Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck on Jimi Hendrix [Telegraph UK] :


"The thing I noticed when I saw him was not only his amazing blues but his physical assault on the guitar. ... Me, Eric [Clapton], and Jimmy [Page], we were cursed because we were from Surrey. We all looked like we’d walked out of a Burton’s shop window. There was Jimi with his military jacket, his hair about 14 feet in the air, playing with his teeth. We would have loved to have done that. He hit me like an earthquake when he arrived. I had to think long and hard about what I did next. The wounds were quite deep, actually, and I had to lick them on my own."

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/04/anna_paquin_outs_self_as.html

Des informations intéressantes dans cet interview pour Guitar World:

I’ve read about Jimi Hendrix coming every night for a week to jam with the Jeff Beck Group at the Scene Club in New York City. Can you describe what that was like and your relationship with Jimi? — Charles Pizer
We did six nights in a row there [in June 1968]. The initial gig that broke us in America was at the Fillmore East with the Grateful Dead. But after that success and the great write ups, we then had to go down-market at a small club for six nights. It gave everyone a chance to watch what they had just seen again, six times in a row. We didn’t really want to be scrutinized like that, in case we just happened to get lucky the night we played the Fillmore, which was quite good.
The first night at the Scene, Jimi didn’t show up, but he came for the rest of the five nights. Around about the halfway mark, he’d come in from whatever recording he’d been doing. The buzz was incredible: the place was packed anyway, but when he came in they were standing on each other’s shoulders. Sometimes he didn’t have his guitar, so he would turn one of my spare guitars upside down and played that way, and I actually played bass at one point. I’ve got a photograph of that. Thank god someone took a picture, because there’s hardly any record of those goings-on.

Around that time, Jimi and I played a secret gig, a benefit at [drug rehabilitation center] Daytop Village. Jimi drove me up in his Corvette…that was the best moment. His driving was terrible. We were stuck in traffic in the middle of New York City, and he had this brand-new 427 Corvette boiling over, and I thought, I hope it doesn’t blow up right here! [laughs] I was thinking, Why did you buy a Corvette in Manhattan?
I wasn’t looking for compliments, but before I met Jimi someone told me that he knew all about my recordings with the Yardbirds. He had to, because for someone so utterly flamboyant and played so inventively, I knew he was one for listening out. He wasn’t one of those staid, insular kinds of blues players; he would listen to everything. And that alone thrilled me. He’d also seen the Yardbirds live in 1965/1966 when he was playing sideman to Little Richard, I believe.
It was amazing to see him play, and I’d met him before I saw him perform. I saw him at this tiny little club in London, with all of these “dolly birds,” which is what they called girls dressed in their miniskirts. I think they all thought he was going to be a folky, Bob Dylan–type of character [laughs], and he blew the place apart with his version of [Dylan’s] “Like a Rolling Stone.”
I just went, “Ah…this is so great!” It overshadowed any feelings of inferiority or competiveness. It was so amazing. To see someone doing what I wanted to do… I came out a little crestfallen, but on the positive side, here was this guy opening big doors for us. Instead of looking on the negative side and saying, “We’re finished,” I was thinking, No, we’ve just started! I was delighted to have known him for the short time that I did. It was the magical watering hole of the Speakeasy, the club where we hung out in London, that enabled that to happen. It was the one place you could go and be guaranteed to see Eric or Jimi and have fun playing. Those places don’t seem to exist anymore.

In the late Sixties in the States we were all very aware of a “British blues explosion,” but was there a sense in England that the music was really expanding, and that what came next—the musical adventurousness of Cream and Jimi Hendrix — was on the horizon? — Kate McCrae
For me, the first shockwave was Jimi Hendrix. That was the major thing that shook everybody up over here. Even though we’d all established ourselves as fairly safe in the guitar field, he came along and reset all of the rules in one evening. Next thing you know, Eric was moving ahead with Cream, and it was kicking off in big chunks.
But me, I was left with nothing. That was the hurtful part, because I didn’t have anything to come back at them with. Time went by, and I scraped by with Cozy [Powell, drummer for 1971’s Rough and Ready and 1972’s Jeff Beck Group albums], and luckily enough I got with BBA [Beck, Bogert and Appice, in 1973], which was a power trio. That helped, because they were so enthusiastic, and it was like Cream on acid!
Then George Martin comes in and we start mellowing down a bit and making more “classy” sort of music, I suppose you could say, with [1975’s] Blow by Blow.

Excellent.  
Merci sequelenoise.

Excellent!

