Weekend Recommendation # 12 Jeff Beck
If you don’t love rock and roll, don’t bother with this post. If you have ever appreciated world-class lead guitar solos, you will love this post.
Jeff Beck died a few days ago. He is one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived. Ever since I fell in love with Rock and Roll as a teenager, Beck was one of my idols. First with the Yardbirds [Triva question: what rock and roll band has the greatest amount of talent go through the lead guitar position? Answer: the Yardbirds with first Eric Clapton, then Jeff Beck, then Jimmy Page].
Then with the influential band The Jeff Beck Group and their first album in 1968, “Truth” Beck changed rock and roll. He brought in relatively unknown and unemployed singer Rod Stewart, and unknown and unemployed Ron Wood to play base with well-respected drummer Micky Waller. Jimmy Page was a long-time friend of Beck’s and cited this record as the one that gave him the idea for Led Zeppelin. This first album, and the second, Beckola, are generally thought to be the start of what became heavy metal with bands like Black Sabbath, Guns N’ Roses and Metallica citing the band and their two albums as inspiration,
Most of my adult life I have found how little-known Beck is to rock fans. Everyone knows of Hendrix, Clapton, Page and Richards because of their commercial success and influence. All of them thought Jeff was the best and most original.
