jeff beck 1977 tour

"Every single note he played could kill me with its beauty": Celebrating the life of a man regularly described by his peers as the greatest guitarist of them all, Jeff Beck

A look back on the life, times and truly extraordinary music of the The Guv’nor

It wasn’t the number of records or concert tickets that he sold, and it certainly wasn’t his rock-god image that defined Jeff Beck – although he was plentifully endowed in all these departments. Rather, it was the unique depth and durability of his artistry that elevated him to the status of perhaps the best electric guitarist the world has ever known – and certainly the best over the distance. 

Rather like Pelé or Michael Jordan or Roger Federer, Beck transcended statistical measures of greatness, to arrive at a state of grace where it was his peers who most enthusiastically acknowledged his supreme skill. David Gilmour called him “the most consistently brilliant guitarist”. Brian May declared himself to be “absolutely in awe of him”. And, as Steve Lukather put it, “No one will ever come close [to Beck]. One note is all he had to play and it was game over.” 

“You’d listen to Jeff along the way and you’d say: ‘Wow, he’s getting really good,’” recalled Jimmy Page , when he was inducting Beck into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame (for the second time) as a solo artist in 2009. “Then you’d listen to him a few years later and he’d just keep getting better and better and better. And he still has, all the way through. He leaves us mere mortals just wondering.” 

Given his generally robust condition and enduring presence among the classic rock greats, Jeff Beck’s sudden and unexpected death in 2023, from bacterial meningitis at the age of 78, cast a long shadow over the rock world and threw a new light on a career of sometimes explosive and always surpassing excellence. He had just finished one of his more industrious years, undertaking a lengthy stretch of dates in the UK, Europe and North America throughout 2022, promoting what turned out to be his final studio album, 18, released in July the same year. 

The album was recorded with Johnny Depp , who joined him on tour – a collaboration that certainly underlined Beck’s continued willingness to offer unexpected challenges to his audience. He also performed a run of shows with ZZ Top and singer Ann Wilson which elicited more traditionally outstanding performances from all concerned. Check out the footage of Beck performing Rough Boy with ZZ Top, and marvel at how he converts a southern rock ballad into music of the spheres. 

Thanks to his pioneering work in the 1960s with The Yardbirds and his own group, Beck was anointed alongside Page and Eric Clapton as one of the ‘Holy Trinity’ of English guitarists – all three of whom had passed through the The Yardbirds. But while Clapton subsequently retreated from his role as a virtuoso steeped in the blues tradition, and Page channelled the overwhelming majority of his energies into driving the Led Zeppelin juggernaut (which ground to a halt after the death of their drummer John Bonham in 1980), Beck never stopped his quest for mastery over all aspects of his instrument and new avenues for expressing himself on it. 

Beck was a guitarist in the purest sense. He was not a singer (apart from his reluctant vocal performance on his 1967 hit single Hi Ho Silver Lining , and one or two tracks tucked away on his solo albums). And although he scooped up a few songwriting credits here and there – particularly on the Jeff Beck Group album Rough And Ready (1971) and his 2016 studio album Loud Hailer – he was not a lyricist and never really a songwriter per se. 

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His guitar was his voice and means of expression. His core creative mission was to attend in infinite detail to the touch, the sound and the playing of his instrument to ever greater degrees of excellence. You could describe the process as a lifelong spiritual quest or calling that he pursued, while leaving “mere mortals”, as Page put it, to wonder how he had done it.

Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born and grew up in Wallington, Surrey, where as a teenager he learned to play on a borrowed guitar. His primary influences were American blues guitarists such as Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy. Once he had got hold of an electric guitar, he started off with a brief stint in Screaming Lord Sutch And The Savages before joining local R&B group The Tridents. 

His big break came when his 21-year-old friend Jimmy Page – who was already making a name for himself as a session musician – recommended Beck as the replacement for Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds in 1965, just as the band embarked on a string of trans-Atlantic hits starting with For Your Love . 

Although he was a key figure in the British blues boom, Beck took an early exit from what Carlos Santana called “the BB King highway”. Beck’s first single with The Yardbirds, Heart Full Of Soul , was notable for the Indian-influenced bends in the guitar hook which he provided (which was originally written to be played on a sitar). 

His solo on The Yardbirds’ 1966 hit Shapes Of Things was a further harbinger of the incredibly imaginative and revolutionary dimension he brought to his instrument. Inspired by the sitar sounds that The Beatles had recently introduced to the pop world, on Shapes Of Things Beck took off on a crazy, raga-type exposition, full of odd bends, “micro-sitar sounds” and atonal squalls of feedback that was unlike anything that had come before. 

