:

I liked them too. Bobby Tench could belt it.

Edited by user 3 years ago | Reason: Not specified

tailgater
Herf-A-Holic

3 years ago

#20

I liked them too. Bobby Tench could belt it.

Palama wrote:

Don't mock me!

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