Jeff Beck talks about the sitar influenced sounds for his guitar playing on The Yardbirds' "Heart full of soul " and " Shapes of things " which he plays his most memorable guitar solos
Jeff Beck, Father of Rock Guitar Since Jeff Beck's untimely death in January 2023, many of his peers hailed him as the greatest rock guitarist of all, "the guitarists' guitarist". Much deserved praise has been given to Beck's inimitable skills, musical taste and perpetual evolution. His works, including albums Truth and Blow by Blow, are both pioneering and influential. However, one key aspect of Jeff Beck's legacy is often overlooked and is probably unknown to many music fans. In the mid-1960s, a distinctive new genre - rock - began to emerge from British pop music. The electric lead guitar with sound distortion was at the heart of it. In August1964 Dave Davies of the Kinks slashed the cones of the speaker cones to alter the sound of his guitar in You Really Got Me. The two-note riff was primitive but attracted huge attention: guitar distortion entered British pop. Messing with the razor, however, was not the way forward. The new music era that was about to begin required quality equipment and guitar prodigies to master it. At that time, Eric Clapton was playing blues, Jimmy Page was busy as session guitarist and Jimi Hendrix was nowhere until October 1966. It was Jeff Beck who became Britain's most respected and influential guitar player in the nascent rock scene. Four episodes illustrate how Jeff Beck laid the foundations of rock guitar playing during his eighteen-month spell with the Yardbirds. Episode 1. The Riff. Heart Full of Soul (recorded in April 1965) For the riff, Jeff Beck used a novel device - a “fuzz box” - to distort the guitar's sound to a particular effect, in this case, echoing the Indian sitar (which was new for pop music at the time; George Harrison actually played the sitar six months later in Norwegian Wood). Since then, the guitar riff with distortion became one of the fundamentals of rock music. Keith Richards used the fuzz box for the recording of Satisfaction in May 1965 (and his riff deserved worldwide praise as one of defining moments of rock music). Paul McCartney pioneered the fuzz bass in Think for Yourself in November 1965. Many other memorable fuzz-box riffs followed, nonetheless Jeff’s elegant guitar in Heart Full of Soul was the first very first to go on record and to-date remains an iconic sound of the sixties. Episode 2. The Solo. Shapes of Things (recorded in January 1966) It could have been just another British pop song, albeit with dark avant-garde lyrics. However, the ferocious 25-second guitar solo imagined and performed by Jeff beck established the song's legacy. It probably contributed more than any other piece of music to the birth of rock from British pop. Psychedelic rock is also counted down from Shapes of Things. Since then, every composition in rock music had to have a distorted guitar solo. To feel an early impact, one should listen to Paul McCartney's guitar in Taxman (April 1966). In May 1968, Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart imagined a "dirty and evil" (in Jeff’s words) rendition of Shapes of Things, probably the first song in hard rock recorded in Britain. Comparing both versions allows seeing the immense progress of rock music in Britain over just a two-year period. Episode 3. Rock Rhapsody with Heavy Metal. Beck’s Bolero (recorded in May 1966) In May 1966, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page with friends, all future rock legends (John Paul Jones, Keith Moon, Nicky Hopkins) recorded the cosmic Bolero. Nothing close to similar was recorded at that time. The avant-garde instrumental rock rhapsody was a powerful and varied display of electric guitar-playing at the cutting edge. At the time, Jeff Beck was probably the only person on Earth to perform this kind of music on guitar. Released only a year later, it was still ahead of its time, even though rock music evolved at incredible speed. Beck' Bolero is also "officially" the first record to feature heavy metal in its third movement (John Entwistle dropped the words "lead zeppelin" after hearing the studio recording). Episode 4. Double Lead Guitar. Happenings Ten Years Time Ago (recorded in September 1966) In the composition, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page presented two lead guitars engaged in a dialogue (“like dueling fighter planes", according to journalist Bob Stanley). This kind of musical setup was unheard of at the time, however, the legacy lives on. Since then and until now, double (or triple or more) lead guitars can be heard dialoguing at every on-stage reunion of the guitar’s greats. The dream team did not last long though: Jeff Beck and the Yardbirds parted ways shortly after, but not before being filmed in a cult scene in Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni. It was clear who the boss was on the stage. Jeff Beck did his part in defining the rock guitar and went on experimenting, like he did all his life. On September 24, 1966, Jimmy Hendrix embarked in London and the new guitar universe was born. RIP Jeff Beck and thank you
Interesting summary. I came across JB more through his fascination with Cliff Gallup. I think that highlights his guitar journey from a kid excited by a superfast and brilliant rockabilly guitar player to the 60s guitar pathfinder. In an alternate universe, if rock hadn't evolved, I'm sure Jeff would have been an outstanding guitarist in any style required. As it is/was the times required something that built on from Dave Davies distortion. Although, somewhat playfully, I would suggest that perhaps DD might have heard the distortion effect on a Johnny Burnette record, or am I right in thinking Johnny Guitar Watson had been using distortion on his recordings? Or possibly Link Wray. Not sure. Never mind. What Jeff did, and what you so interestingly described, is now the stuff of musical history. 👍👍
@@mesolithicman164You don’t have to guess. Dave references a Ventures B Side in an interview on RU-vid. Never mentions Rumble (Link Wray) or those other players.He was angry about being forced to breakup with a girlfriend and the clean guitar tones of the day. The access to music did not exist in 1964 England, that we enjoy today. I never heard Rumble until I was in my late 30s. I know of but have never heard those other players. Tired of Dave, getting even playfully slagged. No other guitar player seems to get this.
