Sunday, June 24, 2018

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: STILL ON THE RUN - THE JEFF BECK STORY (Blu-ray)

"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.

Bonus features: Not much, a five-song excerpt from a 2007 show in Montreux, but of course, he's awesome.

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