# Jeff Beck fans here..............



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

One of my favorites. And still great.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I recall the name from when I was 17 and in high school. Other than that, it draws a blank


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

brotagonist said:


> I recall the name from when I was 17 and in high school. Other than that, it draws a blank


When were you in high school? Must have been later on? Jeff Beck is probably one of the most famous rock guitarists of all time. But it's only been in recent years that he's been keeping a higher profile with constant touring.

I wasn't that crazy about the last CD of his that I purchased. Emotion & Commotion is the title. I like the old Jeff Beck Group from the early 70s, and his mid 70s instrumental albums Blow By Blow, and Wired.

But these days I don't listen to much rock music. Mostly jazz in the summer months, and classical in winter. But Jeff Beck is a very tasty guitarist, and I'd rather listen to him than most others.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I absolutely LOVE his work with Jan Hammer (weirdly of "Miami Vice Theme" fame, but better known to me from Mahavishnu Orchestra and other great collaborations). "Blue Wind" is a rock force of nature.






On a side note - doesn't the man ever age?


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## Guest (Jun 7, 2015)

155 minutes of pure gold:
Performing This Week - Live At Ronnie Scott's [DVD]


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## Guest (Jun 7, 2015)

Weston said:


> I absolutely LOVE his work with Jan Hammer (weirdly of "Miami Vice Theme" fame, but better known to me from Mahavishnu Orchestra and other great collaborations). "Blue Wind" is a rock force of nature.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I reckon he's got a painting in his loft....


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I remember him as one of the 70s guitar greats. Didn't he have a band with Rod Stuart as lead singer. I remember the song Ain't Superstitious but a black cat crossed my path, and old blues tune that Rod sang and I think Jeff Beck played guitar on that.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Rod Stewart was on Beck's first two albums. They didn't have much material, so they did a lot of covers.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)




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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)




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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)




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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)




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## Guest (Jun 8, 2015)

from ronnie scotts

with Imogen Heap


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I always thought he was ridiculously self indulgent. I remember hearing a record where he interrupted a set to play a 30 minute solo on Foggy Mountain Breakdown. He also said some really nasty things about Stevie Wonder over "Superstition".
I think he was the least of the Yardbirds Guitarists, way behind Clapton and Page.
The best thing he ever did was hire Rod Stewart.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Jeff Beck loves Stevie Wonder. I don't think there was any true malice between the two. It was record business stuff, and Motown made sure Stevie recorded and released his great version of the song.

I never saw Beck as "ridiculously self indulgent". He plays with good taste and restraint. The complete opposite of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin. As for Clapton? His solo career never did anything for me. He was great with Cream, and Derek & The Dominos.


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## Guest (Jun 8, 2015)

starthrower said:


> I never saw Beck as "ridiculously self indulgent". He plays with good taste and restraint. The complete opposite of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin. As for Clapton? His solo career never did anything for me. He was great with Cream, and Derek & The Dominos.


From an Amazon review of the Ronnie Scott DVD:

"Beck actually makes Eric Clapton, who features on two of the numbers, appear plodding and derivative. He almost caresses his guitar in a seemingly endless display of virtuosity. The expressions on the faces of the audience in Ronnie Scotts tell their own story: a mixture of awe and disbelief. When the likes of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and Brian May turn up for a gig, you know it's going to be worth a look!"


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

D


starthrower said:


> Jeff Beck loves Stevie Wonder. I don't think there was any true malice between the two. It was record business stuff, and Motown made sure Stevie recorded and released his great version of the song.
> 
> I never saw Beck as "ridiculously self indulgent". He plays with good taste and restraint. The complete opposite of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin. As for Clapton? His solo career never did anything for me. He was great with Cream, and Derek & The Dominos.


He used the N word in an interview in reference to Wonder. Whole Lotta Love, indeed.
And if he was so great compared to Clapton and Page, how come half the people here have never heard of him?


