Michele loves the blues

Michele loves the blues

 

There's a thing Michele probably doesn't know I love about her

I love that she loves the blues

She is part of my conscience

Its sweet to watch her listen to the blues

 

Michele said she didn't know the Lemon Song by Led Zep

Realizing what the song must be about, she appeared a little grossed out.

I was playing Let Me Love You Baby from Truth by Jeff Beck with Rod Stewart.

July 1967

Trying to explain how Jeff invented Led Zep six months before there was Led Zep

She was diggin the song

She really digs Jeff Beck

That girl loves the blues

She let me know that she was never really into Led Zep

 

Derek Trucks was on 1010xl with Rick Belew

Rick asked him for a Jeff Beck story

Derek said they were at the White House about to play with B.B. King

They were in line at security and he has a photo of Jeff leaning against his daughter Sophia when she was about six

He said he sent the picture to her knowing Jeff was a little ill

Michele loves the blues 

The walk to the Circle K is about as far as I would have to walk to find a subway station in its hinterlands of Brooklyn

I knew I would run out of cigarettes before I ran out of beer and I definitely was not driving

So I bundled up, found a scarf, wore the Chuck Busey jacket for a little but moved on the leather with gloves

The winter jacket is great but I knew it was a little bulky for a mile walk

I probably should have added one more layer under the leather

Like my new sweater

But I didn't.

I was still warm.

Brought my earbuds, just in case I wanted to listen to Slaughterhouse 5 chapter 3

 

Its really a nice walk. Especially at night

Lots of little landmarks along the way

I remember Chuck walked this way when he discovered one day that there was no lighter in the house.

At some point on walk I realized I had all the lighters in my pocket and Chuck would discover this and be irritated.

So along my way I see someone 100 yards away probably on a bicycle

He kind of ducked in to a little place and then emerged

He didn't make eye contact but I could tell he wasn't necessarily dangerous

We went the opposite direction at first but circled back in my general direction

I eyed him again. Could immediately tell he's probably harmless

I say, Hey man, how's it going?

 

Homeless 5 years 33 yo. A little smaller than me.

Just got a job

He never asked me for money

I think he just needed to talk to someone

Hey, it's gonna be cold as fuck tonight

Yeah I know

I asked him how he became homeless

He said it all his fault

He said he wound up jail. Drugs. Really?

When he gets out he thought his family would support but he basically got disowned

He asked me for a light

He'd been saving a cigarette

 

Now this guy is on a bicycle with all his belongings

When he first saw me and attempted to hide, he was a lot more afraid of me

That's why he hid, sussed me out and then got back on his bike

 

So at some point we're walking and scooting along when his stuff on his bike starts falling

I say,You need a hand?

Yeah can you hold this pizza box? It was a stack of stuff

I held while he gathered his other stuff up including a huge piece of wood that I knew was meant for his campground

I commented on it. He said yeah its a dried out piece

After this he was still in that bicycle lane. I told him, Get out of that. It's not safe

We talked more. It was quite pleasant.

 

We got to the corner of Monument and St Johns Bluff

We both needed to cross

I asked him if it was safe

He said yes and we began to cross together

In the middle of the street I said, Let's stay together. We look like two homeless guys, I said.

Knowing there is strength in numbers

 

The fear I saw in that guys eyes at Popeyes when I had him by the throat

He knew I could kill him. Right now.

 

When we parted ways at the Circle K I asked him if he had a lighter

He said, I think so back at the camp

I said, Take this lighter

We wished each other well and departed

 

I spent much of this walk feeling like it was winter 1983 in Manhattan

Cold is fun if you can stay warm

 

I love how the God that I doubt gives me experiences that affirm his love for me.

 

Jeff Beck taught me to be me

 Jeff Beck taught me to be me

To have no fear at all

When other musicians fear me

I don't know why

They never know what I'm about to do

Neither do I

Jeff Beck Spinal Tap

 There is no Spinal Tap without Jeff Beck

Nigel Tufnel is based on Jeff Beck

The amps go to Eleven

D minor is the saddest of all keys

Lick My Love Pump

Don't even look at the guitar

Can't you hear the sustain?

News Flash Beck's Bolero was written by Jimmy Page

 News flash

Beck's Bolero was written by Jimmy Page

And recorded by Beck Page Jones Moon Hopkins

Though no one can agree on who the producer was

Jeff Beck Greensleeves

 I'm not that crazy about his Greensleeves but it was 1967 and Steve Howe hadn't been invented yet

Jeff Beck Hendrix

To be like Hendrix without compromising himself

Perhaps to live longer

Jeff Beck

I first heard The Shapes of Things by Bowie on Pinups when my brother brought the album home from college

I didn't know I was essentially listening to Jeff Beck back then.

