Yes, a 50 year career being his own man, never compromising, never chasing commercial fame. True to his instrument, always pushing the envelope, pure genius. A great listener with a great sense of humor. Thank you and Happy Birthday, Mr Beck and many, many more!
Naaaahhhh, that shoe polish is the key to his powers! I don't want to see a grey haired Jeff Beck.
Happy Birthday JB! Still awesome after all these years.
By the way...maybe some of you already know this and if so I apologize in advance.
Anyway, about ten years ago Seymour Duncan and I were talking 'guitar' at a local gear demo of his new pedals. I asked him his thoughts on Jeff and he said...paraphrasing..."When he shows up I have to change his guitar strings. He can't be bothered changing strings. He can build an awesome hot rod from the ground up but can't change guitar strings."
Great guitarist, great musician.
From his earliest days he's had a unique approach to the instrument and the music.
From fusion to blues to opera to Indian, from vicious and jagged to tender and delicate.
Just saw him last month live after 30 years of listening to him (he rarely ever comes here) and he was fantastic.
What was really great is sometimes in a tune he'd toss in a lick here and there that would have your jaw dropped.
What was amazing was witnessing "Where were you" from the sixth row. He really can play that song live. It seems impossible.
He did a ton of classics and a lot of new stuff and occasionally would pull off a lick that had me going "wow, he's still got it".
He looked great, seemed really flattered at the lots of applause and his band was amazing.
He alternated between a white rosewood board tele and two white strats with rosewood boards. He really didn't go nuts on the whammy as much as you would think either.
Oh and get this - he had a Marshall half stack and Magnatone that had the name brand re-badged to "Becktone".