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Have you polled all of the members here? And your comment is besides the point. Does someone's ignorance about a musician have any bearing on their supposed greatness? 

Can you provide a link for that interview where Beck called Wonder a N... ?


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

I really like the fusion records Beck did with Jan Hammer, Simon Philips, Tony Hyams, Michael Waldon, et al., in the 70's.

Although he didn't really have the chops of the best fusion guitarists (McLaughlin, Di Meola, Holdsworth, Coryell), he did bring his own feel and touch to game. 

I'm not a blues fan, so I don't really have much to say about his blues playing.

I give Freeway Jam, Scatterbrain, Starcylcle, Space Boogie, The Pump and a couple of others a listen from time to time.


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## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

Triplets said:


> And if he was so great compared to Clapton and Page, how come half the people here have never heard of him?


Most likely for the same reason that half the people here have probably never heard of Roy Buchanan or Danny Gatton. :lol:

I've long thought that Jeff Beck is one of the most underrated of the 60s-70s British guitarists.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Despite Beck's flair for versatility I'm more a fan of his Yardbirds and older hard rock material - the Truth and Beck-ola albums were spotty but they contained enough high points to confirm that the original JBG were a fine band even if they lacked a bit of discipline. I always thought BB&A was potentially a marriage made in heaven but despite their collective instrumental prowess they really needed a stronger vocalist than Tim Bogert to make them the full monty.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)




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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Bluecrab said:


> Most likely for the same reason that half the people here have probably never heard of Roy Buchanan or Danny Gatton. :lol:
> 
> I've long thought that Jeff Beck is one of the most underrated of the 60s-70s British guitarists.


I never got to see Buchanan, but I saw Danny Gatton twice. It's a shame he took his life.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Simon Moon said:


> Although he didn't really have the chops of the best fusion guitarists (McLaughlin, Di Meola, Holdsworth, Coryell), he did bring his own feel and touch to game.


Even with all of their technique, Di Meola and McLaughlin can't do what Jeff can with an electric guitar. Chops aren't just about playing fast, but to be able to manipulate your instrument and make great music. The other two bore me to tears with there speedy runs. I never heard many interesting solos from Di Meola or McLaughlin, even if I enjoy some of their compositions.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

starthrower said:


> Jeff Beck loves Stevie Wonder. I don't think there was any true malice between the two. It was record business stuff, and Motown made sure Stevie recorded and released his great version of the song.
> 
> I never saw Beck as "ridiculously self indulgent". He plays with good taste and restraint. The complete opposite of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin. As for Clapton? His solo career never did anything for me. He was great with Cream, and Derek & The Dominos.


Beck, Clapton and Page are all very different guitarists, if they didn't all grow up within 12 miles of each other and all play in the Yardbirds, people wouldn't compare them so much. They are strong in different areas and not trying to achieve the same things musically.

For the record I think Clapton's playing with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers was as good or better than his work with Cream or Derek and the Dominos.

*edit -* Clapton is the blues purist - and being the first famous guy to plug a Gibson guitar into a Marshall amp - he was a trailblazer. Page dabbles in an eclectic mix of styles and has his roots in rockabilly, he is a brilliant producer. Beck is very unique in his approach, experimental and innovative.


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## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

starthrower said:


> I never got to see Buchanan, but I saw Danny Gatton twice. It's a shame he took his life.


Indeed it is. A huge loss, and apparently unexpected-not even his family realized how depressed he was.

IMO Roy Buchanan suffered from a similar problem that Elgars ghost alludes to above about Jeff Beck: he always had trouble putting together a really good band that could measure up to his talent. (At least that's how I interpret his post; if I'm wrong, Elgars ghost, please correct me.)

Don't want to derail the thread, so back to Jeff Beck... have you ever heard any of the stuff he did with the young Australian bassist Tal Wilkenfeld? Some fine stuff.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

starthrower said:


> Even with all of their technique, Di Meola and McLaughlin can't do what Jeff can with an electric guitar. Chops aren't just about playing fast, but to be able to manipulate your instrument and make great music. The other two bore me to tears with there speedy runs. I never heard many interesting solos from Di Meola or McLaughlin, even if I enjoy some of their compositions.


