but judging by the recent interview he seems to be a weird jonah/zelig character who seemed to spend his time not playing on famous records oh and he told a really dull story about a pet I had to check it wasn't christopher Guest.

That honour goes to Mr Robert Fripp.

I was knocked out by his version of "She's A Woman" on last week's BBC4 round-up of Beatles cover versions:

he's the man...

You have to admire him on one level, his technical mastery of the instrument and how he pioneered certain ways of playing it. But he seems to be the classic exampe of the nearly man of British rock. His jazz rock solo stuff is far too inaccessible at times and lot of the later material is just plain unlistenable.

Personally, I think that, in the grand scheme of things, he's a bit over rated and its wrong to put him in the same bracket as e.g Clapton, Hendrix and even Peter Green.

Beck fans will no doubt have a pop. But I think a lot of discerning rock fans who judge artists on the strength of their material, rather than their instrumental prowess and technical cleverness, will agree with me.

from 'There and Back'

Perhaps not his finest moment but one of my favourites of his.

There are some fine moments on 'Who Else', notably 'Space for the Papa' He seems to wrest the most inordinate amount of expression and variation from the simplest of licks.

is my favorite piece of his, I also like the all-star jam Beck's Boloero and his supergroup from the early 70's formed out of the ashes of Cactus, Beck Bogert and Appice.

end of story.

Probably the closest thing we have to an electric guitar virtuoso imvho. A real treat to see him playing a low-slung humbuckered guitar - and using a plectrum.

As a musician, he makes me want to give up. Or acknowledge that I haven't really been trying. However, you can't have everything - thank God - and Beck's lack of mainstream support probably stems from his inability to either play the game or any kind of second fiddle. His songwriting and vocal talents also trail his guitar playing by some degree. And let's not mention his acting...

Saw Beck and exceptional band at Manchester Apollo earlier this year. What must it be like to be Jeff Beck. You stroll casually on to the stage. You are effortlessly brilliant for an hour and a half. You stroll off again. Job done.
I had a good idea of what to expect from the recent "Live at Ronnie Scott's" that was shown on the Beeb a couple of times, but it was still shocking just how great a guitar player Jeff Beck is. There are times when you are watching him play and you just can't work out how he's doing it. Getting sounds out of a Strat sometimes unlike anything else I've heard, Beck's strength has always been his ability to mix power with the lightest of touches and there were plenty of instances of the way he can make an electric guitar sound genuinely beautiful. 'Cause We've Ended As Lovers' is one of my favourite tracks (from "Blow By Blow") and it was riveting to watch and listen to the real emotion that Beck gets out of his instrument.
One interesting aside. Until the band were leaving the stage, Beck said NOTHING from the start to the end of the gig. I suppose we get used to artists bantering between tracks but I found this quite disconcerting. Better nothing than a load of drivel, of course, but you'd imagine that after 40 years or whatever it is of live performances he'd have come up with some sort of strategy to get around this.

I saw Jeffrey in his 2 visits to Australia - Feb of this year and back in the late 70's during the jazz-rock wired phase with Jan Hammer.

A remarkably dexterous and inventive guitarist who,incidentally, only requires 1 guitar,all night, to perform his feats.

I don't see what is inaccessible about his jazz rock stuff unless that is code for "I don't like it" which is fair enough- each to their own.

For raw blues rock and pre cursor to heavy metal blues a la Led Zep go to those first few records with Rod Stewart , Ronnie wood et al.

For mine, he IS the man.

...I suppose he's got nothing to say or is too uncomfortable with a microphone and a hall full of people to say it.

..at the 02 Indigo, guesting with the Imelda May Band and playing mainly rock 'n' roll and rockabilly covers by Elvis, Gene Vincent, Duane Eddy, Johnny Burnette and even The Shadows.

This was a genuine one-off and an absolute treat.. Jeff won four separate encores including a spine-tingling version of Cry Me A River with Imelda May channelling Julie London, and Over The Rainbow recast as an oh-so-gentle instrumental.

Jimmy Page was there in the audience with Ronnie Wood. There were shouts from the crowd for them to go on stage, to which Jeff replied with a grin" "Nah, they won't come up. They're too chicken..."

Can't say I blame them. He's so much more entertaining than either Page or Clapton. The only guitarist who comes anywhere near him is Richard Thompson.

.. except that Richard Thompson is the greatest living British electric guitarist...and acoustic for that matter.
I love Jeff's guitar playing, but I dislike most of his music.

He never struck me as such an exponent of a diversity of styles as JB.

Having said this, I am not a guitarist ,and I know many contributors to this blog are guitarists and qute accomplished ones at that.

