Jeff Beck was (he died a few months before I began writing this--though I had placed him on this list back in 2013) the most innovative, fluid, and gifted guitar genius I've ever heard. His play seemed to come from a universe different than anyone else; his solos tapping into forms and constructs that no one else on the planet has ever come close to, ever. He was to guitar play what Roger Federer was to tennis: simply the most gifted, beautiful, elegant player on the stage (and we're not talking about his look or attire)--and the stage, by the way, is where Jeff excelled, where his magic could really (maybe only) be seen and appreciated. Even back in the 1960s when he was playing with The Yardbirds, the stories of his creative prowess and imaginative skills are the stuff of legend. More than any other individual guitarist of the past 50 years, "Jeff Beck" has been the first and quickest response to the question, "Who is the greatest [or best] guitarist on the planet?" His skill and imaginative play are often cited as "totally unique" in the world of music.
I will never forget my personal introduction to the music and guitar playing of Jeff Beck. In the Fall of 1973 my brother Brian went away to a boarding school for his freshman year of high school. My brother had always been a much more adventurous music listener and collector than I, his tastes much more rock-oriented than my own CKLW pop and Soul/R&B predilections, often introducing me to albums he'd purchased by the likes of artists like the Rolling Stones, Iron Butterfly, The Allman Brothers Band, and The Beatles, but when he came home for the Christmas holidays at the end of 1973, he was packed with milk crates of albums from a much more diverse bandwith of names than I'd ever heard of despite the fact that I had begun regularly spinning my radio dial among the FM stations now that WRIF had joined WABX as two album-oriented rock 'n' roll radio stations. Now present in Brian's collection were bands like Mountain, Alvin Lee, Humble Pie, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Jeff Beck. Jeff Beck Truth, Jeff Beck Rough and Ready, Jeff Beck Group or "Orange" as all of his flock call it, and Beck, Bogart and Appice. Not much of a fan of heavy or raw, blues-rock rock 'n' roll, I was able to hear something special in Jeff's music--especially in his unique and unusual way of getting sound out of an electric guitar. To this day, the "Orange" album remains steadfast among my list of all-time favorite albums.
During a recent review of Jeff's career discography (including guest appearances on other people's studio albums and live on stage concerts) and interviews, it became obvious both A) how revered and respected he is--by everyone--as well as B) how passionate and respectful he was of music, music history, and musical talent. Also, it is amazing how genuine are his humility and self-deprecating humor at all times.
If you've been living under a rock and have never really heard or experienced any of Jeff's music or guitar play, I urge you to YouTube the songs "Going Down," "Freeway Jam," "Cause We've Ended As Lovers," "Nadia," or, better yet, just plug in the entire video recording of his 2007 performance, Live at Ronnie Scott's. I guarantee you won't regret it; you will be amazed and astonished--or watch any of the footage or commentary and interviews from the tributes and tribute concerts that have flooded the media since his passing. Of the Olympian Gods of guitar I'd call Jeff the equivalent of one of the Big Three: if not Zeus, a place that might be better suited to someone like Jimi Hendrix, then his brother, ruler of the water domains, Poseidon. (Interesting proposition to create a pantheon of 12 "gods of guitar" quicksilver-fast John McLaughlin as the messenger god, Hermes, Eddie Van Halen as the Vulcanic God of the Forge, Hephaestus, Pat Metheny as Apollo the Sun God, etc., etc.) Better yet, watch Rick Beatto's YouTube video that he made just before Jeff died, entitled "Why JEFF BECK is UNCOPYABLE".
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