I would not really notice his name for several years

Until after I thought myself a guitarist

 

But before I could play a scale or lead on guitar I already had Mick Ronson's treatment of Beck on that Yardbirds song by Bowie firmly memorized.

 

I've noticed that I can think of a memorized melody or chord change from before I learned to play music and deliver it even now, with no guitar in my hands.

 

I first discovered Jeff Beck from this guitarist friend of mine in Palatka.

We weren't in the same band.

We weren't even at the same level

He wished he could play guitar like me

 

Later on he would get his doctorate at Columbia Med and wind up living in Malibu where he said he truly found himself

He also said if you want a really good doctor, go see my wife

But he was a real blast

He was already listening to Beck and Jan Hammer

 

So one day he says

You have to have some mushrooms

Yada yada

I'm tripping on mushrooms with the lights off listening to Beck live and painting with a cigarette like Picasso in that amazing photo of his.

I noticed that Beck plays sounds

 

For so many years

To model my guitar playing after Ronson and Beck

Consciously or not

When I play electric guitar its not often that I don't think of Beck

When you're trying to hit those high notes

With his assuredness

When you play just the right jazz note with the right tone.

He always gave me hope

That maybe I could play like him and myself if I kept going

If studied and listened more

 

I guess with a good dose of mushrooms you too can listen to Jeff Beck without ever feeling jealous.

He has been described as a guitar player's guitar player

 

You, meaning me, can't listen to him without feeling his joy of being a guitarist

It's contagious

I could listen to him play anything

He seems to be a master of all styles and then he invented Jeff Beck

No one else has done this

 

A few months ago I decided to do the deep dive into Beck

Looking up his discography

Starting with the Yardbirds and going into his solo efferts

I kind of made me listen to Peter Green from the early Fleetmac Mac as well as the early John Mayall

That's kind of a lot of work

Listening to too much blues is a chore

Just saying

 

But Beck makes listening to blues like being a happy butterfly

His blues is more cheerful than sad

And its not a chore

 

Without alluding to too much about my thoughts about his last album

He loved working with a great singer

His work with Imelda May on the Les Paul tribute is par excellence

He displays his vast array of skills as a sideman and never forgets to play the song

 

When I sent my wife the video of him and Tom Jones doing Love Letters

I felt it was about as sweet as he could be

He takes a small solo

 

A friend of mine who works for the Florida Theatre once went to the basement below the incredibly historical stage with Jeff Beck to have some champagne for Elvis

 

Live at Ronnie Scott's

November 2007

He was 63

 

One thing you must remember about Jeff Beck's playing is that he was totally freaked out by Jimi Hendrix

It infected him and he was never the same

Trying to sort himself out from King Jimi and what he may have in his own mind

It was difficult

 

Like when guys my age encountered King Eddie the Van Halen

You either find yourself or get frustrated trying to be like him

 

His thing with Jimi shows up in the Ronnie Scott sessions

I almost feel for him

 

He loved controlled chaos in music

He said he went to see Cirque du Solis and thought, if I could just play guitar like that....

 

Looking for Another Pure Love on Talking Book by Stevie Wonder

His solo has a callout from Stevie, Do It Jeff

Released on the album Oct 27 1972

 

I've never heard this

Beck is all over this song

Slide whatever, Stevie just kept it somewhere in the mix until the solo

 

Jeff wrote the Superstition riff

That shouldn't be a surprise

 

I thought I was going to go to Truth

29 July 1968

Led Zeppelin 1 was

12 January 1969

 

From track one Shapes of Things with Rod Stewart on vocals, it is clear that Led Zeppelin were no new thing

By track two it's unclear if Beck or Page were stealing from each other or not

Personally I think Beck got there first by six months

With Rod Stewart

Let me love you baby is Lemon Song

By that point all British bass players were trying to sound like John Paul Jones

 

I guess all Zep fans should be happy about Truth

Else there is no Zep

 

Then on Bolero

Beck Page Jones and Moon

 

The solo on Rock my Plimsoul

Epic

 

There was a time I thought average guitarists around me had abandoned the major third as a possibility in improvisation

Especially in their blues

It never made sense to me why they would do that

 

Blow by Blow was recorded October 1974 and released in 1975

Produced by George Martin

Freeway Jam

Because We've Ended as Lovers

She's a Woman... the Beatles cover

I loved that from the start

I thought that was a real funky track

Controlled chaos

 

When I told my son that this day felt a little like the day John Lennon died

I thought he might be an immortal

He is now his own weird Segovia

He can only be compared to, because no one else like him has ever existed

 

He has so many ways to play guitar happy

In summation I must say

Freeway Jam live with Jan Hammer 1977 is about as happy as it gets.

And his most controlled chaos