Pete Townshend had introduced the idea of harnessing the extraneous noises that could be coaxed from an overdriven guitar amp, on The Who ’s single Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere , released in 1965. But it was Beck’s sortie on Shapes Of Things and the B-side, Mister You’re A Better Man Than I , that brought the idea into focus and put down a clear marker for what could – and soon would – be accomplished, at least six months before the unknown Jimi Hendrix arrived to play his first gigs in London. 

Hendrix himself was an early subscriber to the Jeff Beck appreciation society. “Hendrix was fascinated by Jeff Beck’s playing,” recalled ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons , who toured with Hendrix in 1968. “He would put on one of his records and say to me: ‘Man, how do you think Jeff Beck is doing this?’”

It wasn’t just his groundbreaking technique that marked Beck out. A quiet and often reserved character off stage, he liked a drink but had little interest in drugs. “I didn’t like the idea of losing who I was. I had to stay sane. I watched everyone else fall down and it was so boring. Every night it was: ‘Who’s got the stuff?’” But he nevertheless brought a ton of attitude to the gig. 

His status as a figurehead of the Swinging Sixties was underlined emphatically by his role in the film 1966 Blow Up , directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, in which The Yardbirds were featured playing on a set that was a replica of the Ricky-Tick club in Windsor. Beck was required to smash his guitar to pieces during Stroll On – an adaptation of the old rockabilly song The Train Kept A-Rollin’ . He understandably refused to destroy his own guitar, a 1954 Gibson Les Paul . 

“So they got Hofner to bring down these shitty guitars,” Beck later recalled. “I had this tea chest of twenty-five-pound joke guitars, and I went right through them with this Hofner rep watching at the side. He thought it was all great fun.”

According to The Yardbirds’ manager, Simon Napier-Bell, the experience of making the film gave Beck a taste for smashing up equipment on stage during the group’s ensuing US tour. “Gig after gig, he tottered round the stage, ramming the neck of his guitar through the speakers and crashing his feet into the delicate electrical controls. I was left a prisoner in my suite at the Chicago Hilton, phoning round America trying to find the location of every Marshall amp in the country and chartering planes to fly them to the next evening’s gig, only to be destroyed by another night’s bad-tempered Beck-ing.” 

No doubt there was an element of exaggeration in Napier-Bell’s account. But maybe not that much. “Those amps never worked,” Beck later recalled. “I threw this amp out of the window once. It was in Phoenix or Tucson. The air-conditioning had broken. It was a hundred and forty degrees, unbearable heat, and the amp was crackling and then the heat just blew it up. It was a Vox, I think, and I just tossed the whole thing out the window. The power amp had a fixed cannon socket, so it wouldn’t pull out, and it was only that which prevented it from hitting this passer-by underneath. The amp was swinging above his head. God, we were tearaways.”

Beck left The Yardbirds midway through a US tour in 1966, pleading “inflamed brain, inflamed tonsils and an inflamed cock”, and soon embarked on a solo career. 

After an unlikely string of hit singles, including Tallyman, Love Is Blue and the strangely unsinkable Hi Ho Silver Lining all masterminded by producer and pop Svengali Mickie Most, he formed his own group with Rod Stewart (vocals), Ronnie Wood (bass) and Mickey Waller (drums). 

The debut album with this lineup, Truth (credited simply to Jeff Beck), released in August 1968, paved the way for the invention of the heavy rock genre, with tracks including You Shook Me, Rock My Plimsoul and Let Me Love You providing a virtual blueprint for the first Led Zeppelin album. 

Such were the similarities in approach, Beck felt that with Zeppelin his old friend Page had borrowed over-freely from his stock of ideas. He vividly recalled the mixture of emotions he felt on hearing the first Led Zeppelin album, released the following year: “I was stunned, shocked, annoyed, flattered and just a bit miffed by the whole thing. But they had the lead singer that was going for the kill. But Rod… Maybe if I’d handled myself a bit better, kept Rod on the rails a bit. But things just happen. Every day is like a year back then, you don’t have much long-term view of things. You just fight for tomorrow all the time.” 

After follow-up album Beck-Ola (1969), the Jeff Beck Group (Mk.1) disbanded with typically maladroit timing just before they were due to play at the Woodstock festival. Looking back in more recent times, Beck took a philosophical view. “I have to be grateful that I didn’t succeed, because you’re then lashed to the whipping post. I wouldn’t swap places with Jimmy [Page]. As much as I’d have loved to have been in Led Zeppelin and enjoyed all those amazing shows, in hindsight I’m much better off being a scout, going out in the field. That’s what I see myself as. 

