RIP Jeff Beck

Heard this yesterday and dismissed it as rumor but part of me ... mm terrible 

Can't believe it. DAMN !

And Kim Simmonds less than a month ago -- same age.

Saf!

Nobody like him!

This one hits hard.

He was a brilliant player. His sound was completely unique, immediately recognizable, and he made some classic records.

I wasn't the biggest fan of his later years, but a show at the Greek in 1980 was possibly the greatest non-Grateful Dead concert I've ever seen. That show still resonates with me. He was 30 feet tall that night.

On it goes.

Cow Palace '83

RIP _____ JB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVgUzUZeTw4&ab_channel=Lbundi1

Warren Haynes

"RIP Jeff Beck
I’m devastated. People ask me a lot “who’s your favorite living guitarist?” and the answer would have to be Jeff Beck. So much that I’ve always made a point of being careful not to listen to him too much for fear of wanting to imitate him. I was lucky enough, thanks to my older brothers, to have discovered Beck at a very early age, even before I started playing guitar. He was ferocious- not just inventive but totally unique. Nobody played like that. I loved everything he did. All the “guitar heroes” back then were thrust into recording at an early age so we could hear tremendous growth in a lot of cases from album to album, year to year, but with Jeff Beck even more so. Every time he released something new we all waited with anticipation to hear what new direction or directions he would take. It was uncanny. He seemed to not want to define himself with what he had already done so each new venture just added to an already broad scope of not only “influences" but also the uniqueness that was there from the start. No matter what direction he chose he approached it in a way that only he could. As someone who started singing before I started playing guitar I always loved the vocalists that he worked with in addition to the great musicians so I was a bit surprised, as were a lot of people, when Jeff released Blow By Blow in 1975 which turned out to be his first all instrumental album. It came at a good time for me as I had been playing guitar for 3 or 4 years at that point and was just starting to discover a lot of instrumental music but none of us were prepared for the huge stylistic leap we were about to hear in Jeff’s playing. His last studio recording prior was the collaborative Beck, Bogert, & Appice which was great like all his previous works but gave no indication as to what doors would be opened up with Blow By Blow. Every guitar player I knew was mesmerized. This changed everything. We were all dropping back the needle incessantly to try to learn anything we could from Blow By Blow. And then along comes Wired, a year later, which took his playing to even greater heights. I think the most remarkable thing about Jeff Beck as a guitarist however is the way he continued to grow and expand his own style year after year, album after album, in a way that I can’t recall anyone else ever doing- EVER! He didn’t record or tour nearly as much for quite a while after the release of Wired but every time he did there was some new chapter that came with the new music. Thankfully in recent years he appeared to have been on a mission and was incredibly prolific. But again the most amazing thing was his playing that somehow continued to get better. I saw him perform quite a few times over the last fifteen years or so and I have to say that every time he played even better than the time before. I’ve never seen anything like it. Jeff Beck changed music in a very profound way but unless you’re a guitar player you may not understand. He changed our lives. He created a style of playing that was instantly recognizable and almost impossible to replicate. I made the decision a long time ago not to try to copy him- what’s the point? Any of us would only wind up sounding like a bad Jeff Beck imitator. For over fifty years however I have studied him and learned from him and a large part of my style and vocabulary came from him. So, now when someone asks me “Who’s your favorite guitarist- living or dead?” I will say what I always say- “I can’t answer that.” But my very short list will include Jeff. There will never be another Jeff Beck.- WH"

Saw him in a large club in 2001 and he totally killed it. Unforgettable.

RIP Jeff

I love Jeff Beck. I saw him first with the Yardbirds in SF and last with Jan Hammer in Eugene. I think. I played his early albums over and over. I read this today, posted by Steve Silberman with this intro: 

What made #JeffBeck special to the musicians he inspired? This is the most beautiful and deep-reaching of the tributes I've read, from my old pal Probyn Gregory, a brilliantly talented multi-instrumentalist in Brian Wilson's band who toured with Jeff. and it spoke to me.

