Remembering 2023’s Music Losses: Jeff Beck

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Our local sn*w-loving meteorologist is back and saying that dirty S word. I can stay warm (with all the tea I’m drinking for my sinuses) and keep the music going, no matter the weather! Here’s today’s celebration of the life of a great musician who left us in 2023. Jeff Beck The Yardbirds are considered one of the most influential bands in the history of rock and roll. Why? In their short career they had three guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck. (The Yardbirds’ final incarnation featured Page; and, as other members left and were replaced, it morphed into “The New Yardbirds,” which is better known as Led Zeppelin.) That’s pretty much a “who’s who” of guitarists right there…and they were all in one band! (Just at different times.) Jeff Beck replaced Clapton in the Yardbirds. Clapton left because the Yardbirds (gasp) had a pop hit (“For Your Love”). Of course, Beck didn’t really care about commercial success; however, he never left a band over it. After getting fired from the Yardbirds Beck formed the Jeff Beck Group, featuring a young Rod Stewart on vocals. He was also an “almost” member of a number of bands, including Pink Floyd (to replace Syd Barrett, who’d quit) and The Rolling Stones (to replace Brian Jones, who had died). Not the the Jeff Beck Group was a slouch: the band was Beck, Stewart, Nicky Hopkins on piano, Ron Wood (future Stones member) on bass, and Aynsley Dunbar (future Journey member) on drums. After numerous albums, groups, sessions, and eight Grammy awards, Beck saw himself inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once with the Yardbirds, and once as a solo artist. Beck was still very active in music when he contracted bacterial meningitis. It took his life on January 10, 2023. He was 78. Jeff Beck’s use of the fuzz box and distortion helped popularize what they called “psychedelic rock” at the time. His influence will continue for decades. Jeff Beck Born Geoffrey Arnold Beck June 24, 1944 - January 10, 2023 (age 78) HALL OF FAME: Rock and Roll (1992 as a member of the Yardbirds; 2009 as a solo artist) Here’s the Jeff Beck Group, featuring Rod Stewart on vocals, on a song that Beck and Stewart wrote: