Guitarist Jeff Beck died on Tuesday at the age of 78. I learned of his death via Jim Farber’s New York Times obituary, which does a good job of covering Beck’s long career in music. The documentary Still On the Run — The Jeff Beck Story (2018) is also out there for viewing and (as I recall) explores his interest in building cars as well as making music.
He appeared with Jimmy Page in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966) before he arrived with the Jeff Beck Group on Truth (1968) and Beck-Ola (1969). That was some group, with Ronnie Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins on keyboards, and Mickey Waller (Truth) or Tony Newman (Beck-Ola) on drums. Oh, yeah, and also vocalist extraordinaire (as the credits on Beck-Ola had it) Rod Stewart on the vocals.
Beck was a creative, restless, and sophisticated guitarist. He let his guitar do the howling on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Ain’t Superstitious.” It sounded like truth to me.
Truth also included “Beck’s Bolero.” I had no idea of the story behind this track until I read Farber’s obituary. Farber notes that this instrumental features Jimmy Page on rhythm guitar, Keith Moon on drums, John Paul Jones on bass, and Nicky Hopkins on piano.
I thought Beck-Ola was truth too. I thought the truth of “All Shook Up” was that raucous could be beautiful.
I couldn’t get enough of the truth of “Jailhouse Rock.”
Beck toured with Brian Wilson in 2013. On Twitter Wilson remembers their love of “Danny Boy.” Here is a taste. Not raucous could be beautiful too.
Driving home yesterday, I heard the Jeff Beck/Johnny Depp collaboration “This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr” on one of the SiriusXM channels. I wondered where the heck that came from. It turns out it comes from their 2022 album 18.
Farber’s obituary suggests the multifaceted nature of Beck’s career well beyond the limits of my knowledge. RIP.