One of the most original guitarists ever has passed today, Jeff Beck. I tried like crazy to play along with his jazz-fusion records in college, to little avail. His control of the vibrato arm was uncanny, and people, in case you haven't seen it elsewhere, he used no pick-- just fingers and mainly that devastating thumb, the like of which we will probably never see again. My friend Mike Zonshine has this to say about his playing-- "Dynamic, ever increasing vocabulary. Not afraid of redefinition. He was to guitar what Miles Davis was to trumpet." I can add that every time I saw him perform, he was out there on a limb soloing, WAY out there with no safety net, and in the 2% of the time when he crashed chasing an idea, he would grin that sheepish/devilish grin he had and shrug, accepting that this was part of the game. The Brian Wilson Band had the great good fortune to tour on the same bill with Jeff about 10 years ago. I had the extra bonus of being chosen to come up stage nightly during his set as part of the small vocal ensemble during his "How High the Moon" Les Paul tribute (though that didn't quite make it as far as the hometown show in LA, drat). He was rarely seen without a guitar in hand-- coming off the tour bus: with guitar. If you glanced into his dressing room: with guitar. Once even at catering: with guitar! I would use the word "obsessed" but I don't want to sound negative-- guitar was his life (that and vintage cars), his joyous HOME. One time before soundcheck, his guitar tech allowed me to play his Strat through his pedal/amp rig and I tried "Sophie" from his "Wired" album and could not get anywhere near the vibe or sound no matter what I did. It's all in the hands, and his were magic. Somewhere there is a video of Nick Walusko showing him how to play the original Star Trek theme, which was a bit of mock presumption that had everyone grinning. In rehearsals with Jeff and the BWB for a benefit sometime in the early 2000s, Jeff strayed from playing his assigned number, Surfin' USA and started toying with the intricate Surf's Up. We fell in behind him, something tingly happened and show producer Phil Ramone made the call that THAT was what was going to be played at the show instead. I know I have a nice pic of me and the man from that fateful year 2013, but I cannot find it. May he be finding his muse in the great infinite, his legacy beyond reproach.

fuck Fuck FUCK!

Bacterial Meningitis? I'm definitely blaming Johnny Derp.

So grateful I got to see him one last time in Nov.

Saw him a number of times previous to that and his shows always left me blown away.

What a loss.

And 7 years to the day from the passing of David Bowie.

fuck

Saw him at  4th and B in San Diego a little dump where Ratdog  and everyone else used to play.

It was shoulder to shoulder- definitely oversold.

Every guitar player revered Jeff Beck. I saw him once at the Warfield and was in one of the reserved booths in the back of the floor. A guy in the booth with me was totally rocking out, fists pumping, yowling and playing serious air guitar. He was SO into it, and he kept turning around to us with a look of joyful worship on his face, saying "This guy is so fucking great!".

After a particularly ripping Beck solo he turned to high-five his friend and I thought he looked familiar. When he turned again I realized it was Neil Schon. Now, whatever one may think of Journey, Neil Schon is a great guitar player who's been everywhere and done everything, a true big league rock star since he was a teenager, and here he was, a goofy fan playing air guitar along with his hero.

I also realized that the friend he was with, who was rocking out too, was Joe Satriani.

Every guitar player revered Jeff Beck, and as I've been reading all the tributes about him, I thought this one from the great Nels Cline was really good...

"As a "senior", a "Boomer", a guitarist and lover of sound, I have weathered my grief as so many great artists whom I admire have died and, not being a genuine "social media" participant, have been silent. So many. So sad, yet so inevitable, yes... But I must, with all my heart, express my deep love and respect for the great Jeff Beck on this evening, upon learning of his passing. Jeff Beck LIT ME UP when I was in my early teens and he was in The Yardbirds, then beyond with his early Groups, all his various and varied projects. He represented true excitement on guitar, with sound, with tone, with The Blues, with ROCK. An ORIGINAL and outstanding voice that always straddled gritty/greasy/sexy and SUBLIME. As he progressed (important word here), he eschewed major rock stardom and instead embraced primarily instrumental, improvisational music (okay, some call it "fusion") and - crucially - never stopped growing, exploring. He, unlike any of his generation that I can think of, grew and grew and grew and developed a PROFOUND LANGUAGE on the guitar that is/was all his own. Jaw-dropping, inspiring, soaring forever forever forever.... Just had to say. I am so, so sad right now, but also want to scream JEFF BECK RULES!!! as loud as I can. All possible love to his family, friends, and fans. XO, Nels

Check out his There and Back album. Doesn't get as much as recognition as Blow by Blow and Wired, but it is next level. Played it all the time as a kid and still takes me to higher realms whenever I listen again. RIP 

I was at that 4th and B show.   Gary Hoey opened if I remember right.  Shoulder to shoulder and the staff wouldnt let us sit on the floor waiting for the show to start.

I love reading all of the tributes that I've seen on Facebook, and the ones here, too.

Jeff Beck took us places.

So Tragic.

One of my earliest live concert adventures was Jeff Beck and Mahavishnu John McLaughlin together  at NYC's Avery Fisher Hall in May 1975. A young 15 year old smokin' brown mexican rolled (poorly) with strawberry flavored rolling paper (my GF's idea) stoned & probably lost in the Big Apple (we called it that back then). Two of my favorite guitarist at the time.

Rough & Ready is a desert island LP for me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch94vVz7BBw

Wish I had made the time to see him recently

RIP

>>> I'm definitely blaming Johnny Derp
 

thank u, someone had to say it

>>>Every guitar player revered Jeff Beck<<<

Nigel Tufnel was also hugely influenced by Jeff Beck.

All the greats loved JB.

Sad, man. I guess I just never thought Jeff Beck would die.

that time the yardbirds were inducted into the rrhof. Jeff's acceptance speech was all time.