The guitarist both Jimmy Page and David Gilmour agreed was the “most incredible”
The topic of the best guitar player in the world isn’t something that any casual rock fan takes lightly.
Music doesn’t need to be seen as a competition by any stretch, but if you get any casual guitar fans in a room together, the topic will always come up as to who did the most for the music community. And while Jimmy Page and David Gilmour could join that company among the all-time greats, they both had a great respect for those who were well above their capabilities.
Then again, both Page and Gilmour were also approaching their craft from totally different perspectives. Gilmour had the ability to create cinematic art pieces that made people want to cry whenever they heard his licks, but Page almost felt at war with his instrument at times. Led Zeppelin were a more gargantuan musical beast, but a lot of that came down to the layers that Page put on every song.
But there was at least one common element to their sound: the blues. Both of them knew that the best music before rock and roll came from blues musicians trying to bare their soul on record, but it also taught them that it was much more interesting to find their own voice than try to strictly copy everything that they had heard.
And while they quickly transformed into their own individual styles, there was no way that anyone was touching what Jeff Beck could do. He had already rubbed elbows with Page when working in The Yardbirds, but when looking at the work he had done on his solo records, he was always interested in learning the limitations of the instrument and where he could go beyond the traditional rock and roll format.
There was a touch of fusion in what he did and even bits and pieces of the blues still sprinkled in there, but when listening to his final records in the 2010s, compared to something like Blow By Blow feels like night and day. He never stopped learning, and that’s what made both guitar legends marvel at the kind of passion that he had for his craft every single time he picked up his six-string.
Although Gilmour was always a bit cagey about who he considered the best guitarist, he knew that he would be safe when picking Beck as his favourite, saying, “I have lots of favourite guitar players. I think the person I have admired the longest and most consistently is Jeff Beck in the guitar playing space.” While the Pink Floyd genius would also go on to call Beck “one of the most brilliant” guitarists, Page got to see the guitar wizard up close every single night with The Yardbirds.
He knew his humble beginnings, and what he did with the guitar was nothing short of mind-blowing in Page’s eyes, saying, “You listen to Jeff along the way and go, ‘Wow, he’s getting really good.’ He keeps getting better and better, and he still has all the way through. He leaves us mere mortals still wondering. Blow By Blow established him as the most incredible soloist of our time.”
It’s that adventurousness that also led a lot of people to keep following Beck over the years. Whereas most other bands taper off after a while and start to fall into a holding pattern, the joy of listening to Beck was never knowing what new trick he was going to do whenever he strapped on his guitar, which is the kind of talent that precious few guitarists could claim to have at the time or even now.
So while Gilmour and Page have their own classic solos in their arsenal, Beck is where every guitarist should go if they want a real education of the instrument. It’s easy for anyone to find their voice on the guitar, but Beck felt more like a mad scientist slowly testing out the limits of what could be done on the instrument.
