Dec 14

Jeff Beck

Greatly Appreciated

JEFF BECK
 
 
Jeff Beck  (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist.  He is one of the three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds (the other two being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page).  Beck also formed The Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice.  Much of Beck’s recorded output has been instrumental, with a focus on innovative sound; and his releases have spanned genres ranging from blues rock, heavy metal, jazz fusion and an additional blend of guitar-rock and electronica.  He was ranked 5th in Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”; and the magazine, upon whose cover Beck has appeared three times, has described him as “one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock”.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

I am not the only one who feels this way about Andy Colquhoun; as Ken Shimamoto expressed in an online review of his solo CD, Pick up the Phone, America! (I sure wish I knew enough about music to write like this):  “Nobody on Earth plays guitar like Andy Colquhoun.  Well, maybe Wayne Kramer [of Detroit’s MC5 and another running mate of Mick Farren’s for several decades now] and Tony Fate (ex-Bellrays, current Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs) are in the same league, but Andy’s brand of over-the-top rock skronk and acid-blues is totally unique.  As guitarists go, he’s got a deep trick bag:  a huge sound, saturated with fuzz and Echoplex; a monstrous whammy bar attack that skews his snaky, vibrato-laden blues lines and monolithic octaves; ringing harmonics; a deft touch accompanied by a fine melodic sensibility . . . almost a bent-head Jeff Beck (always a name to conjure with in the gtr circles I run in).”
 
(August 2011)
 
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Cactus was originally going to be the rhythm section of Vanilla Fudge – Tim Bogert (bass guitar) and Carmine Appice (drums) – coupled with guitar hero Jeff Beck and future superstar Rod Stewart.  What a rock band that would have been also!  Unfortunately, Beck had a bad motorcycle accident and was sidelined for 18 months. 

 

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After Cactus (initially) broke up in 1972, Jeff Beck joined with Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice in a short-lived power trio called Beck, Bogert & Appice.  While Rod Stewart was long gone, they represented ¾ of the originally planned line-up for Cactus.  A lot had happened in rock music in the two years since Jeff Beck had his motorcycle accident – Crosby, Stills and Nash for one – so the surnames sufficed to name the band.  Also, Beck had recorded two albums with the Jeff Beck Group in the interim. 

 

The predictably unpredictable Jeff Beck abruptly abandoned work early in the preparation of the second album by Beck, Bogert & Appice, and that was that. 

 

(April 2014)

 
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The Yardbirds was one of my very favorite British Invasion bands.  Casual rock music fans might know the band as successively including within its ranks three of the greatest rock guitarists of all time:  Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page.  That is, after Eric Clapton left the Yardbirds, he suggested Jimmy Page as his replacement; but Page was highly successful as a session guitarist in this period and instead recommended Jeff Beck, who played his first gig with the band just two days after Clapton left.  Jimmy Page later joined the Yardbirds after Jeff Beck moved on. 

 

(May 2014)

 

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The Yardbirds recorded “Train Kept A-Rollin’” while they were on their American tour in 1965.  In her biography of Jeff Beck, who was lead guitarist for the band at that time, Annette Carson notes (as quoted in Wikipedia) that their “propulsive, power-driven version, however, deviated radically from the original. . . .  [Their] recording plucked the old Rock & Roll Trio number from obscurity and turned it into a classic among classics.”  Cub Koda writing for Allmusic notes of the Yardbirds’ version that they made “Train Kept A-Rollin’” a “classic guitar riff song for the ages”. 
 
Steven Tyler was in a band that opened for the Yardbirds in 1966 and says of their performance (again from Wikipedia):  “I had seen the Yardbirds play somewhere the previous summer with both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page in the band. . . .  In Westport [at their supporting gig on October 22, 1966] we found out that Jeff had left the band and Jimmy was playing lead guitar by himself.  I watched him from the edge of the stage, and all I can say is that he knocked my tits off.  They did ‘Train Kept A-Rollin’’ and it was just so heavy.  They were just an un-f--kin’-believable band." 
 
(June 2015)
 
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“Shapes of Things” by the Yardbirds is the first song written by the bandmembers that became a hit; it was released on February 25, 1966 and reached #3 on the UK singles chart and #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.  Richie Unterberger has written of this song for Allmusic:  “[Jeff Beck]’s guitar pyrotechnics came to fruition with ‘Shapes of Things’, which (along with the Byrds’ ‘Eight Miles High’) can justifiably be classified as the first psychedelic rock classic.” 

 

(July 2015)

 

Last edited: April 3, 2021