Beck-Ola
Jeff est beaucoup plus sincère que Page ( ) et Clapton ( ) dans sa musique/carrière. Il a mieux digérer l'explosion hendrixienne, à l'instar de Pete.
Un class act.

One song, "Scared for the Children," has strong echoes of Jimi Hendrix.
JB: It inadvertently came out. It's [Hendrix's] "Angel – four notes [hums the lick]. There's no escape. I've never loved Hendrix more than I do now. I've been listening to some excellent stuff that I'd never heard before, a Royal Albert Hall show [in 1969] – same songs like "Red House" but unbelievable playing. Ever since I learned the chords to "Little Wing," nobody can shut me up.

When did you first see Hendrix perform?
JB: It was probably one of the first shows he did [in London]. It was in a tiny downstairs club in Queensgate, It was a fashion club – mostly girls, 18 to 25, all dolled up, hats and all. Jimi wasn't known then. He came on, and I went, "Oh, my God." He had the military outfit on and hair that stuck out all over the place. They kicked off with [Bob Dylan's] "Like a Rolling Stone," and I thought, "Well, I used to be a guitarist."

Did you get to know Hendrix well?
JB: As well as you could in the fleeting moments. When the Jeff Beck Group played the Scene [in New York in 1968], he was there most nights. What an education, having him come in with his guitar. One night he played mine. He didn't have his guitar. I ended up playing bass. There's a photo. Jimi's in the shot, [bassist] Ron Wood is in the background. You don't even see me in the picture.

merci Ayler pour l'article.
Quelqu'un connait cette photo?

Jeff Beck : "When I saw Jimi we knew he was going to be trouble. And by ‘we’ I mean me and Eric [Clapton], because Jimmy [Page] wasn’t in the frame at that point. I saw him at one of his earliest performances in Britain, and it was quite devastating. He did all the dirty tricks – setting fire to his guitar, doing swoops up and down his neck, all the great showmanship to put the final nail in our coffin. I had the same temperament as Hendrix in terms of ‘I’ll kill you’, but he did in such a good package with beautiful songs.

Reporters got the number of my flat the day he died. I was suicidal at the time, because my girlfriend had dumped me. And to have to the deal with a call saying “Jimi Hendrix is dead. How do you feel about that?” At first I thought it was a bloody hoax, but as the day wore on I realised it was tragically true.

I don’t want to say that I knew him well, I don’t think anybody did, but there was a period in London when I went to visit him quite few times. He invited me down to Olympic studios and I gave him a bottleneck. That’s what he plays on Axis: Bold As Love. We hooked up in New York and played at Steve Paul’s club The Scene."

Source : https://www.loudersound.com/features/interview-jeff-beck-on-hendrix-page-clapton

Grande classe M Jeff Beck !

Speaking of incredible technique, when did you first become aware of Hendrix?

I was in a guitar shop in London. It was probably the last time I've been in a guitar shop, actually [laughs). I'd just dropped in to see one of the guys who worked there, and he said, "Have you seen Jimi Hendrix?" And I said "No." So he said, "I just happened to be at a club last night where he was, and you have to see this guy." Well, coming from him, who liked nobody except these dusty old jazz guys, I figured I'd better go down and see this guy. So I went, and he'd understated it a lot -- Hendrix was a lot better than he made out. I was embarrassed because I thought, "God, that should be me up there" [Iaughs] -- I just hadn't had the guts to come out and do it so flamboyantly, really. He just looked like an animal, played like an animal, and everybody went crazy.

I'm just too withdrawn a character to do that. I mean, his upbringing was totally different from mine: He had so much impetus to get out there and do it, coming from where he did. I remember reading once about him eating a candy bar with little cockroach bites out of it. Still, I bitterly regret not having exploited my style a bit more, because there was a lot of stuff he did actually get from me, which he admitted -- the Yardbirds stuff, with the freaking out and feedback and all. Then there was that sensual element, the power of the sound he got from those heavy, heavy strings he used: I think his first string was like a normal third. You had to have his hands to play them.

Did you ever have the chance to jam with him?

Oh yeah. Talk to anybody who was around New York in '68. He was hot then, one of the biggest things ever, like Prince is now. We used to play in this place called the Scene. We jammed several nights, and it was the best time I can ever remember, for that kind of impromptu jamming.

What kind of stuff were you doing?

It was really a jam, we wouldn't have anything at all worked out. He'd start playing "Beck's Bolero," so I'd play rhythm guitar for that, and then I'd play "Purple Haze" and he'd play rhythm. We'd just mess around and give people a good laugh, and of course the mandatory twelve-bar blues would come into it somewhere.

Was there anything that he did that made you say, "God, I wish I'd thought of that?"

