Jeff Beck recommendations?

[Newc]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

Ok I dug out the CD and put it in. I'm confused. This can't be the same disc I listened to before [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]
Either that or the stereo I listened to it through before was leaving something out? [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

I'm kinda digging it now though.

Fascinating turn of events.

[KevinDguitar]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

Beck gets more mileage out of a strat than anyone. I've got a few vids of him playing at Montereaux with great close ups! No pick, constantly manipulating the volume and tone knobs, the pup selector, palming the vibrato bridge for sax-like slurs..INCREDIBLE!
Wired, Blow by Blow, Flash...not to mention..like some one said...'Cause We Ended As Lovers..nuff said!

[jwoods986]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

I know Blow by Blow seems to get more "props" because it was first but I always preferred Wired. Same goes for the ballads, 'Cause We've Ended as Lovers is great but I like Goodbye Porkpie Hat a little bit more (I love playing both). But it's all good stuff, this is just minor nitpicking.

I started off with Blow by Blow, Wired, and Truth (w/ a young Rod Stewart on vocals). I think these are a good intro to Beck. Then try Guitar Shop and Flash. I just got his '99 album - Who Else? and it rocks too.

[jjw]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

i dont know lads,he isnt too bad and is a nice geezer but does nothing for me.I have seen a few vid clips of him in montereaux and i didnt watch it to the end?I tend to prefer the more modern and expressive axe men out there like Garsed/macalpine/Moore-Perhaps his no pick stylings makes me turn away from him?I know plenty of dudes who love him so i am in the minority..lol..i do like his strats!!

[atomic charvel guy]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

WIRED
BLOW BY BLOW
and my personal favorite-
THERE AND BACK
he is the one of the greatest guitar players these ears have ever had the pleasure of listening to. he's a motherfukker, end of story. good night irene, so long gracie, he's GOD.

[shreddermon]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

Flash is a great one, IMHO. Pick up some of the stuff he did with Rod Stewart and Tina Turner around the same time (mid-80s), too. Infatuation, etc.

IMHO, his tone was killer in that period. ...Probably becuase he was using Soloists around then. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[SeventhSon]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

Well, I really can't say anything that hasn't been said. All these choices are great. I haven't heard You Had It Coming mentioned however. There's some incredible whammy bar work in Nadia where he makes the guitar sound like a sitar.

from http://www.jeffbeck.com/you_had_it_coming.html

The guitarist considers YOU HAD IT COMING’s standout track to be "Nadia," written by Indian musician Nitin Sawhney, whom Beck describes as "a genius -- like an Asian Stevie Wonder." Beck remembers first shuffling through Sawhney's CD while driving home. "I couldn't believe the diversity of the tracks. I stopped on 'Nadia' and I almost crashed the car, because it was such a refreshing, almost commercial, Indian song. I started whistling bits of it, then I thought, 'What am I waiting for? This is custom made for me.'"

[jwoods986]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

[ QUOTE ]
WIRED
BLOW BY BLOW
and my personal favorite-
THERE AND BACK
he is the one of the greatest guitar players these ears have ever had the pleasure of listening to. he's a motherfukker, end of story. good night irene, so long gracie, he's GOD.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh yeah, that reminds me. They packaged all three of these together for under $25! That's a good start, moro.

[blindmuddy]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

[ QUOTE ]
he is the one of the greatest guitar players these ears have ever had the pleasure of listening to. he's a motherfukker, end of story. good night irene, so long gracie, he's GOD.

[/ QUOTE ]
+1

[moro]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

[ QUOTE ]
Oh yeah, that reminds me. They packaged all three of these together for under $25! That's a good start, moro.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ooo, that's awesome. Thanks for the tip.

[pro-fusion]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

When I play guitar, it sounds like I'm playing guitar. When Jeff Beck plays guitar, that's his VOICE. Big difference between him and about 99% of the rest of the world.

