i was a bit stunned when i heard the news yesterday that jeff beck had passed on to that great rock and roll band in the sky. i don’t profess to say i was a huge fan of his – in other words having all of his albums and following his long career. but i do have a few treasured albums of his, with certain songs showing up often in my playlists. and i certainly respect and admire his long and varied career as a pioneer in the evolution of the blues guitar. from his early days in the yardbirds and a significant player in the british invasion, including the earlier forays as a solo artist, to his heavily instrumental (pun intended) influence on the 70’s jazz/rock fusion movement, he has been a force to be reckoned with.

in some of the several articles i read today about him, the documentary shown below was recommended as a great summary of his life and career. i just finished watching, and i can agree wholeheartedly and can recommend spending 90 minutes in tribute to him. it is amazing how many artists he has influenced. one could argue that if it was not for jeff beck, you likely would never know who rod stewart is, to name just one example.

this is one my favorite songs (an outtake i believe) off of one of my favorite albums of his (“truth”), and was thinking about it last night, but never teed it up. i was running on my treadmill early this morning to one of my random playlists which has at least 1600 songs on it. at about the 20 minute mark of my workout it showed up as the next selection. you can’t make this shit up.

one of the things that was covered extensively in the documentary was the collaborations he did with so many artists – many without any credits on the album – and this is one of my favorites:

as my brother steve texted me last night, one of the biggest blues guitarist fans i know – ‘they don’t make them like that anymore’.