It's not just about speed with Di Meola and McLaughlin.

They both have (McLaughlin more than Di Meola) a jazz vocabulary that goes quite a bit deeper than Beck.

I think they have more than just speed. I hear much more depth to their playing.

Di Meola in his more recent years plays with much more depth than he did in his youth, without loosing speed.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I don't agree about Di Meola having a jazz vocabulary. He is not rooted in that tradition. If you listen to a lot of his solos, he's not a very inventive improviser. He runs out of ideas after a few bars and resorts to speedy triplet runs.

But I like Al for other qualities. He has good tone, unique vibrato, great time, and he can compose challenging pieces with very sophisticated rhythms. But he's really not a jazz player.

McLaughlin has these qualities as well, except when it comes to guitar tones. He's one of my least favorite. He's been using the same bland chorus heavy tone for close to 25 years now. I like him better on acoustic guitar.

Now for a player who has all these qualities and can play jazz as well as fusion, my man is Scott Henderson.


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## Guest (Jun 25, 2015)

Good grief!
_*
"Jeff Beck is brought out to celebrate his 71st birthday for the encore"*_

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/25/zz-top-review-see-arena-wembley-london


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I just learned *Max Middleton's* piano part for *Definitely Maybe* just in case I meet either one of them. This was on *The Jeff Beck Group (an orange on the cover).*

Great song, supremely melancholy, wistful, ironically sad. It's hard to do that, infuse a sort of tragic humor into a sad tune. I guess it's the wah-wah that does it. Wah-wah with slide, no doubt. How much more expressive can you get?


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Jeff Beck just turned 71 and came out at the Encore of a ZZ Top concert. At the end of the article it says, "Jeff Beck is brought out to celebrate his 71st birthday for the encore.":

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/25/zz-top-review-see-arena-wembley-london


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## Guest (Jun 25, 2015)

Florestan said:


> Jeff Beck just turned 71 and came out at the Encore of a ZZ Top concert. At the end of the article it says, "Jeff Beck is brought out to celebrate his 71st birthday for the encore.":
> 
> http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/25/zz-top-review-see-arena-wembley-london


Quite similar to my last post!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

dogen said:


> Quite similar to my last post!


Hah! So it is. I totally missed your last post. Probably should pay more attention to the previous posts. Sorry.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

starthrower said:


> Even with all of their technique, Di Meola and McLaughlin can't do what Jeff can with an electric guitar. Chops aren't just about playing fast, but to be able to manipulate your instrument and make great music. The other two bore me to tears with there speedy runs. I never heard many interesting solos from Di Meola or McLaughlin, even if I enjoy some of their compositions.


I used to think that way about McLaughlin, until I heard Tokyo Live. He has a great swinging, mid-tempo blues/jazz way of soloing that I never knew existed until I heard this. Of course, the fast runs are thrown in as well, but his basic approach is fantastic. I became a "new" fan after this.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

millionrainbows said:


> I used to think that way about McLaughlin, until I heard Tokyo Live. He has a great swinging, mid-tempo blues/jazz way of soloing that I never knew existed until I heard this. Of course, the fast runs are thrown in as well, but his basic approach is fantastic. I became a "new" fan after this.


I have that record. Actually, around that time period I was listening to McLaughlin an awful lot, as I was a big fan of his trio with Trilok Gurtu and the two bass players he had. And the Que Alegria album also includes a performance of One Night Stand. And I really liked the sound he was getting with his midi acoustic guitar set up. Since then he's had the same heavy chorus sound on his electric. And to be fair, he does play some great solos. But more recently I haven't really enjoyed much of his playing, save one track on Gary Husband's Dirty and Beautiful.

And since this is a thread about Jeff Beck, there's the McLaughlin/Beck rendition of the famous John Lewis composition, Django.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Jeff Beck is sampled a lot by rap producers/artists.

