“I’ve never made the big time, mercifully.” – Jeff Beck, 2018
Here’s Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, showing up in one of the uber-mod scenes in Michelangelo Antonioni’s uber-mod 1966 film Blow-Up.
Always dug his collaboration with ZZ Top. Their cover of Merle Travis’ 16 Tons (which was then immortalized by Tennessee Ernie Ford) is in my own personal pantheon of Greatest Covers Ever.
16 Tons really shows what people always talk about when they talk about Jeff Beck: His guitar talks. It’s in conversation with the audience. It makes asides. It even cracks jokes.
RIP to a legend.
You may have seen this, but one of my favorite Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction speech moments came from Jeff Beck, when the Yardbirds were inducted in 1993. It’s at the very end of this clip and it makes me laugh every time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrgM5pENf1s
That made my day.