"Ironically, Page had an album called Outrider – and I was the outrider! I never, ever envisaged having massive success. And I’m glad I didn’t, otherwise people would be pointing at me in the street."

Beck put together a new line-up and recorded two interim albums with the Jeff Beck Group (Mk.2), the line-up being notable for the inclusion of keyboard player Max Middleton alongside Cozy Powell (drums), Clive Chaman (bass) and Bobby Tench (vocals/guitar). He also convened the short-lived supergroup Beck, Bogert & Appice (with the Vanilla Fudge rhythm section of bassist/vocalist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice) who released one self-titled studio album in 1973. 

While the musicianship on these recordings was always of the highest order, there was the nagging sense of a supreme talent being employed in the service of less than stellar material. Then in 1975 Beck, together with Middleton, joined forces with George Martin , producer of The Beatles , and recorded Blow By Blow , an instrumental jazz/fusion album that set him apart from his superstar peers and pointed him on the path that would lead to the ultimate blooming of his artistry. 

Fondly remembered for Beck’s spine-tingling interpretations of Stevie Wonder’s songs Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers and Thelonius – along with the Middleton composition Freeway Jam which quickly became one of Beck’s most reliable calling cards, Blow By Blow became his most successful album, reaching No.4 in the US and selling a million copies. 

“That album was really a turning point,” Beck later recalled. “It gave me wings I never thought I had. It opened up the doors. It was red carpet, you know. Following it was difficult.” But follow it he did, with the equally remarkable and refined Wired (1976), again produced by George Martin, which marked the start of a liaison with keyboard player Jan Hammer along with Middleton (keyboards) and drummer Narada Michael Walden. Among the high points were the infectiously funky Come Dancing (written by Walden), an eerie Hammer composition Blue Wind , and a stunning version of the Charles Mingus standard Goodbye Pork Pie Hat given the full-screen Beck treatment. 

“George Martin was probably the best producer I’ve had – the guy who could framework what I do without interfering,” Beck said, looking back on that period.

Beck concluded a trilogy of jazz fusion albums with There And Back , released in 1980, which remains one of his most underrated albums. With both Jan Hammer and Tony Hymas on keyboards, Mo Foster on bass and the superhuman Simon Phillips on drums, Beck took an uber-technical yet super-catchy melodic format to its outer limits. 

The opening track, Star Cycle , a typically taut and edgy rumble written by Hammer, became the theme music for the zeitgeist-defining UK music TV show The Tube , while the supercharged, double-bass-drum-driven Space Boogie (written by Hymas and Phillips) took the virtuoso prowess of trailblazers like the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Billy Cobham into a thrilling new, accessible dimension. 

Beck became something of a recluse – by rock star standards – during the 1980s and 1990s. While Clapton, Page and many of his other contemporaries were bestriding the stages in London and Philadelphia during Live Aid in 1986, Beck was content to follow events on a TV in the corner while he worked on one of his vintage hot rods in the garage of his estate near Tunbridge Wells. 

“I didn’t want to go, because I hate large crowds,” he said afterwards. “I don’t mind playing to them, as long as you can get away quickly afterwards. But I wouldn’t have fitted in there anyway.” 

Beck freely admitted at the time that his 1985 album Flash was recorded in response to record company pleas for “something we can sell”. Nile Rodgers was brought in as someone with a commercial ear to help with the production, and Beck was even persuaded to sing on a couple of tracks. The album was memorable for a reunion with Rod Stewart, who sang a heartfelt version of Curtis Mayfield’s People Get Ready , and for the track Escape , written by Jan Hammer, which won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. But regardless of the accolades, Beck’s heart didn’t seem altogether to be in it. 

It was around this time Beck started to become known as an elite gun-for-hire, a role that he was happy to embrace but never took too seriously. 

He contributed to Tina Turner ’s breakthrough album Private Dancer (1984). “I played a pink Jackson guitar, and she sang Private Dancer once and Steel Claw once and that was it.” He worked on two of Mick Jagger’s solo albums, but dropped out of the band that Jagger was putting together to tour in Australia and Japan because “I didn’t want to play a load of Keith Richards licks”. He performed a supercharged slide solo on Jon Bon Jovi’s debut solo single Blaze Of Glory , a US No.1 hit in 1990. And he contributed to Roger Waters ’ album Amused To Death (1992). 

