March 2023 Guitar Newsletter: Jeff Beck: Pioneer Of The Rock Guitar Instrumentalist
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This year, on January 10th, Jeff Beck passed away at the age of 78. The legacy of this English musician is enormous. He solidified the option for guitarists to have solo careers and focus primarily on their guitar playing skills and own compositions. He is an amazing illustration of how an artist can continually evolve and embrace many different genres yet stay close to his roots. He also embodied an innovative spirit that saw far greater possibilities of what the electric guitar had to offer sonically. I would like to encourage guitar lovers to become well acquainted with his tremendous creative output.
Let me use Reinhold Messner, an exceptional Italian mountain climber, as a metaphor for what Jeff Beck did to the guitar world. Reinhold, also born in 1944, is equally a boundary pusher who reached new heights in a very different field. He was the first person to climb Mount Everest in 1970 without the aid of supplementary oxygen, and then in 1980, he broke another world record, he holds nine, as the first person to reach the peak of that mountain again on a solo climb. Coincidentally, Reinhold, like Jeff, did not rely too heavily on high tech modern equipment. Messner rejected the use of drills and hammers to insert pitons into rock walls for fixed ropes as standard safety
measures. Instead, he stripped things down to a bare minimum and lived to tell the stories of how he did it. In the same spirit Jeff later in his career, became identified with mainly one guitar, namely the Fender Stratocaster and in a Messner like spirit he eventually tosses the guitar pick opting only for the tips of his fingers to scale to the top. Less is more and travel light!
Jeff’s ambition was first and foremost to be in charge of his own musical destiny. He would not compromise his high musical expectations and inadvertently laid down the blueprint for the modern rock guitar instrumentalist. “Money didn’t concern him in the slightest.” Rod Stewart revealed in his autobiography speaking about his time as a vocalist in The Jeff Beck Group. “It was all about the music, as far as he was concerned. That’s what his mind was full of and that’s what he was determined to get right.” (Rod 104).
Rod also points to Jeff’s love for American music of all sorts and his strive for musical excellence. After not so favorable performances Jeff would "stick us all back into a rehearsal room" [and invite the band to his place and] “we would spend hours just listening to music for inspiration and courage; anything from original electric bluesmen like Jimmy Reed through to Motown pop acts like The Four Tops" (Rod 93). Jeff got it right and began releasing albums under his name and eventually did it all without a lead singer. The chances of future guitar slingers like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai or Eric Johnson to become frontmen and household names would be very hard to imagine had Jeff not mountaineered a way for them.
Jeff’s music catalogue crosses over into many genres from Rockabilly, Blues, Rock, Jazz,
Fusion, Pop to Electronica yet Jeff’s guitar voice is unmistakable. I personally love his later explorations into Oriental music as exemplified by tunes such as “Behind The Veil” and “Where Were You” and “Nadia”. Listen to the beginning of “Blackbird,” and it becomes clear that he was a genius at making the guitar sound like anything but a guitar. How do you get an electric guitar to sound like a bird chirping? Or, for that matter, a car horn? Check out the humorous intro to the live recording “Freeway Jam” featuring keyboardist Jan Hammer and be aware that the conversational beeping sounds are coming from Jeff’s guitar and Jan’s keyboard. “Bulgaria” is another gem. My wife, Hannah, remarked how Jeff’s playing is like a violinist in the midst of symphonic strings.
When it comes down to it, Jeff Beck, who’s other passion was building hot rod cars, had a nuts and bolts and radically brave attitude throughout his musical adventures. Sheer determination, decision-making ability and an “I’ll do it my way” mentality in the midst of an evolving music world are key to his life long achievements. From the beginning, he surrounded himself with premier musicians, who were eager to back him up, such as top piano session player Nicky Hopkins.
Beck’s outstanding band members laid down a magnificent framework to support his unique playing style. He dazzled audiences with a plethora of fresh sounds not heard from an electric guitar since Jimi Hendrix. How is that? Truth be told, the magic of it all lies in the finesse of Jeff Beck’s fingers. His left hand produced high speed runs, dazzling hammer ons and pull offs, nuanced behind the nut bends and an uncanny accurate vibrato. His right hand fingers displayed equal finesse, be it delicately tapped harmonics on the fretboard, precise and lightning fast adjustments to a Stratocaster’s volume, tone, and pick up selector switch. His ever so subtle whammy bar alterations and his control of feedback alone points to a virtuoso in absolute command.
Fortunately, his career has been well documented on video. Check out his wonderful 2007 performance at Ronnie Scott's and keep your eyes glued to his hands. Jeff had his own fingerprint and very few players are in that class. May this month's newsletter be an encouragement to remember that there is no end to creative endeavors and that technical accessories alone are not the key to genuine expression. Jeff Beck's legacy illustrates how important it is to find your own musical voice, be true to yourself, and pursue excellence.
May this month's Jeff Beck's playlist get your motor running,
Chris
