Forgive me for the length of this post. It’s now over a year and a half since Jeff’s passing, and every time I think about it, it just guts me. I was hooked on the Yardbirds for the first time I heard them when I was just 13 . Shortly after that my dad died and music made me feel better so I formed a band, and by 1967, our band was mostly inspired by the works of Jeff Beck and we went onto play almost every song on his first four albums. The JBG I and II literally became the foundation of my musical career and inspiration that brought me into every aspect of music since then.
have seen him perform live just short of 20 concerts in my lifetime . And I was lucky enough to see him perform the first concert when Bogart and Appice joined the second Jeff Beck Group when they were in transition in Colorado Springs in 1972 a week before they cut down to just BBA( and got to see him perform “Superstition “ for possibly the first time!
Our band was also lucky enough to open for the great Guitarist , Tommy Bolin and his band Zephyr as well as his later band Energy who Jeff picked to open for his world tour 1976 – but after that initial concert together, Tommy would unfortunately dir of a drug overdose that evening. I was also lucky enough to see, one of Jeff’s most incredible concerts (in my opinion) I believe in fall 1995 when he was touring with Santana and in KC or St louis, with Pino playing bass and Jeff played just an incredibly inspired show(which is still on YouTube).
I was lucky enough to see him when he first took Beth Hart with him on tour and she came on stage like a roaring female version of Robert Plant , but better, making us all wonder-what would’ve happened to Jeff’s career if he had singer like that back in the 70s! And Beth Hart’s career began to takeoff after this !
I was lucky enough to see his career takeoff again in the 90s with three or four albums back to back over about five years. And went to see him on his American tour each of those years.We were also lucky enough to see him tour with B.B. King where Jeff humbly opened for BB . But BB brought Jeff back onstage with his band for about 45 minutes . BB kept asking Jeff to play extra solos , over and over . Finally, as he allowed Jeff to leave the stage , BB announced to the audience, that Jeff Beck was the real “King”!
I was also lucky enough to see the emotion and commotion tour in Milwaukee at Summerfest, and from the first song, the audience was literally standing on the arm chairs of the seats for the entire concert! But the intensity of the concert was overwhelming, even for a Beck fan of more than 30 years by that time, the range of songs would bring you to tears one moment for their beauty and the next minute give you goosebumps because of their sheer intensity and the next moment your jaw would be dropping to the floor because of the sheer virtuosity and mastery not only by Jeff, but the entire band !
I’ve also been lucky enough to see not only in my opinion, the most gifted guitarist, but the leader of some of the most gifted bands ever assembled to play together, especially his bands with Vinny and Tal or Rhonda Smith, and Narada Michael Walden, but also players like Stanley Jordan, and Jan Hammer , and many others who he has played with, including sixties bassist extraordinaire, Ronnie Wood!
His Death has affected me far more than any other musician that I know of. I don’t know if maybe it’s because he’s only six years older than I am, but I think it also has to do with the fact that he was not so much seeking fame as much as he really loved playing guitar, was true to himself and he seemed to be very generous, helpful to promoting young musicians , he was humble, he never stopped evolving in his musical directions or his amazing ability of making the guitar sing. My life has been blessed by this man in so many ways and I really miss him! And I haven’t found anyone else who can take over his place!
My condolences to his family, and to everyone else who miss this beloved man! RIP Jeff Beck.
Peace, DaCat
Go figure…
