The Timelessness of Jeff Beck
BESIDES SRV, MY favorite guitarists when I was a whippersnapper in the Eighties were gents from the Sixties. Sometimes I’d be embarrassed by that because, when I’d extol the virtues of Clapton, Page, Hendrix, Mick Taylor and Clarence White, and spend days learning the Bluesbreakers’ “Hideaway,” “Steppin’ Out” and “Snowy Wood” note for note, I was often made to feel that I was living in the past. But I never felt that way when I told people that I loved Jeff Beck, because Beck — even though he was just as much “a Sixties guy” as, say, Dave Davies, Eddie Phillips or Hilton Valentine — always seemed as though he was from the distant future. Besides, his style and tone had evolved and changed so drastically during the years since the Sixties had ended — to the point that absolutely none of the popular Eighties guitarists that my friends worshiped had anything at all on Beck. He was timeless, a guitarist without “a decade” tied to his ankle like a ball and chain. And then there are my own timeless Beck memories...
> November 11, 1989, Madison Square Garden, NYC: This was the first time I saw Beck live — and the last time I saw SRV, who died around nine months later. I’ll always remember this show because some idiot in the row behind me puked his guts out just inches away from my head. My brother didn’t tell me till later, which was probably a good idea. Beck, who was doing his Guitar Shop set, was on fire.
> June 9, 2010, Iridium/Ellen’s Stardust Diner, NYC: Yes, I was at Beck’s famous Rock ’n’ Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul) show — sort of. I had won tickets to watch the show on CCTV in the Fifties-themed diner directly upstairs from the Iridium jazz club. I later found out that Brad Tolinski, my future boss at Guitar World
(who I didn’t know yet), was just a few tables away from me the entire night. I probably bumped into him on my way to the can!
> April 7, 2016, Electric Lady Studios, NYC: I was one of 30-ish lucky bums who got to attend a Loud Hailer listening session at the famous recording studio built by Jimi Hendrix, complete with a visit from Beck, who conducted a brief Q&A. During which, he implied that he didn’t want Loud Hailer to be a “guitar magazine album”; he wanted it to be for everyone. It took me a few days to “get it,” but I understood.
> January 19, 2017, the Observatory, Santa Ana, California: I was told there’d be a surprise guest at a special, invite-only show hosted by Gretsch — and, sure enough, it was Beck, blazing his way through his favorite Cliff Gallup guitar solos. There I was, covering the NAMM Show for the guitar magazine I read when I was a whippersnapper in the Eighties — and there was that timeless guitarist up on the stage.
SPEAKING OF TIME, it takes a while to get official approval for our song transcriptions, which is why there are no Jeff Beck songs in this issue. But please stay tuned!