“I didn’t know what the hell the album was about,” Beck said. “[Waters] did explain it to me, but I wasn’t really listening. We just blazed away for about fifteen minutes, had a cup of coffee and went home. Forgot all about it. Next thing, it wound up as the lead track on the album.”

Beck’s blithe demeanour and seemingly offhand approach belied a steely determination to excel at everything he did, while never taking the accolades that were routinely heaped on him and his work too seriously. He was a connoisseur of musical styles and sounds, so much so that it seemed nothing was beyond his reach. Crazy Legs , an album he recorded in 1993 with the Big Town Playboys, was a spectacularly authentic homage to the guitarist Cliff Gallup who played with Gene Vincent on his first two albums, Bluejean Bop! (1956) and Gene Vincent And The Blue Caps (1957). 

“Cliff Gallup’s guitar playing was absolutely phenomenal,” Beck said at the time. “His solos are so packed with dynamite on the wild numbers, and yet they’re full of knowledge and fluidity, melodic as hell.” 

Beck’s command of the old-school finger-picking, rockabilly style employed by Gallup set him apart from the other rock guitar heroes of his – or indeed any – generation. As he continued to move through genres – from jazz rock to the more experimental sounds of electronica and 21st-century production methods – he never stopped improving, refining and exploring a playing style that gradually became little short of supernatural. 

He continued to maintain a practising regime of anything between four and 10 hours daily. And somewhere along the line he ditched his plectrum completely and developed a way of micromanaging the pitch and tone of his Stratocaster by wrapping his fingers round the whammy bar while picking with his thumb. The technique gave him an uncanny ability to sculpt the shape and sound of the notes he was playing in an extraordinary style aptly summed up by guitarist Steve Lukather’s observation: “One note… and it was game over.” 

By the time he reached the new millennium, Beck could acquit himself with distinction in virtually any musical environment. He was an incredible slide guitarist, as evidenced by his astonishing performance of the Nitin Sawhney composition Nadia captured on Beck’s album You Had It Coming (2000), in which he returned to his instrumental brief and extended it to encompass the realms of electronica, drum & bass, you name it.

He regularly got some of the finest musicians in the world to play in his bands. His live album with the Jan Hammer Group (1977) was an early landmark, while the trio comprising Tony Hymas (keyboards/bass) and Terry Bozzio (drums) with whom he toured and recorded the 1989 album Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop were like ninja warriors. 

But it was a run of dates at London club Ronnie Scott’s in 2007 that found him close to the absolute peak of his powers with one of the greatest and most sympatico line-ups he ever assembled: Jason Rebello (keyboards), Tal Wilkenfeld (bass) and Vinnie Colaiuta (drums). The sound and atmosphere in the venue on those nights was like nothing else – especially when Colaiuta and Beck sparred on the Billy Cobham tune Spectrum and the double-bass drum roller-coaster ride of Space Boogie . Beck’s wondrous interpretation of the Lennon/McCartney song A Day In The Life captured on the resulting album Live At Ronnie Scott’s (2008) won him yet another Grammy for Best Instrumental Rock Performance. 

Beck’s 2010 album Emotion And Commotion (which netted him two more Grammys) found him stretching out in more unexpected directions (neo-classical, orchestral, soul) in the company of various singers including Joss Stone and Imelda May. Soon after it was released, May joined him at a special concert at the Iridium, New York in honour of guitar legend Les Paul. One of the songs they performed that night, a version of Remember (Walking In The Sand) , a sixties hit by the ShangriLas, was a performance beyond compare. 

“He inspired, supported and encouraged me with every whoop, cheer, gasp and tear when I sang with him,” May wrote on social media soon after the news of Beck’s death broke. “He was the genius in the room yet he made everyone else around him feel special. He was dedicated to making pure art. Every single note he played could kill me with its beauty. His light was so blindingly bright it already feels dark without him. The greatest guitarist that ever lived. The finest friend you could wish for. Thank you Jeff Beck.” 

His old bandmate Ronnie Wood expressed similar sentiments: “Now Jeff has gone, I feel like one of my band of brothers has left this world, and I’m going to dearly miss him. I’m sending much sympathy to [his widow] Sandra, his family, and all who loved him. I want to thank him for all our early days together in the Jeff Beck Group, conquering America for the first time. Musically we were breaking all the rules, it was fantastic, groundbreaking rock’n’roll! Listen to the incredible track Plynth in his honour. Jeff, I will always love you. God bless.” 