Has Beck ever done anything on acoustic guitar ?

then I vote for James Johnston of Gallon Drunk, sometime Bad Seed, general journeyman of British rock in the last 20 years and Robert Newman lookalike. By some odd coincidence, not having seen him play live since I saw Gallon Drunk circa 1989, I saw him twice in the same week this month, once playing raw country-folk with Dot Allison and once entirely abstracted psychedelia with Faust. The sounds he can wring out of a guitar are free and wonderful.

As I've posted before, my preferred guitarists are Jimi Hendrix, Bert Jansch, Richard Thompson and John Mclaughlin, but I am intrigued to know more about Jeff Beck. Where is the best place to start ?

is actually the best living British guitarist - imho. And not a bad piano player and singer too.

A bit like Beck, however, his material is not always the strongest except when covering other people's work.

Also - It strikes me that Jimmy Page is curiously under-estimated among "those who know". Associated with bombast and trickery (violin bows etc) rather than tone or feel.

"Since I've Been Loving You" - for example - demonstrates both virtuosity and the soul he is sometimes said to lack - and the whole of Zep III's second side shows his abilities on an acoustic.

...if you don't have the tunes. I don't think Jeff has the tunes.

When it comes to inventive (re)interpretation there's nobody better than JB.

No extra effects or pedals (as far as I can see anyway), just an absolutely instinctive and endlessly creative feel for how far a song can be extended, coupled with total mastery of the instrument. Genius !

I've just spent a lot of sterling currency (quite a lot in fact) to see him with Clapton at the O2 next February. Hopefully that will enable me to bolster my own argument with evidence ie thats he's not in the same class as Clapton.

head down, duck.....

Clapton's music has touched millions for over four decades. Beck's work has not had that same audience or even the same mass reverence. He is more of a musicians's musician, an admittedly brilliant technical innovator but one mainly worshipped by guitar anoraks and rock egg heads. But his music has no soul or heart. No-one can play a Fender Stratocaster with the same blues feeling like Eric. He is the best white blues player of the 20th century bar none.

Edward Van Halen is probably a superior guitar player to both of them in terms of technique but no one puts him in the same league as either Beck or Clapton. Its not just about mastery of the fretboard, its something else, the poetry of music and what it represents. Eric has this poetic quality in spades; his music has documented a life of excess and tragedy, which is why he's the global superstar that he is. Beck hasn't got an ounce of that poetry in his back catalogue. Instead he's a very talented technician and pioneer of the instrument in the late 60s. It really is as simple as that.

Not ducking this time. Bring it on.

I'm pretty sure Clayderman has sold one or two more records than Perlman, his music has 'touched' millions over the decades, and, by the cosy repetition of familiar idioms, unchallenging motifs and easy-on-the-ear schlock, has built a following that would find Richard Stilgoe a demanding listen.

Itzhak Perlman - or any other performing virtuosi - is mildly more demanding of the listener, and as such, his appeal is somewhat narrower. He continues to challenge himself and his audience, and partly as a result, will never reach the level of public awareness that Clapton, Clayderman, James Last or Rolf Harris enjoy.

The popularity point is misleading in my view - nobody's trying to argue that Jeff Beck has written that many great songs, merely that to his fans - or maybe just to other guitarists - his level of virtuosity, accomplishment, technique and invention are on a totally different level to Clapton. Van Halen too, for that matter.

You can't wriggle out of your popularity point just because you don't like Richard Clayderman's style. The guy is a brilliant pianist, just a populist and popular pianist, who plays exactly what his audience expects. Very similar to EC in that regard.

And if you can't make a point without resorting to personal abuse, then why not troll somewhere else.

about lack of emotion in Jeff Beck's playing.

His playing is all about emotion: -

It isn't one-paced,
It has plenty of space,
Each note has its own volume and attack
He has great tone
He has timing
He has a palette of sounds

But ultimately -
He has taste, unlike many of the widdly two-handed tappers and sweep pickers revered by many. What he doesn't play is as important as what he does.

I love Albert Lee's playing , but he plays so many notes that at the end of the night you can think 'What did he play?' - nothing stays with you apart from the effect. He seems to have invented his own clichés that he trots out on a number of recordings. Ray Flacke has probably been more of an influence on me as a Country player, as has Steuart Smith.

Though I love the man's music, Richard Thompson's playing can leave me cold, since a lot of his electric solos seem to get to a point where he just repeatedly plays as many discordant pulls as he can. His acoustic playing is beautiful.

With the great guitarists, it can be just the texture of a single note that gets you. I love the power, speed, licks and tone of so many guitarists, but Beck has a sound and style of his own. Popularity aside, his sheer influence sets him close to the top of the tree.

Becks finest: -
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
A Brush With The Blues
Let Me Love You
Definitely Maybe
Ice Cream Cakes
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You
Highways
Looking For Another Pure Love (Steve Wonder)
'Cause We've ended as Lovers
Rock My Plimsoul
Jody