While he’s never received such incendiary levels of popularity as Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page – his predecessor and successor respectively in The Yardbirds – Jeff Beck is without doubt one of the most astounding players to have ever manhandled a guitar. (Musicradar)
For this performance, Beck was joined on stage by none other than Eric Clapton.
His studio releases have spanned genres ranging from blues-rock, to hard rock, to jazz fusion and even electronica. His experimentation with the physicality and tonal possibilities of the electric guitar seemingly know no bounds, and he’s equally adept at riffing, soloing, playing slide and creating melodic, whammy bar-driven soundscape adventures.After having stepped-in to fill Clapton’s shoes in the genre-pioneering “Yardies” aged just 21, Beck has stayed at least one step ahead of the musical curve throughout in his nearly six-decade long career.
Perhaps herein lies the reason that not as many listeners have embraced or understood Beck as they have Clapton or Page: it is simply very hard to define him as a single ‘type’ of player, and us mere mortals do seem to like to categorise things.
The song Nadia it was a challenge and a half to try and get all those Indian scales and stuff, but once I got the melody it was plain sailing,” he said. “At one point I copied a blackbird song. I used to hear one in an apple tree outside my window when I was a child, and that melody was so whistle-able. So we bought a CD of bird songs and slowed the blackbird song right down so that I could pick out the melody. Then I transposed it onto a bottleneck.”