“Jeff you were the greatest, my man,” Rod Stewart said. “Thank you for everything.”

Musician since the 1970s and music writer since the 1980s. Pop and rock correspondent of The Times of London (1985-2015) and columnist in Rolling Stone and Billboard magazines. Contributor to Q magazine, Kerrang!, Mojo, The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph , et al. Formerly drummer in TV Smith’s Explorers, London Zoo, Laughing Sam’s Dice and others. Currently singer, songwriter and guitarist with the David Sinclair Four (DS4). His sixth album as bandleader, Apropos Blues , is released 2 September 2022 on Critical Discs/Proper.

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Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live

This 1977 live document captures Jeff Beck and Jan Hammer on tour together in support of the previous year’s collaboration, Wired. Even as he got deeper into jazz fusion, Beck couldn’t completely let go of his R&B dreams, and “Earth (Still Our Only Home)” and “Full Moon Boogie” are Stevie Wonder-esque romps that feature vocals from drummer Tony Smith and mononymous synth player Freeman. But the band’s primary duty is providing a roiling groove over which Beck allows his instrument to squeal and careen, as on “Freeway Jam.” On the more understated side of things, “She’s a Woman” is a great example of Beck’s ability to “sing” through his guitar. Because this is essentially a prog-rock concert album from 1977, the most definitive track is “Darkness/Earth In Search of a Sun.” Admittedly, it’s indulgent, and even a bit silly, but there’s really nothing more fun than hearing Beck and Hammer use sound effects to build the song from lonely astral soundtrack into explosive funk eruption.

March 1, 1977 7 Songs, 44 minutes ℗ 1977 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

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Jeff Beck Group In Concert – 1972 – Past Daily Backstage Pass

• March 13, 2021
• 1970's , BBC , Past Daily Backstage Pass

I haven’t posted any Jeff Beck in a while and when I ran across this concert, recorded by The BBC for their In Concert series from July 1, 1972, I realized just what a tremendous talent Jeff Beck is and how long he’s been at it.

Forty-nine years ago, when you take a look at the date, and Jeff Beck is still recording and touring and shows no signs of slowing down at all.

In 1970, when Beck had regained his health, he set about forming a band with drummer Cozy Powell. Beck, Powell and producer Mickie Most flew to the United States and recorded several tracks at Motown’s famed Studio A in Hitsville U.S.A. with the Funk Brothers, Motown’s in-house band, but the results remained unreleased. By April 1971 Beck had completed the line-up of this new group with guitarist/vocalist Bobby Tench, keyboard player Max Middleton and bassist Clive Chaman. The new band performed as “the Jeff Beck Group” but had a substantially different sound from the first line-up.

Rough and Ready (October 1971), the first album they recorded, on which Beck wrote or co-wrote six of the album’s seven tracks (the exception being written by Middleton), included elements of soul, rhythm-and-blues and jazz, foreshadowing the direction Beck’s music would take later in the decade.

A second album Jeff Beck Group (July 1972) was recorded at TMI studios in Memphis, Tennessee with the same personnel. Beck employed Steve Cropper as producer and the album displayed a strong soul influence, five of the nine tracks being covers of songs by American artists. One, “I Got to Have a Song”, was the first of four Stevie Wonder compositions covered by Beck. Shortly after the release of the Jeff Beck Group album, the band was dissolved and Beck’s management put out the statement that: “The fusion of the musical styles of the various members has been successful within the terms of individual musicians, but they didn’t feel it had led to the creation of a new musical style with the strength they had originally sought.”

Beck then started collaborating with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, who became available following the demise of Cactus but continued touring as the Jeff Beck Group in August 1972, to fulfill contractual obligations with his promoter, with a line-up including Bogert, Appice, Max Middleton and vocalist Kim Milford. After six appearances Milford was replaced by Bobby Tench, who was flown in from the UK for the Arie Crown Theatre Chicago performance and the rest of the tour, which concluded at the Paramount North West Theatre, Seattle. After the tour Tench and Middleton left the band and the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice appeared: Appice took on the role of vocalist with Bogert and Beck contributing occasionally.

They were included on the bill for Rock at The Oval in September 1972, still as “the Jeff Beck Group,” which marked the start of a tour schedule of UK, the Netherlands and Germany. Another U.S. tour began in October 1972, starting at the Hollywood Sportatorium Florida and concluding on 11 November 1972 at The Warehouse, New Orleans. In April 1973 the album Beck, Bogert & Appice was released (on Epic Records). While critics acknowledged the band’s instrumental prowess the album was not commercially well received except for its cover of Stevie Wonder’s hit “Superstition”.

