Jeff Beck, RIP

Barney Quick

Barney Quick writes for various magazines and website, plays jazz guitar in various configurations, and teaches jazz history and rock and roll history at Indiana University. He blogs at Late in the Day and writes longer essays at Precipice, his Substack newsletter.

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5 Responses

  1. Burt Likko says:

    The last few paragraphs depict Beck as a womanizer and adulterer. I’m not sure that matters to us as fans of the music. Lots of people have cheated on their spouses and partners, and that’s not a good thing to do, but it’s also not something that really involves people outside of those very small circles of intimacy. Yes, Beck had some addiction and mental health issues but these are not particularly uncommon and especially not so in showbiz. There’s a point up until which we can say things like, “Yeah, but that was the drugs talking, he cleaned up and hasn’t been like that since,” and we generally accept that.

    And it’s possibly an interesting discussion to have about when a person’s moral failures merits boycotting their art or other work products. Beck’s predecessor in the Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, presents a more difficult case in that realm than Jeff Beck (and I’m not referring strictly to Clapton’s questionable pursuit of Pattie Boyd). But that’d be something of a threadjack and could lead to a culturewar discussion about “cancellation.” Maybe that’d be an interesting post for a future date. Today, I’d rather pull out my favorite track from Beck’s sensational album Truth, with vocals from Rod Stewart:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNcJGWQsz1Q

    And a cover of an American gospel standard he performed with Joss Stone at Ronnie Scott’s, which is going to be a mandatory stop for me when next in London:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4N5o3GIGsY

    The man could get so much out of six strings.

    P.S.: do you realize the identity with the Yardbirds that this website has held as part of its own history and lore? Reading here of your obvious love and affection for the actual group is thus a more than a bit heartwarming. Thanks for taking the time to pen this eulogy.Report

    • CJColucci in reply to Burt Likko says:

      How many of us, with a rock star’s opportunities, wouldn’t be womanizers or adulterers? Be honest.Report

      • Burt Likko in reply to CJColucci says:

        Good point. Just about anyone who’s ever been married has surely had opportunities to stray, if they’d chosen to pursue them. (Some do, some don’t.) But very few of us would have had quite so many opportunities as a rock star. That much temptation all the time would surely wear down anyone’s moral fiber.Report

        • Slade the Leveller in reply to Burt Likko says:

          I remember a story involving Bill & Hillary (I think, it was awhile ago), where Hillary was amazed how many women flocked around Bill while he was governor of Ark. Someone told her that some women are attracted to power and the higher you climb on the ladder, the younger and prettier they get.Report

  2. rexknobus says:

    Nothing to add to a lovely article except that (born in 1950) I was in that teenaged audience that looked forward to every new Yardbirds song because of the wild and wonderful things their guitarist was doing. What a progression of pure playing talent and technical effects he, and the group, were doing! It was one thing to know who the Beatles and the Stones were, and a slightly different (and I think more complimentary) thing to be following the work of a single guitarist. A tip of the old 45 to Mr. Beck!Report