‘Edna’: Breaking down Jeff Beck’s final composition
In a long career that began all the way back in the early 1960s, Jeff Beck rapidly established himself as one of the greatest and most innovative guitarists of his era, with a completely unique and refreshing approach to the instrument that few others had demonstrated.
It has to be said, that while many consider him to be an icon of the ‘60s and ‘70s, there haven’t really been any guitarists who have come close to his level of mastery since, and the amount of musicians he has subsequently gone on to inspire is indicative of just how sublime he was.
While his work in groups such as The Yardbirds, The Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogart and Appice are all great indicators of how talented he was as a bandleader and how well he used to bounce his ideas off other accomplished players, it was often in his solo ventures where he was at his most impressive. With eleven astounding solo records to his name in a career that stretched over almost 50 years, there is plenty for listeners to dive into if they’re keen to hear some of Beck’s masterful musicianship.
Even though he was working until close to his death in 2023, with his final record being a collaborative record with actor Johnny Depp a year prior to his passing, it was in 2016 that he released his final solo studio album, with his final original compositions written solely by him appearing on this particular release.
The final solo recording that captured Jeff Beck’s brilliance
Loud Hailer saw Beck collaborating with the then-up-and-coming British rock group Bones UK, with Rosie Bones taking on lead vocal duties for the majority of the record, and guitarist Carmen Vandenburg having accompanied Beck as a secondary guitarist. While much of the record was written alongside these two additional musicians, who Beck had personally picked out as being one of his favourite new rock acts in the country at the time, there are a handful of compositions on the album that showcase his brilliance.
The album itself largely takes a rootsy approach to blues rock, but the song that marks Beck’s final solo composition to be released is a radically different-sounding track compared to the high-octane rock that makes up the majority of the record. ‘Edna’, an instrumental interlude that takes up just a minute of the listener’s time, is a technically fascinating psychedelic and almost ambient composition that sees Beck employ various sonic experiments akin to his earlier work, where guitars wail and almost sound like the purrs of animals.
There’s a great warmth to the track, even if it is over as soon as it seemingly begins, but it shows just how sonically adventurous Beck could be when composing in this manner. Considering the alarmingly different tone of the song compared to the rest of the record, it’s almost as though Beck is making a nod to his past and acknowledging that he’s still got the mark of an innovator, even if he was nearing the end of his life and career.
If regarded in this way, it’s a hauntingly beautiful way to bow out on an illustrious career, and while Loud Hailer is perhaps not the finest example of his prowess, this is a brief flash of just how astounding Beck could be, and is the final moment that helped create an everlasting legacy as one of Britain and the world’s finest guitarists to have ever lived.