Oh, sure. I don't mean to be blowing my own trumpet, it's just that some of the little licks he did came from the Yardbirds records. That was a compliment; I could never thank him enough for doing that. But what really amazed me about him was that he lived for playing, and I didn't: he was a playaholic [laughs). I have to have a daily shot of it, but I wouldn't do it all day like he did.

Source : https://www.guitarworld.com/features/jeff-beck-discusses-gear-technique-and-hendrix-1985-guitar-world-interview

Un interview de Jeff Beck ou il parle entre autres de Jimi Hendrix et d'un concert secret
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/jeff-beck-relationship-eric-clapton-201242165.html

J'ai lu que Jimi Hendrix venait tous les soirs pendant une semaine jouer avec le Jeff Beck Group au Scene Club de New York. Pouvez-vous nous décrire ce que cela représentait et votre relation avec Jimi ? – Charles Pizer

« Nous avons joué six soirs de suite là-bas [en juin 1968]. Le premier concert qui nous a fait connaître aux États-Unis a eu lieu au Fillmore East avec les Grateful Dead. Mais après ce succès et les critiques élogieuses, nous avons dû nous rendre dans un petit club plus modeste pendant six soirs. Cela a permis à tout le monde de revoir ce qu'ils venaient de voir, six fois de suite. Nous ne voulions pas vraiment être scrutés de cette façon, au cas où nous aurions eu de la chance le soir où nous avons joué au Fillmore, qui était plutôt bon.

« Le premier soir au Scene, Jimi n'est pas venu, mais il est venu pour les cinq autres soirs. Vers la moitié du concert, il revenait de l'enregistrement qu'il était en train de faire. L'ambiance était incroyable : l'endroit était déjà bondé, mais quand il est arrivé, ils étaient debout l'un sur l'autre.

« Parfois, il n'avait pas sa guitare, alors il retournait une de mes guitares de réserve et jouait comme ça. J'ai même joué de la basse à un moment donné. J'ai une photo de ça. Heureusement que quelqu'un a pris une photo, car il n'y a pratiquement aucune trace de ces événements. »

« À cette époque, Jimi et moi avons joué en secret, pour une soirée de charité au Daytop Village [centre de désintoxication pour toxicomanes]. Jimi m'a conduit dans sa Corvette… c'était le meilleur moment. Sa conduite était épouvantable. Nous étions coincés dans les embouteillages au milieu de New York, et il avait cette toute nouvelle Corvette 427 qui bouillonnait, et je me suis dit : "J'espère qu'elle n'explosera pas ici !" [ rires ]. Je me suis demandé : "Pourquoi as-tu acheté une Corvette à Manhattan ?"

« Je ne cherchais pas à être complimenté, mais avant de rencontrer Jimi, quelqu'un m'a dit qu'il savait tout de mes enregistrements avec les Yardbirds. Il devait le savoir, car pour quelqu'un d'aussi flamboyant et de si inventif, je savais qu'il était du genre à écouter. Il n'était pas un de ces joueurs de blues austères et insulaires ; il écoutait tout. Et cela seul m'a enthousiasmé.
« Il avait aussi vu les Yardbirds en concert en 1965/1966, quand il jouait en tant que sideman de Little Richard, je crois. C'était incroyable de le voir jouer, et je l'avais rencontré avant de le voir sur scène. Je l'ai vu dans un tout petit club à Londres, avec toutes ces "dolly birds", c'est comme ça qu'ils appelaient les filles en minijupe. Je pense qu'ils pensaient tous qu'il allait être un personnage folk, genre Bob Dylan [ rires ], et il a fait exploser la salle avec sa version de Like a Rolling Stone .

« Je me suis dit : "Ah, c'est génial !" Cela a éclipsé tout sentiment d'infériorité ou de compétitivité. C'était incroyable. Voir quelqu'un faire ce que je voulais faire... J'en suis ressorti un peu découragé, mais du côté positif, c'était que ce type nous ouvrait de grandes portes. Au lieu de voir le côté négatif et de dire : "C'est fini", je me suis dit : "Non, on vient juste de commencer !"

« J’ai été ravi de l’avoir connu pendant le peu de temps que j’ai passé avec lui. C’est le bar magique du Speakeasy, le club où nous traînions à Londres, qui a permis que cela se produise. C’était le seul endroit où l’on pouvait aller et être sûr de voir Eric ou Jimi et de s’amuser en jouant. Ces endroits ne semblent plus exister. »

ça serait aujourd'hui, nous aurions droit à tout plein de petits films et de photographies de ces jams de ces soirées privées !