VH-1 or one of those channels had an hour of the show on last evening. Man I always liked Jeff Beck, but I never watched him play all that closely. That guy is as different a guitar player as anyone can get. He is totally melodic in his approach not scalular like some of us (me). I had absolutely no grasp of where he was getting some of those passes. He must have learned guitar in his own way, whereas I took lessons and did scale practice. I think he uses arpeggios, and his own melodic sense more than any varied modal scale forms in his approach. All in all I admire his originality. Of course I am a big admirer of his playing.
Yeah I've watched that about 8 times. Religious.
His bass player from down under is kinda fun to watch too! ;)
Beck is great - only one to make the jump into jazz for real and keep/gain respect in both.
Clever how spinal tap had the bass player banging on about a free form jazz project as an alternative to whatever their next project was.
As it was clearly modelled on Beck who was a bass player at one point in his past and then became the Nigel who is far more obviously based on Beck.
He has taste and feel, think that is is his distinction as a guitar player.
He is playing the melodies he has collected/imagined in his head and doesn't rely on the props and patterns of box scales in a painting by numbers firework show based on speed.
He is one of the few who can do a bit of everything - hard to pin him down musically - hi ho silver lining - WTF :)
The Ronnie Scots.
or Plan B on the album jeff.
Which is why he is a great.
Beck is all by himself in his styling. No one else does what he does, and if they do it is only after long study, and like Hendrix cover artists, they can copy Becks licks but they never get to the soul of it.
Although I did hear a cover of a Beck Tune once demoing a Bogner Ecstasy that was a note for note copy and they did it well.
the last two posts by Fing and DBM, nailed it. Beck is TOTALLY unique. He doesn't dazzle you lile an Yngwie or Via or Pettrucci or DiMeola or many others with technical skill. In fact, I always really like Beck until I SAW him. I've been fascinated by him ever since. He does things you just have to SEE to realize how great he is. His control over the instrument, and taking that control to the next level, is what makes him so great. Maybe only paralleled by Hendrix and Vai. He OWNS it, and can do things with that control that nobody else can do.
Pretty amazing, it must have been a long evolution process to get to do what he does.