Jeff Beck has just passed. 78.
It's a little hard to take the passing of such a handsome and talented guitarist, especially when he looked the same age for decades and kept me thinking since 1975 up until sometime in the early 21st Century that he was possibly never going to age. Or at very least, remain as timeless as his handling of the electric guitar.
Jeff Beck pioneered so wide and deep in The Yardbirds and beyond that his influence on Rock is incalculable. That influence was brought upon with the great skill, finesse and attack with errant grace to every situation.
There is a beautiful Italian word called 'sprezzatura' which means: "to do something difficult gracefully and without apparent effort." Jeff Beck was just that: from articulating Cliff Gallup early on (as well as later on); to his still-scorching work with The Yardbirds from 1965 to 1966. Look no further than "I'm Not Talking," "Train Kept-A-Rollin'," "Shapes Of Things", "Happenings ten Years Time Ago" and especially: "Someone To Love (Part Two)" -- where he revolutionised the role of guitar in a pop format by giving it the power to distort, fold and shear off in time to the deepest of feelings.
His was a rambunctious spirit and it showed throughout his work with The Yardbirds and earliest solo works. One of which, "Beck's Bolero" (1967) remains a glorious, emotional quest set to a sawtoothed timbre deluxe proto-Metal instrumental that thrills to the present day.
For years now, "Ain't Superstitious" will pop into my head whenever I'm food shopping. I know half a dozen live versions of it with The Jeff Beck Group from 1967-1969. But it's that main riff, the starting and the stopping, the meandering and chopping, that always lead back to that opening riff left hanging on the edge of silence, just waiting like that, until the bass and drums stomp twice hard as hell.
I chatted briefly with Les Paul once, and his respect and admiration for Jeff Beck's playing was writ large. It was mutual, with Jeff Beck center stage at the 2010 Les Paul tribute at Iridium, New York, where Les Paul played every week for years.
This past May, I stumbled across this live rendition of "Apache" and "Sleepwalk" that Jeff Beck performed at that event. Wearing a blue cap as he did so. Sprezzatura, indeed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlyunWX6Y9s
Play it and try not to be saddened by the knowledge that those nimble hands dance no more. I can say no more.
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