Jeff Beck

 

Minor guitar guru of mine, passed away yesterday at the age of 78.

I was never a huge Beck fan, but as I reflect now I seem to have fallen into three distinct periods of minor fandom. As a teen, struggling to figure out how to make barre chords, I discovered Beck in a magazine and spent hours trying to piece together the history of this band called the Yardbirds, a band which gave the world not one, not two, but three guitar gods: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. During this time I was enamored with the song Beck’s Bolero as well as the album Truth, which I owned and played a lot. Might have to listen to that again in its entirety off iTunes.

As a more established guitarist in a semi-working band in 1990, I bought the CD Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop¸ and played that much much more than Truth. Though I haven’t heard Guitar Shop in twenty years (it was in the box of 200 CDs stolen from an apartment storage room just before I bought my first house), there were two songs I really enjoyed. Again, I’ll check that one out in its entirety off iTunes, and when I identify those two songs, I might post them here.

Finally, my third bout with Jeff Beck happened between 2002 and 2004. I had bought his solo CDs Wired and Blow by Blow, and played them a thousand times during those three years. Those were three happy years. I lived in a great apartment, had money, and had good friends (one of which, sadly, is no longer with us). And I listened to those CDs almost daily, especially during the summer. The song “Freeway Jam” is the only one whose title I remember, but when I re-listen to them over the next few days they’ll all come back to me.

Anyway, rest in peace, mate. I enjoyed your work.