COME TOMORROW, WILL I BE COLDER?
Pioneering guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck has died aged 78, a rare celebrity death from bacterial meningitis. Inspired by Les Paul’s “How High the Moon” to take up electric guitar, bluesmen like Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters further influenced his playing approach. He rotated through various bands in the early 60s such as Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages, but he didn’t strike gold until his friend Jimmy Page recommended him to succeed Eric Clapton as the Yardbirds’ guitarist. Although his stint with them was only two years, his innovative fuzzy feedback can be heard on some of their most influential and enduring records such as psychedelic gamechanger “Shapes of Things”.
Fired from the group due to spats with other members, as well as his frequent no-shows, Beck ventured solo. “Hi Ho Silver Lining” was his biggest solo hit, though its commercial bent clashed with his own musical palate and he long lamented it as “a pink toilet seat hung around [his] neck”. Shortly after, he formed the Jeff Beck Group alongside luminaries such as Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, which enjoyed decent success with albums that portended metal but also struggled with personnel infighting. Stewart and Wood parted ways to form Faces, while Beck’s career stalled after a car accident.
Beck began the 70s with a brief reformation of the Jeff Beck Group with a wholly different lineup and sound, and subsequently formed short-lived supergroup Beck, Bogert & Appice with two of Vanilla Fudge. A jam session with Stevie Wonder birthed “Superstition” (which Wonder allowed Beck to record his own version of), and Beck remained active in subsequent decades, collaborating with Mick Jagger, Roger Waters, Brian Wilson, and many others. A phone book’s worth of guitarists cite him as an influence, and he’s a rare double inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a soloist and with the Yardbirds). Of the three guitar legends launched by the Yardbirds – Beck, Page, and Clapton – he achieved the least superstardom despite his industry stature. But given he wasn’t a nonce or a frothing antivaxxer, advantage was probably Jeff’s.
60s blues theme team Boom, Boom, Out go the lights sees a Hi Ho Silver Lining in a sad music loss – points!
Jeff Beck
24 June 1944 – 10 January 2023, aged 78
💀💀💀💀💀💀💀 + 👻 = 11 POINTS