RIP Jeff Beck

[cyclingwriter2]

As a Beck fan, I'll say a reason he is not as well known as his other contemporaries is his best stuff came on instrumentals. The average rock fan from the 1970s to today wants lyrics to punctuate the riffs. They want to sing along because it's tough to air guitar for hours on end.

And you can point to his work with Rod Stewart or with the Yardbirds, but even then there isn't a ton of stuff that got played a lot on radio.

 

[micropolitan guy]

My older brother turned me on to the Yardbirds when I was 11 or 12. He was kind of an asshole as an older brother when he was a teenager, but he had great taste in music and helped turn me on to some of it. Luckily he quit being an asshole.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

As a Beck fan, I'll say a reason he is not as well known as his other contemporaries is his best stuff came on instrumentals. The average rock fan from the 1970s to today wants lyrics to punctuate the riffs. They want to sing along because it's tough to air guitar for hours on end.

And you can point to his work with Rod Stewart or with the Yardbirds, but even then there isn't a ton of stuff that got played a lot on radio.

I'd say more people knew him for Superstition than anything else

 

[Neutral Corner]

And I'd say more people had no clue he had anything to do with "Superstition" than knew about it.

 

[ChrisLong]

One of the things I wonder about when the DJs are yammering away about who played in a certain song:
How many bands was Jeff Beck in?

I think about Beck, Jim Calpaldi, a couple of others. They were in lots of bands.
RIP, sir.

 

[Driftwood]

I used to work with a guy who grew up in New York. He sat in the newsroom playing guitar one night, and I congratulated him on being good. He said his family was friends with Jeff Beck, and he taught him as a kid.
That seemed like a completely random thing to make up, so I guess it was true.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

And I'd say more people had no clue he had anything to do with "Superstition" than knew about it.

When Talking Book came out a big deal was made about Beck playing on Superstition
In Detroit anyway

 

[Neutral Corner]

Oh. I'm not saying it was unknown by any means. I'm just saying that there has been a lot of time since then and there are a lot of people who only know he was one of the three legendary guitarists in the Yardbirds, even if they can't name two songs by the group.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

 

[Slacker]

I remember one fine sunny weekend day in college, we somehow found ourselves stoned to the bones from our mighty 3-foot house bong, and then someone put on a Jeff Beck album, very jazz-influenced instrumental stuff – I think it might have been "Wired," otherwise "Blow By Blow" or maybe even the earlier "Jeff Beck Group" – and we all just sat there helpless to anything other than grooving to Jeff Beck, and wearing our big-ass, shirt-faced bong grins all the way.

One of those magical, spontaneous college interludes you never forget.

RIP, Jeff Beck. And thanks again!

 

[Slacker]

And, as a side note, someone played an early Steve Miller album that was very jazz-influenced, too.

Just incredible instrumental stuff, both the Beck album and Miller's, too. Guess I'll go looking for them now ...

 

[Azrael]

We knew who he was.

75/76/77 we wore out 'Blow by Blow' and 'Wired' in college.

Both in heavy rotation with 'Born to Run' and 'Frampton Comes Alive.'

Rest.