Here is a Gang Starr sampling "Come Dancing" for the famed drums.






Word and peace.

http://www.whosampled.com/Jeff-Beck/Come-Dancing/


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## Rach Man (Aug 2, 2016)

I was just listening to a bit of Jeff Beck. So, I thought I would renew this thread. I am a big fan of Beck. I saw him open for Santana (whom I also like). But Beck came out smokin' and stole the show. I once heard another guitar player, speaking of Beck, stated that Beck has notes on Beck's guitar that he doesn't have on his. :lol:

Here are a few tunes of Beck that I like.

Early Beck with Rod Stewart singing _Morning Dew_. Classic.






Here's BB&A doing an old tune of Curtis Mayfield. Great song by Mayfield. Beck makes it their own.






How about a live version of _Cause We Ended As Lovers_?






And one more. Beck did a tribute to Les Paul. Here Imelda May handles the vocals. (Check out his reaction when she starts!)
BTW, Darrel Higham (Imelda's former husband) is also playing guitar on this tune. He is one heck of a rock-a-billy guitarist.


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## WNvXXT (Nov 22, 2020)

My introduction to Jeff Beck was listening to Cause We've Ended As Lovers on an underground FM station in the mid 70s, just before high school graduation. This led me to eventually get the Blow by Blow and Wired LPs.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Like many people, my first exposure to Jeff Beck was Hi Ho Silver Lining (for those of us a certain vintage is still the last song played at a party!!) then 'bigger boys' got me into 'Truth'. Bought 'Wired' the day it came out and felt so cool in the school common room with the album strategically placed next to my set text of Murder in the Cathedral! Fast forward to 'Live At Ronnie Scott's" and that's me done!


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

The Rock n Roll Party DVD up on YouTube is full of great stuff. There's the concert plus interviews and other stuff.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Big fan of his fusion albums (Blow by Blow, Wired, There and Back), but not much more.

He is a great player for sure, and one of the first rock players with the chops to play fusion.

Here's a nice clip from 10 years ago, with one of the best drummers on the planet, Vinnie Colaiuta, and the 24 year old Tal Wilkenfeld on bass.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

^^^^ That's the live at Ronnie Scott's concert.
One of his best.


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## Jay (Jul 21, 2014)

For me:

Yardbirds
Truth
Beck-Ola
Rough & Ready


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Simon Moon said:


> Big fan of his fusion albums (Blow by Blow, Wired, There and Back), but not much more.
> 
> He is a great player for sure, and one of the first rock players with the chops to play fusion.
> 
> Here's a nice clip from 10 years ago, with one of the best drummers on the planet, Vinnie Colaiuta, and the 24 year old Tal Wilkenfeld on bass.


I agree with your album picks, those are my favorites too.


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## Jay (Jul 21, 2014)

Jay said:


> For me:
> 
> Yardbirds
> Truth
> ...


Heard this on the radio, and it caught my attention at the 03:15 mark:


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

Another classic from the Ronnie Scott show which seems to have been overlooked thus far... Jeff Beck with Joss Stone doing a cover of Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready".






Beck's use of the tremelo (whammy bar) is superb - almost without equal - except maybe for Eddie Van Halen... Maybe...


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## japastor (9 mo ago)

If you're going to make a vile accusation like that, you're going to have to provide a reference -- otherwise, it's just BS.

And anyone who hasn't heard of Jeff Beck has been living in a soundproof bubble for* 55 years.*


Triplets said:


> D
> 
> He used the N word in an interview in reference to Wonder. Whole Lotta Love, indeed.
> And if he was so great compared to Clapton and Page, how come half the people here have never heard of him?


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

When people ask me if I like Beck, I answer "Jeff Beck? Yeah, he's great!"


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

When people say "you like Jeff Beck?" I say "he's the guv'nor"


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Harmonics were invented to be bent all over the place..... especially at Ronnie Scott's!!!!


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