Word: becks
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...music is thundering and the light show irrelevant. Jeff Beck a streaming presence jerking, in sweat, on his guitar laying sheet after sheet of sound authoritatively down. The great Nicky Hopkins in one corner of the stage hunched over piano holding together the music with his discreet and rippling underpinning. Mick Waller on drums, his eyes fixed on Beck, face contorting, eyes glazed, his arms chopping, producing a sharp and clear rattling as each drumbeat rams more or less neatly into Beck's flying notes. Rod Stewart, the singer, a man of flinty beauty, and a fertile smile...
...ELECTRIC lead guitar is to rock-blues music what the violin is to classical--the supreme voice of the medium. Jeff Beck understands very well that a man who masters guitar has tapped an enormous source of energy. Having done so, he relishes in his freedom and glory much as a racing driver thrills to the knowledge that he is in control of a powerful machine, one that can destroy him if it goes out of control...
...Jeff Beck Group has a number called "Beck's Boogie" that the group does early in each show. The format is simple: Beck plays the melody of the line "Mary had a little lamb" solo, and then the rest of the players crash in with a few bars of straight percussion. Silence again, and Beck repeats the phrase. Each time, however, he does it a little differently and uses different elements of the guitar. Once he plays it entirely on the frets, once using wah-wah pedal, once slapping the strings with his open palm. The improvisation gets more...
Every time there is a breahtless moment as Beck deliberately lengthens the melody, playing furiously, leaving the audience overhanging, teetering until the rest of the group climaxes with a rumbling flourish...
Quite apart from the fact that this number is artfully constructed for its dramatic moments, "Beck's Boogie" serves to establish in its astounding variety the basic premise: I, Jeff Beck, have such resources at my command...