Jeff and I

Jeff Beck. Since my hair started to grow it was him. All along the years of becoming I listened to his odysseys as he explored there and back and a bit further. I remember going to see the Antonioni film "Blow Up" just to see him bash up his guitar. I was maybe fifteen at the time. He took off from the Yardbirds as they hit the scene, turned down an offer to join the Zeppelin where his friend Jimmy Page became the Guitar Hero with tricks they'd figured out together. He made the first ever heavy rock album with Rod Stewart, remember the one with the green apple on the cover.

And on he went. Fusion with Jan Hammer, jamming around with people like BB King, John McLaughlin's Shakti and Buddy Guy. he had a following of people who tried to figure out what he did and how and picked up what suited. Of Jimi Hendrix he said: "Oh, the black guy from the States who stole my fuzz box". They played together and exchanged ideas.

I love to listen to him. When he does heavy it is screaming. He attacks, howls and surprises. An when he slows down to a ballade, time stands still. My favorite is "Where Were You" where his technique becomes inaudible. It is a soul singing if I ever heard one. A different thing is to try and play it. I suppose there are people in the world who have it figured out but he is still the one who came up with it.

I go over and over back to his oldies: "Ten Years Time Ago", "Shapes of Things" the two versions with Yardbirds and with Rod. "Heart Full of Soul", oh definitely yes and "Plynth".

I am getting old finally realizing that my guitar playing was just a joke. I did it because it was the thing to do in the seventies with long hair and stuff. I never really worked on it but in my dreams I'd go on stage and flash...
Flash what?
There are people who have the talent and the toughness and very little choice as to what to do with their lives. Music chooses them.
I had the choice and took off for a bourgeois profession and a paycheck.

At fifty, most people look back. Some have more to look back than others, some have a selective memory and change victims to heroes and the timeline as well. Here you see Garbidz looking back:



As to me, I got an Olympic White Jeff Beck Signature Stratocaster from eBay.
I hope these hot dogs of mine won't let me down as I'll play back to my youth.
(now let's see, we have an "A" somewhere here, don't we...)

What a lovely lady...a bit demanding, though...all my time and the skin of my fingers and we've only just began...