Word: becks
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Beck on guitar reminds me of Kanhai batting--there is the same sense of a man sniffing out incredible possibilities and instantly realizing them. His guitar produces the sounds of many other instruments: sometimes it is a percussion instrument rapping out the beat while the drums fly elsewhere as they often do, sometimes Beck sounds like John Handy blowing high-pitched squeals out of his sax, sometimes Beck's guitar sounds like a piano, a bell, and once, unforgettably, a wailing harp (on 'Shapes of things...
...else, there is no substitute for sheer funky skill. Beck has total mastery over his guitar, in his compulsive feel for its electronic vagaries, in his loving use of the guitar's 'dead' parts (sometimes he slaps the strings with open palms in time to the drums), in his deep relishing gulps of its fertile string area...
This deliberate use of the guitar as the major element of the music helps to explain the tremendous excitement that the Jeff Beck Group generates at every public performance--from the Fill-more East to the Boston Tea Party and now probably in Detroit, audiences are left at the end of the show shredded and near-hysterical. Another reason for this audience appeal is the Group's steaming physical presence on stage, its sense of togetherness as a unit, and its musical cohesion creating an unadulterated rolling, weaving ball of sound...
...Stewart lifts the mike, stand and all, the tripod legs slant in the air and his body is bent double over it, singing he glances happily over the stage. Jeff Beck in a black ruffled shirt knees slightly bent, perfectly balanced though, finishes his rifls with a triumphant index finger high over his head. He 'plays' a long beep and then a long deep wavering note. Stewart sings slow blues style, "My baby, she knows how to spread her wings." Subterrenean thoughts of rolling thighs float around. Jeff Beck and Ron Wood exchange looks and laugh. Mick Waller keeps slashing...
Mick Waller was one of London's top sessions musicians before he joined the Jeff Beck Group, and played in particular with the Stones (he owned up to being the bongo drums in 'Jumping Jack Flash). He predicts, "the Stones will stand the test of time better than the Beatles. They're much simpler, you know, and they say a lot more than the Beatles with their highly contrived messages. Its just like Dylan, he can say in a few words what it would take Janis Ian a whole song to get at. I've only recently begun to listen...