You left out the playing in Happenings Ten Years Time Ago! Police sirens and a bomb 💣 sound! I can clearly hear these references in Jimi Hendrix’s Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock.
@@reallyluckyoaklawn8306 At the risk of sounding like a Smart Alec, the Dave Clark 5 covered Rumble in 1964, which suggests to me that in certain musical circles it wasn't _that_ obscure a track.
@@reallyluckyoaklawn8306 As it happens I like Daves early chaotic playing, at a time when everyone seemed to want to sound clean like Hank Marvin. Who, incidentally, did a great rocking solo on Bongo blues in Expresso Bongo.
I think one would have had to heard it on the radio in 1966 to understand just how futuristic Shapes Of Things truly was. There was nothing like it. Hendrix hadn't done stuff like this on record until nearly a year later.
Even to this day I get chills from Jeff Beck's solo. And since my musical ear has never been in the same league I never realized until a few years ago the entire solo was played on the G-string. Very similar to my shock that Clapton's I'm So Glad solo on Fresh Cream was also entirely on the G-string. If only we had You Tube back in the 60s my group of H.S. freshmen might have won a few battle of the bands against our elders if my solos had been played better on these 2 songs and I was playing through a Les Paul and Marshall instead of a Goya Rangemaster, Ampeg Reverberocket 12 W cranked to 11 and a Gibson Fuzz. Hey, at least my Heart Full Of Soul sounded close.
Jeff's solo in Shapes Of Things in 1966 was when it all changed for me as a music fan. Oh, the whole year of 1966 was for me the Renaissance of pop music in my life but when I heard that solo my music interest soared from "fan" to someone who was forever drawn to the genre. It was cemented later in the year with the Beatles Revolver album. I played that record constantly for months and months.
Love this !! I have that 45rpm record. ❤ Back in the day, we knew the groups without participating knowing the individual artists. Nice to see this. Thanks for posting it. 😁
I was like 14-15 when these songs came out and, though blown away because the overall sound was unlike anything up until then, took for granted that Jeff Beck was able to mime a freaking Sitar! That is incredible that it never hit me until now at 72 years old! He was remarkable!
When I was discovering rock for the first time 50,000,000 years ago in 1971, I heard really heavy songs like White Room, 25 or 6 to 4 then Paranoid and Smoke on the Water and I was hooked. If you look back, however, a few years ealier at who captured the first really heavy sound on a giutar, I haven't heard anyone before Jeff Beck did on Heart full of Soul - in the true modern sense: the recording technology of the time including guitar amplification and the prehistoric distortion pedals which created a sound that was very modern even listening to it today (January, 2024). This song is a true touchtone of its time and also historically being in the right time and in the right place as the famous guitarists being interviewed here - Jeff Beck included - attest to. It think this heavy sound carried right through until at least 1978 or so in the sense of having a deep, fat, heaviness. I have nothing against any band that creates a heavy sound, but by the mid 1980s except for the odd band like Kyuss (Blues for the Red Sun) the recording technology trend was for a hotter more compressed recorded sound. I guess it really doesn't matter for those who like these bands, but it does put these early to mid seventies heavy bands like Budgie (Sqwawk) in a very unique atmosphere: one that, as mentioned, is a true touchtone for the ages.
The solo to heart full of soul was one of the first ones I could play clean and all the way through. Yes, I know beck has more complex stuff. Just saying it’s a good one for beginners to learn.
Here's a Factoid: Even though the Yardbirds released Heart Full of Soul in Britain a full month before Keith Richards even wrote "Satisfaction", their Label Epic didn't release Heart Full of Soul in the USA until a month after the Stones had already released Satisfaction there! In fact to this day a great number of American fans think it was the Stones and not the Yardbirds who unleashed the Fuzz on the world!
Without Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin would not have happened. I sometimes wish Jeff had joined Zeppelin as a second guitar - the things they could have done! But two great originators contained too much ego for a small Western town - "You better be out by sundown Bad Bart, this town ain't big enough fer the two of us!"
Jeff didn't have the ability to make songs. There's really few guitarists who couldn't make songs themselves. So he should have asked someone to make his songs. He had no his original songs in his life.
