"There's everybody else and then there's Jeff Beck." That's a
pretty great statement, especially coming from a well-known guitar
player, Joe Perry. "I don't even know what he's doing half the time."
That's a pretty stunning statement, considering it's Eric Clapton
talking. There's a whole lot of other stars ready to praise Beck through
this documentary, from Jimmy Page to Rod Stewart to Dave Gilmour, but
more importantly over the course of the film we are able to understand
what sets him apart. That's a tough thing in music, showing what makes
someone great and different, especially when we're up at that level of
expertise. Clapton, Page, Gilmour, the late George Martin and various
band mates from over the years, famous or not, point out the
characteristics and inquisitive nature that makes him tick. Martin
points out that more than anyone else, the guitar is Beck's voice, and
that's the way to listen to him. Our eyes and ears do the rest.
Just
as remarkable is the steadfast way he kept going for the music rather
than the fame. Hearing his story from The Yardbirds til today, it's
obvious he only ever made decisions based on integrity instead of money
and applause. He quit The Yardbirds two dates into a North American
package tour that had the band doing three songs on a bill with
lightweight pop stars. He broke up the famed Jeff Beck Group (with Rod
Stewart and Ron Wood) two weeks before Woodstock. He'd start new groups
to learn and advance, and generally follow his muse. He sat out great
stretches of the '80's and beyond, not for lack of offers but because he
didn't feel he fit in the button-pushing technology of the day. The
last decade, the guitar player who could join any band or have the most
famous people back him, instead chooses to play with relative unknowns
but excellent musicians he's met, often women who excel equally as their
male peers.
He seems remarkably humble and
even-keeled, although since he's not interested in show biz gossip and
star worship, the documentary doesn't dwell on any of that. All we
really learn about him personally is that he loves working on cars just
as much as playing music. Fair enough, In biographies you generally, and
rightly, look for important clues from an artist's personal life that
have affected their art, but Beck does seem to be that singular person
who is exactly as he seems. The big emotional highlight of the story is a
memory of being taken to the Hollywood Bowl during The Yardbird's first
American tour, and thinking what an honour it would be to play it, and
then having that happen finally like, 45 years later, long after it was
due, and still being so proud and awestruck over it. It's probably a
really good thing that he's not over-the-top famous like those other
stars singing his praises, because it's kept him refreshingly humble.
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