This concert is from the Rough n’ Ready period, featuring Bob Tench on vocals and Max Middleton on keyboards. He recorded two albums with this group before getting involved in other projects and other lineups, but this concert from The Paris Theater showcases Beck’s remarkable skills and some of many reasons why he’s considered one of the greatest guitarists in the world.

By all means, crank this one up and enjoy.

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Jeff Beck helped push rock'n'roll forward, it was up to the rest of us to catch up

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Jeff Beck , one of the most influential guitarists in rock'n'roll, has died suddenly of bacterial meningitis . He was 78 years old.

Beck first came to prominence as a member of British blues-rock supergroup The Yardbirds , where he replaced Eric Clapton on lead guitar.

Following his short but influential stint with that band, he formed The Jeff Beck Group , which introduced the world to the likes of Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood.

On a 1977 tour of Australia, Beck sat down with Double Jay where he discussed his musical history and how he felt about rock'n'roll's evolution.

"I was brought up in the era of rock," he said.

"I mean real rock, I'm not talking about white, English rock. I'm talking about [Eddie] Cochran, [Carl] Perkins, Gene Vincent… pure American rock'n'roll with acoustic instruments.

"One electric guitar and the rest would all be drums, acoustic bass, the rhythm guitar would be acoustic, and that'd be it. That's where I'm stemmed from really."

"You can't just sit around playing Howlin' Wolf…" – Jeff Beck's short but significant Yardbirds stint

Beck cut his teeth in a string of British R'n'B bands in the early 1960s, before getting called up to replace Clapton in the Yardbirds in 1965.

It was a perfect fit, allowing the blues loving guitarist a chance to play the music he loved and refine his craft in front of a large audience.

"The backbone of The Yardbirds' music was Chicago blues, and I just suddenly got a flair for it," Beck said. "I'd been practising technique, finger tremolos and stuff, and I could put it to good use in the Yardbirds."

Two of the three albums Beck released in his 20 months with the band comprised entirely of covers, which he saw as a limitation.

"I said to them, 'We can't keep going and doing Howlin' Wolf numbers for the rest of our lives. Or Sonny Boy Williamson. You got to start writing your own material'. I found that I had a lot of influence on that.

"The first record we did, other than blues, was 'Shapes Of Things', which is a homemade job. And it worked a treat."

That 1966 single – and Beck's blistering solo in particular – became part of the blueprint for the psychedelic rock that would take over popular music in the following decade.

The Yardbirds shift from blues into more psychedelic territory was hugely influential on the development of rock'n'roll. Like so many important moments in rock history, many fans hated it at first.

"There was this great sort of complaint from all and sundry about the fact that they weren't sticking to their guns," Beck recalled.

"But, like I said, you can't just sit around playing Howlin' Wolf numbers. Sooner or later, you'll die of boredom and people will die of boredom listening to.

"And you won't even die gracefully, you'll die having failed playing someone else's material. So, it's completely negative. We had to move on."

Beck left The Yardbirds in November 1966 after leaving in the middle of a United States tour as part of Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars.

The tour, which also featured artists like Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs, Bobby Hebb, and Little Anthony, made Beck frustrated with what was passing for live rock'n'roll music so soon after his heroes had laid the foundations.

"People used to use the guitar as a prop in those days," he said.

"I mean, we did Dick Clark tours where there were 6,000 guitar cases being unloaded and not one guitar being played. They were just being strummed and wielded.

"I thought 'What's this all about? When is somebody going to actually play? And where all these incredible that lead guitarist that I've heard on the records?'

"That was a biggest disappointment for me. Because only nine short years previously, there was Vincent and [Elvis] Presley doing it for real."

A whole new Jeff Beck

Beck formed The Jeff Beck Group in 1967 with a little-known vocalist called Rod Stewart out the front and perhaps even lesser-known guitarist and bassist Ronnie Wood.

While he loved the way Stewart sang, Beck was even more drawn to his attitude.

"I dug him because he just didn't seem to give a shit about anything, you know," he said. "He was just straight down the road.

"I couldn't stand the thought of having a singer that had a singer's complex. I mean, he did have a complex, but it wasn't one that affected the direction or his ability. You know, it enhanced it if anything.

"I just liked his couldn't care less attitude with the public. We just got this bitching blues band together and I don't think anything has ever lived up to it really, not those heydays, when Stewart was singing really good."

After his less than amicable departure from The Yardbirds, Beck began working on evolving as a person.

