June 24: Happy 75th Birthday Jeff Beck

I don’t care about the rules. In fact, if I don’t break the rules at least 10 times in every song then I’m not doing my job properly.
~Jeff Beck

Every time I listen to Jeff Beck my whole view of guitar changes radically. He’s way, way out, doing things you never expect.
~Brian May

Jimmy Page inducts Jeff Beck at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009:

Jeff Beck accepts the award at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Induction:

Jeff Beck (& Jimmy Page) performing @ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2009:

From Wikipedia:

Birth name	Geoffrey Arnold Beck
Also known as	A.N. Other
Born	24 June 1944 (age 75) Wallington, Surrey England, United Kingdom
Genres	Blues rock, jazz fusion, instrumental rock, hard rock, electronica, progressive rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, actor
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, bass guitar, double bass, piano
Years active	1964–present
Labels	EMI, Epic
Associated acts	The Yardbirds, The Jeff Beck Group, The Honeydrippers, Beck, Bogert & Appice, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Big Town Playboys, Upp, Eric Clapton, Suzi Quatro, Duff McKagan, Tal Wilkenfeld
Website	www.jeffbeck.com

Geoffrey Arnold “Jeff” Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds (Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page are the other two). Beck also formed The Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice.

Seal & Jeff Beck – “Like A Rolling Stone”:

He was ranked 5th in Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” and the magazine has described him as “one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock”. MSNBC has called him a “guitarist’s guitarist”. Beck has earned wide critical praise and received the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance six times and Best Pop Instrumental Performance once. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a member of the Yardbirds (1992) and as a solo artist (2009).

A full Concert from Tokyo in 1999:

While he was as innovative as Jimmy Page, as tasteful as Eric Clapton, and nearly as visionary as Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck never achieved the same commercial success as any of those contemporaries, primarily because of the haphazard way he approached his career. After Rod Stewart left the Jeff Beck Group in 1971, Beck never worked with a charismatic lead singer who could have helped sell his music to a wide audience. Furthermore, he was simply too idiosyncratic, moving from heavy metal to jazz fusion within a blink of an eye. As his career progressed, he became more fascinated by automobiles than guitars, releasing only one album during the course of the ’90s. All the while, Beck retained the respect of fellow guitarists, who found his reclusiveness all the more alluring. — Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

Albums of the day: Truth & Beck-Ola:

– Egil & Hallgeir