Jeff Beck, the man who could make a guitar sing

It was 1965 and English rockers The Yardbirds had just achieved their biggest hit with the immortal “For your love” when Eric Clapton came out, motivated by some blues purity and fear of being dubbed the New Beatle. He recommended the band to a friend: Jimmy Page, who declined the honor and in turn handed the baton to Jeff Beck, a childhood friend whom he often knew through his sister. Two days after Clapton’s departure, Beck was already performing with The Yardbirds.

He gave the band a psychedelic touch, with his love Frequency and other guitar effects he invented a lot. He put the Indian guitar style into a “heart full of soul” and had the band sing like Gregorian monks at times. “Shapes of Things” was the band’s first self-written song and is credited as the first classic of psychedelic rock.

After a successful year with The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page picked up his steps and joined the band he now leads alongside Beck. It can also be seen at Explodes, in which Michelangelo Antonioni captured the zeitgeist. In the film, the audience stands in seemingly indifferent silence while The Yardbirds do their best until Beck smashes his guitar to smithereens.

Two years after Beck joined the band, he was fired during a US tour due to his difficult nature. Then he formed the Jeff Beck group, for the sake of which he gave a chance to a few more musicians who would later find fame in turn: Rod Stewart and still little-known Ronnie Wood. Major album fact She inspired Jimmy Page after the collapse of The Yardbirds to start a band a few months later: Led Zeppelin.

from another planet

In the 1970s, Beck fused jazz, rock and funk into a successful fusion album blow by blow. Widely regarded by his peers as one of the best and most distinguished guitarists of his generation, he has collected seven Grammys. sheet music Rolling Stone Beck finished fifth on the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists. However, he did not know the sales and success of Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and his idol Jimi Hendrix. Four years ago, Beck expressed some regrets about it Rolling Stone. “When you look around and see who’s become a giant, it feels really bad.”

Beck has released a total of eighteen studio albums, both solo and with bands. The guitarist has released his latest work with actor Johnny Depp, who has turned to music due to the collapse of his acting career. The two also toured last year, but that was especially painful to watch.

Jeff Beck died of meningitis in a hospital in England on Tuesday at the age of 78. “Jeff Beck was from another planet,” Rod Stewart wrote after the news broke. “Ronnie Wood and I took me to the US in the late ’60s with his band The Jeff Beck Group and we haven’t looked back since. He was the rare guitarist who actually listened to what I sang and responded to in a live show. Jeff, you were the best.”