"I used to hate myself," he said. "Regret was my biggest thing. Doing something stupid in a moment of rash abandon, and then regretting the hell out of it afterwards.

"I seemed to pull myself a bit together when I gave up eating meat. I stopped eating meat about nine years ago and I don't lose my temper so much."

He still had plenty of opinions about rock'n'roll though, especially its perceived devaluation as the industry around the music grew.

"It's just a big, big industry now, just like anything else," he said.

"That side of it is depressing, because groups are not forming to do anything that they really feel is theirs anymore. They just think 'Well how can I interpret their idea in a way that people won't recognize it and I'll make a hit record and be rich'.

"They see junk records making it so they're gonna make more junk records. Junk cars come out more junk cars are made. It's the same thing."

The impact of Jeff Beck

To comprehend Beck's impact, you need to understand the mindset of music consumers of the time.

The shredding of heavy metal – to which Beck provided untold influence – hadn't yet emerged, so a player with the fast fretwork of Beck was hard to pigeonhole.

"I think a lot of people think that if you play more than three notes very fast that you're a jazzer because it's so unusual to hear a guitar player that can play that fast," he said.

"Usually, rock is associated with chunky slow easy stuff. Anything with any speed or chord changes and immediately becomes jazz."

Like many pioneers, Jeff Beck felt misunderstood as an artist for much of his early career. His love of guitar and of rock'n'roll meant he wouldn't stop trying to keep it fresh and exciting, for both him and his fans.

"My biggest problem is trying to make it people realise where I'm at, where I've come from, and where I'm going, all in one breath," he said.

"Things like that can take more than an evening's work. I think that I'm starting to break the ice a bit after 10 years."

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Jeff Beck Tribute Concert Led By Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart

Gary Clark Jr., Ronnie Wood, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton and Nathan East during “People Get Ready” during A Tribute to Jeff Beck at London’s Royal Albert Hall, May 22, 2023

Jeff Beck was honored on Monday (May 22, 2023) by many of his musical peers and acolytes at the first of two tribute concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The pair of shows were announced on March 10 by his wife, Sandra Beck, and Eric Clapton, to honor the memory and artistry of the trailblazing rock guitarist who died on Jan. 10 at age 78 after a sudden illness. The first of two shows featured significant wattage in its all-star lineup with Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Billy Gibbons, and Johnny Depp—who toured with Beck in 2022 during the legend’s final tour—among the many artists joining Clapton. Tickets for the shows quickly sold-out.

The first thing the audience saw was Beck’s guitar on a pedestal on stage, under a spotlight. While other touches were far more subtle—Depp, for instance, wore a Beck bracelet on his left arm—others were there for all to see: Clapton and Stewart hugged when they performed “People Get Ready” towards the emotional evening’s end.

The all-star lineup at A Tribute to Jeff Beck, Royal Albert Hall, May 22, 2023

The career-spanning concert featured a broad assortment of songs associated with the guitar legend. Early on were a pair of Yardbirds hits, “Shapes of Things” (with Clapton singing lead) and “Heart Full of Soul.” Clapton then welcomed Derek Trucks, and soon thereafter, Susan Tedeschi to the stage.

Watch  Clapton with Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks

Watch  Ronnie Wood, with Clapton and Derek Trucks perform “Beck’s Bolero,” which dates back to 1966

Other career-spanning repertoire included “Freeway Jam,” so closely associated with Beck ‘s 1977 live album with the Jan Hammer Group. Beck was a frequent touring partner of ZZ Top. On this night, the band’s Billy Gibbons performed “Rough Boy,” which they had played together many times.

Irish singer Imelda May joined the lineup, which now included Johnny Depp, to sing “Remember (Walking in the Sand),” a song popularized by the Shangri-Las in 1964. She and Beck had performed it many times.

John McLaughlin, 81 years old, who led the jazz fusion band, Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a song that Beck often played: “You Know You Know” from the band’s 1971 debut.

When Beck passed, his peers shared their grief, many describing him as their “hero” and “inspiration.” “You were the greatest, my man,” wrote Stewart, when Beck passed. During Rod’s set at the May 22 tribute concert, he said, “I never thought I’d be here playing a concert in tribute to my dear old pal, Jeff Beck.” He kicked off his mini-set with “Infatuation,” his 1984 hit that featured Beck on guitar. Here, he was joined by Clapton and Wood, with Slowhand taking Beck’s solo.

