adorshki
Reverential Member
After composing yesterday's essay, I keep coming back to Jeff beck.Maybe it would be sufficient to say ANYBODY who can get attention and retain an audience must have SOMETHING to offer. The "business" in all it's forms through all the generations has always be one of hard work, luck and talent. Anybody who can last more than a few years is an exception, and likely points out that they are making worthwhile music. Artists who can sustain it for decades are rare air, so credit is due, whether I personally like the music or not. If you think about it, so many of the groups that stand as icons now were roundly criticized, specifically because they were "different", or "no talent", or if they changed their original "popular" sound as they expanded their musical palette. Elvis, Zeppelin, The Who, AC/DC, Sabbath, Dylan, Ramones......
Possibly the single most influential yet unacknowledged guitarist of all time.
Even Jimi, master mimic that he was, borrowed from him, during the early days of Beck's solo career, heck even when he was still in the Yardbirds and Hendrix was a fresh-faced entry on the London pop scene in late '66.
Right about the time "Over Under Sideways Down" and "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" would have been hitting the air.....
(And let's not forget Hendrix even wound up with the Yardirds' gadget master, Roger Mayer, inventor of the Octavia.)
They hung out together and even jammed one night at a club in New York in '68.
Within 6 months Jimi had "borrowed" one of the licks for "Rice Pudding" found on Beck-ola and used it in his "Ezy Rider", clearly heard on the Maui bootleg and the movie Rainbow Bridge.
I humbly submit that there's not a whole lot out there in the heavy metal tone library that isn't found on Truth and Beck-ola
And getting back on track with devices(pedals):
Beck was one of the earliest to embrace 'em in the Yardbirds days (fuzz boxes) and not sure if he or Jimi took to the wah wah first, but it's clearly evident on Truth's "Ain't Superstitious"...and then he was one of the first to abandon 'em by the time he recorded 1971's Rough and Ready followed by the "Going Down" album.
Minimal effects on those (and maybe why the Rolling Stones auditioned him to replace Mick Taylor a couple of years later?), then a brief return to the heaviest of metal with BB&A's "Superstition" before resuming his pursuit of deviceless tone on Blow By Blow , which actually also featured a voicebox on "She's A Woman", not the very first use of it but still predating Frampton's use by a couple of years.
Truth to tell, heavy metal fan that I was at the time, BBB was a bit of letdown for me, but the 2 highlights for me featured nothing but Jeff's fingers (and maybe some whammy bar): " 'Cause We've Ended as Lovers" and "Diamond Dust".
Same thing with "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" on Wired
And while he's gone on and off the effects wagon over the years, his deviceless work on Live at Ronnie Scott's is simply jaw-dropping and reminded me why he was my absolute favorite guitarist for many years:
"10 fingers and a whammy bar", and sometimes not even that....
Only Santana superceded him for a few years in my hierarchy of idols, and that was primarily due to his refusal to jam with him at the last live concert I ever attended.
I'd seen him hook up with John McLaughlin and Stevie Ray Vaughan, what was up?
And Santana was simply more versatile that night, covered a wider range of styles than Jeff, although there were a couple of Beck heavy movers even he couldn't touch.
Didn't EvH acknowledge Jeff as an influence in an interview once?
Wonder what the Edge would say.
H-ll, I bet he tried to learn the licks to "Beck's Bolero" on a slowed-down turntable as a kid.... :glee:
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