Jeff Beck never delivered a dull, uninspired performance (although he personally often argued that Hi Ho Silver Lining belonged in the dustbin). As a result, when asked for Jeff Beck music recommendations, many of his fans are inclined to answer, “All of it!”
Although Beck had few bona fide hits during his career, much of his work with the Yardbirds and his Truth, Blow by Blow and Guitar Shop albums are well known and beloved by most guitarists. However, the true Jeff Beck fan knows that he delivered many gems throughout his career well beyond his best-known work.
With that in mind, here is a list of 10 deep cuts that are worthy of a closer listen, especially from a guitarist’s perspective. These are recordings that display his influence and inimitable imagination as well as the surprising breadth of his talent throughout his career.
Beck delivered so many dazzling performances over the years that it’s nearly impossible to come up with a definitive top 10 list of anything he’s done, but we think this offers a good overview of memorable moments worth revisiting.
1. Psycho Daisies – The Yardbirds, B-side of U.K. Happenings Ten Years Time Ago single (1966)
This song’s I-IV-V chord progression may be rock ’n’ roll, but the aggressive swagger and attitude of Beck’s guitar is pure punk and manic metal before either genre ever existed.
With a stop-start riff inspired by Eddie Cochran’s Somethin’ Else, Beck hot rods that rockabilly classic by blasting out a snarling staccato downstroke rhythm (backed by Jimmy Page on bass) that became the blueprint for bands from Black Sabbath through the Sex Pistols and the Ramones to Metallica.
Beck’s singing and stinging counterpoint solo fills add irresistible British blues bombast that Rick Nielsen later tipped his baseball cap to on the solo section of Cheap Trick’s My Baby Loves to Rock.
2. Got the Feeling – The Jeff Beck Group, Rough and Ready (1971)
The first incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group featuring Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, et al gets all the love and attention (it is pretty damn impressive), but the Mark II version with Cozy Powell on drums, Clive Chapman on bass, Max Middleton on keys and vocalist Bobby Tench deserves a closer look from the uninitiated.
Got the Feeling is the first song on the first album by this version of the Jeff Beck Group, and it knocks listeners for a loop with its stanky, low-down funk groove and Beck’s driving chukka-chukka wah-wah work, amazingly recorded before Theme from Shaft was released. His killer slide solo during the last minute and a half is groovy, jazzy and gritty – 100 percent pure unadulterated Jeff Beck.
3. I’m So Proud – Beck, Bogert & Appice, S/T (1973)
Beck, Bogert & Appice are best known for the band’s blues, bombast and boogie, but on I’m So Proud they took an uncharacteristic breather with a smooth, soulful cover of a Curtis Mayfield slow jam.
Beck plays yet another stunning slide solo, spiced up with some interplay with a tape echo. His uncanny voice-like phrasing provides a hint of his later work on songs like Where Were You.
4. Blue Wind – Wired (1976)
Beck says that some of his best work came about when he had a great keyboard player to bounce ideas off of. Wired was the first album where he collaborated with Jan Hammer to great effect, particularly on Blue Wind.
Hammer’s synth solos were very guitar-like, and the dueling interplay between him and Beck pushed the guitarist to deliver soaring, aggressive solos. Beck’s tone is particularly notable, with a horn-like quality that he would continue to refine throughout his career.
5. Star Cycle – There and Back (1980)
There and Back is often overlooked, but it’s an essential element of Beck’s trilogy of ’70s jazz-fusion albums, along with Blow by Blow and Wired. Like Blue Wind, Star Cycle is another killer Jan Hammer composition, but the percolating intro and main riff give the song a proto-techno flavor that planted the seeds for Beck’s deep dive into electronica two decades later.
Beck plays his first solo starting around the 1:30 mark with a ripsaw distorted tone that was heavier than most metal players at the time, and his manic shredding during the song’s last 30 seconds is jaw-droppingly dazzling.
6. Savoy – Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop (1989)
For all of the high-tech gloss that characterized much of Guitar Shop, Beck’s approach was generally simple and straightforward, employing a primitive rig of a pair of Fender amps and a handful of pedals that contrasted the refrigerator-size racks that ruled the day in the late ’80s.
On the main melody line of Savoy, what sounds like a harmonizer or multi-tracked parts is just Jeff playing triple-stop bends way up the neck. I once watched him play this on his unplugged 1956 Gretsch Duo Jet with .013 flatwound strings, and it sounded exactly like the record.
With its horn-like solos and swinging rhythm, Savoy is the closest thing to a modern sci-fi rockabilly song that Jeff ever recorded.
7. Vihn’s Funeral – Jeff Beck & Jed Leiber, Frankie’s House (1992)
This soundtrack album that Beck and Jed Leiber (son of songwriter Jerry Leiber of Leiber & Stoller fame) recorded for a British-Australian television drama features a ton of killer playing by Jeff, including The Jungle, Sniper Patrol and Cathouse.
The track Vihn’s Funeral is the most quiet and contemplative composition on the album. Beck plays a few sparse, undistorted notes with harmonics and whammy bar bends, and the stripped-down, naked instrumentation really allows listeners to experience how much emotion he can express with only his fingers and a guitar.
8. Brush with the Blues – Who Else! (1999)
This live performance recording is a dazzling contrast to the electronica-influenced flash and fury on the remainder of Who Else! Yes, it’s the blues, but played in a way that only Jeff Beck could, and it’s also arguably Beck’s best blues performance ever.
There’s nothing remotely traditional about the licks and lines that he delivers with aplomb, but even the most staunch blues purist would be impressed by his emotion and commotion – his own apt description for his playing that he later used as an album title.
9. Nadia – You Had It Coming (2001)
Nadia is part of a unique class of instrumentals that can only be defined as “Jeff Beck music” along with Where Were You, Declan, Nessun Dorma and Bulgaria. Each of those songs has a distinct ethnic flavor – Bulgarian vocal music, Irish folk music, Italian opera, etc. – but on Nadia he mastered the heart and soul of Indian vocal music, particularly the characteristic nuanced and complex phrasing and flourishes.
Nadia is one of many instances where Beck’s playing transcended conventional guitar techniques. He was much more than a guitarist – rather he was a consummate musical visionary and genius for whom the guitar was simply his means of expression.
10. Lilac Wine – Emotion & Commotion (2010)
Beck’s characteristic guitar tone was full and robust, with a throaty, horn-like midrange that he generated with the help of a good amount of overdrive. However, on the last two minutes of Lilac Wine he shifts to a tone that is unusually crisp, clean and understated. It’s simply beautiful.
Jeff had been in the public limelight for 45 years by this point, but whereas most guitarists lucky enough to be around that long usually fall back on comfortable licks and old tricks, he still managed to grow and explore and master new territory until the end.