After introducing Gary Clark Jr., Stewart joked, “I’ve never seen so many guitars in my life!” He then introduced “the greatest civil rights song ever written,” as the band began the unmistakable introduction to “People Get Ready,” the 1965 song by the Impressions that Beck and Stewart recorded in 1985. During Clark Jr.’s solo, Clapton and Stewart hugged, earning more crowd applause.

Clapton then sang “Going Down,” recorded by the Jeff Beck Group in 1972, as the evening’s finale.

Related: Our 2016 review of Jeff Beck live at the Hollywood Bowl

Other performers included Doyle Bramhall, Robert Randolph, Olivia Safe, Joss Stone, and from the Jeff Beck Band, Rhonda Smith, Anika Nilles and Robert Stevenson. Surplus income from the concerts will be donated to the Folly Wildlife Rescue based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Thanks to Matt Lee and Albrecht Peltzer for the videos.

“One of my band of brothers has left this world, and I’m going to dearly miss him,” said Wood when Beck passed.

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7 Comments so far

I Personally knew Jeff Beck. We met in 1977. Jeff was a friend who helped guide me. He knew I was in love with music, so he tryed me out. I was 18. I used to sit with him working on songs he was trying to write. He was a perfectionist. He worked on my look, had photos taken of me, and put me in things to give me the experience. I used to assist him at home, reading him his fan mail. He was trying to get his Band The Jeff Beck Group back together. He was an inspiration. And love to try new things, experiment. He even wanted to send me to school to study music. I shared many moments with Jeff. I walked around the Hollywood Bowl with him one time, sitting on the Benches looking up at the Stage, as he dreamed of one day getting to play there. I am so glad this dream came true, as 40 years later, I would be back to see him play there many times. I was at one of the last concerts he did at the Orpheum Theatre here in LA. I will never forget this. He loved his fans.

There will never be another Jeff beck

Jeff Beck. The “guitarist guitar.” I was lucky enough to be at the Jeff Beck Tribute concert at the Royal Albert Hall, on the 23 of May. What a night. Thanks Eric, to organising such a unique concert! A night to remember. Jeff will be missed by everyone.

I saw jeff beck in 1989 at msg he was opening for Stevie ray. He smoked Stevie. I saw some big name guitarists he was BEST guitarist I’ve ever seen ever!!!!!

I know Anita Neville’s played drums at the JB tribute concerts, but who was the other drummer please?

What a beautiful tribute to the worlds greatest guitarist! Jeff Beck was my very first concert at the spectum when I was 14 I was second row on the floor and I remember how his music ripped right through me. I was a fan since. I will definitely miss him playing and with all of the other greats. But I will still be listening to his recorded songs. R.I.P. Jeff you are greatly missed

JUST saw this…what an incredible tribute to the beautiful, wonderful, talented, handsome Jeff Beck. Still makes me sad to know he is gone. He was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met and had a good sense of humor as well. Love you always, Jeff.

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Editorial Reviews

SUPERB BROADCAST RECORDING FROM AUSTRALIA 1977 Following the success of his 1975 album Blow By Blow, in May 1976, Jeff Beck returned to the studio and recorded Wired, which paired ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra drummer and composer Narada Michael Walden, and keyboardist Jan Hammer. The album employed a jazz-rock fusion style, which sounded similar to the former work of his two collaborators. To promote the record, Beck joined forces with the Jan Hammer Group and embarked on a seven-month-long world tour, mainly playing North American dates (Beck was a US Tax exile at the time) although towards the end of the jaunt the entourage performed a few shows in Australia. The highlight concert down under was played at Brisbane s Activity Centre on 7th February 1977. Featuring a sterling set-list - very different to that which appeared on the live compilation from the same tour, released on Epic in 1977 - and an exemplary line-up of Beck, Hammer, plus Fernando Saunders on bass, Tony Smith on drums and Steve Kindler on violin, this dynamic and rewarding gig is now released here for the first time since it was broadcast on local FM radio more than 40 years ago. 1. Oh Yeah? 2:59 2. Darkness/Earth In Search Of A Sun 8:23 3. You Know What I Mean 1:09 4. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat 6:43 5. Bass Solo/Come Dancing 11:35 6. She's A Woman 5:41 7. Sophie 8:16 8. Diamond Dust 7:28 9. Freeway Jam 6:34

Product details

• Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.59 x 4.92 x 0.43 inches; 2.82 ounces
• Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Sonic Boom
• Date First Available ‏ : ‎ March 13, 2020
• Label ‏ : ‎ Sonic Boom
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B083XWMC46
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
• #5,141 in Blues Rock (CDs & Vinyl)

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