My recommendations are Blow By Blow, Wired, and There and Back. The others listed, to my mind, haven't aged as well. The various Jeff Beck Group albums (especially Truth) are historically interesting, but not as cool, to me. Truth preceded Led Zep I by about six months or so, and Beck really believed that Page had stolen his ideas--there were some hurt feelings there for a long time. In reality, I think it was a case of 'co-evolution'--the idea of heavily amplified and overdriven blues with a soaring tenor vocalist (Rod Stewart, in the case of the Jeff Beck Group, making his first real album recording), rather than any conscious imitation by Page. But there's no question that Beck got to that territory first, even if he wasn't as successful with it.

I was never a big fan of Flash even when it first came out--"People Get Ready" is cool, and maybe one or two of the other tracks, but the rest of the album comes off as really crappy '80s dance music with cheezoid vocals. I thought it was a blatant cash-in attempt at the time.

Who Else? has some interesting stuff, in a more techno way, but the two followups haven't impressed me as much. I saw Beck on the Who Else tour a few years back, and my jaw dropped. He pulls the most amazing sounds out of a very basic setup--just a Strat and amp.

[Newc]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

Actually Beck admits to telling Page at the time that Page's idea of a heavy electric blues band would go over like a "lead Zeppelin", hence the name.
Beck may have been first to press a record, but most likely after he saw Zeppelin's popularity in the clubs prior to their recording deal, and tried to use his established recognition with the Yardbirds to push the new sound, which he probably didn't pull off as convincingly as he would have liked.

That may have been his reason for being so sparse with his recorded output - wasn't there like 5 years between Flash and Guitar Shop? Maybe he learned his lesson early on (with Truth) that you can't rush into a recording session and chase someone else's bandwagon, rather you have to stick to your own guns and focus on capturing your true self on tape instead.
That would be ironic; Truth, his first solo album, was in fact a sham of his own doing (and relative undoing).

[jgcable]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
WIRED
BLOW BY BLOW
and my personal favorite-
THERE AND BACK
he is the one of the greatest guitar players these ears have ever had the pleasure of listening to. he's a motherfukker, end of story. good night irene, so long gracie, he's GOD.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh yeah, that reminds me. They packaged all three of these together for under $25! That's a good start, moro.

[/ QUOTE ]

+1
He plays with more feel than almost any guitarist I can think of. JB is one of those players who is very intimidating to me. I feel I could stand on stage with almost any guitarist and handle my own. Jeff Beck is one of the exceptions.

[moro]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

[ QUOTE ]
Actually Beck admits to telling Page at the time that Page's idea of a heavy electric blues band would go over like a "lead Zeppelin", hence the name.

[/ QUOTE ]

That quote is attributed to Keith Moon, actually. The second half of the story is that they changed the spelling from "lead" to "led" so Americans would pronounce it properly. [img]/images/graemlins/brow.gif[/img]

[MBreinin]

Re: Jeff Beck recommendations?

[ QUOTE ]

....try playing along with Jeff and see if you can really nail his feel. His vibrato is unbelievable and
he has a unique method that he uses to grad notes and bend them up 1 -1 1/2 steps very quickly. Alot of the younger
players out there that I've heard have no idea how to play like this guy because they have no feel.
Sweep,Sweep,sweep and palm mute, that's most of what I
hear when I go into GC on a Saturday. A lot of these kids don't even know how to bend a note .
Beck is a blues master and with that comes the ablility to
wrench out all you can out of as few notes as possible.


[/ QUOTE ]

I think you nailed it on the head right there. Is string bending and playing with feel and emotion a dying art? I think when techniques such as sweeping were new, they were awesome...really impressive. I made my go at it, because I loved Yngwie. Couldn't do it...so it was back to the pentatonic and bending for me. I love it all, the shred masters included. Still, a solo played with emotion and minimal notes still does it for me. That is why David Gilmore can still send shivers down my back with his playing...as can B.B. and, of course, Beck. [img]/images/graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]

Mike