Very sad
Jeff Beck, one of the most skilled, admired, and influential guitarists in rock history, died on Tuesday at 78.
His stinging licks and darting leads on songs added an expansive element to music that helped signal the emerging psychedelic rock revolution.https://t.co/0hU0S63LJY pic.twitter.com/ng7oAqGKXB
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 12, 2023
Growing up and playing guitar, this was the guy who ever professional guitarist said to listen to. One of the magazines would ask a pro every month to name their 5 essential guitar albums, and almost every single one would mention Beck’s Blow By Blow. If you play rock guitar, you are mandate by law to own that album, and, preferably Wired to go with it. This is the way you play guitar. This is how you put songs together. Beck could easily have made them all about him, but, no, he wanted compete songs, so, the bass guitar, drums, and keyboards featured heavily. There are lots and lots of keyboard solos.
And you can tell from all those big rock musicians tweeting out that he was beyond respected. He really is one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and one of the OGs, going back to the Yardbirds. Here’s a pretty good list of his top 10 songs, though it is missing People Get Ready. A lot of people who listen to rock would probably be surprised, not realizing it is Beck on stuff like
Blanket with Imogen Heap is pretty incredible, as well.
