Jeff Beck’s favourite albums of all time
When Jeff Beck passed away in 2023, the musical world entered a collective state of mourning. The English guitarist was a master of the blues, devoted his life to his craft, and performed on a global tour mere months before his passing.
“That’s a guy I admired a lot,” Keith Richards – a man who admires next to nobody – once said. “He’s a great player.” With skill, showmanship, and an originality that made him “so different from anybody,” according to Ritchie Blackmore, he stood out a six-string hero who changed what was possible in rock ‘n’ roll.
Beck was a guitar great who learned the tools of the trade while a member of The Yardbirds in the 1960s, the same as Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. However, he was far too much of a free spirit to be tied down to a band, and once Beck stepped out on his own, he truly established himself as a mercurial musician.
In addition to releasing over a dozen studio albums, including the timeless Blow By Blow in 1975, Beck was recruited by a series of high-profile artists, including Roger Waters, Tina Turner and Kate Bush, highlighting the high regard fellow musicians held him in.
Few people knew Beck more than Jimmy Page, who had known each other since they were students. Page opened up about his affection for Beck in the 2018 documentary Still On The Run: The Jeff Beck Story and perfectly summarised his brilliance, “Everybody respects Jeff.”
He humbly continued, “He’s an extraordinary musician and he’s developed a technique which is so complex, it’s just a beauty to behold and hear and to feel his playing. He’s having a conversation with you when he’s playing. It’s just he’s not singing.”
Admirably, Beck never courted fame and was thoroughly focused on creating the best art possible. While this personality trait stopped him from gaining attention on the same scale as some of his counterparts, Beck was a founding father of the rock ‘n’ roll scene, making London the most vibrant city in Europe during the 1960s.
While Beck always found himself on the peripheries of the mainstream’s adoration – his highest ever chart position was 14th with the single ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’ – he quietly went about his business and firmly wrote his name in history books. As a collaborator, he worked with the likes of Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, and even Johnny Depp.
Despite the musician no longer being with us, he continues to consciously and subconsciously inspire modern artists. Every guitarist worth their salt has studied Beck’s work and marvelled at his brilliance. Still, he was a music aficionado just like the rest of us, and had his heroes too.
Fortunately, before his passing, Beck provided a list of his six favourite albums of all time to the Express. It offers a captivating insight into his record collection and further shows his love of the blues, a genre that unsurprisingly dominated his selections.
Jeff Beck’s six favourite albums:
BB King – ‘Live At The Regal’
Beck’s first choice is Live at the Regal, a 1965 live album by the iconic blues guitarist BB King. Recorded at the Regal Theatre in Chicago, it is one of the genre’s definitive records, where King is in his crowning form, and every expert will own a cherished copy.
The body of work captures King at the peak of his powers in a way that a studio album never could. In a full-circle moment, Beck later recorded a live album at King’s New York venue, 2008’s Jeff Beck: Live at the B B King Blues Club.
“I was into blues around 1963 and stumbled across this,” Beck said on the record. “It’s an electrifying live performance of blues guitar and BB is a master of microphone technique. He brings his music down to a whisper then bursts out with amazing solos.”
Gene Vincent – ‘Gene Vincent & His Bluecaps’
The former Yardbirds guitarist took a trip to the 1950s with his second selection that arrived courtesy of Gene Vincent and his pioneering sophomore album, Gene Vincent & His Bluecaps. Vincent, a rockabilly legend, carved out a brave path that made it possible for artists of Beck’s generation to follow in his footsteps.
“When ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’ came out, I was hooked,” Beck noted on Vincent’s debut single back in 1956, which sent shockwaves around the world and influenced his own performance style. It was also adored by The Beatles and The Kinks proving how important it was in the formation of British rock.
“My older sister made the mistake of leaving this album around and I played it all day. No other band so encapsulated refined rockabilly. When my mother told me to take it off, I knew it was my kind of music,” he added.
Jan Hammer – ‘The First Seven Days’
Jan Hammer collaborated with Beck on many occasions, most notably on the 1977 live album Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live, recorded on their US tour. During that time, Beck’s respect blossomed for the jazz fusionist that much of the public know for his Miami Vice theme. But beyond that commercial moment, he was a fellow pioneer.
Despite Beck being a guitarist through and through, his selection, The First Seven Days, features no guitar contributions. Instead, Hammer opted to rely heavily upon synthesizers, a grand piano, percussion and electric violin, which struck a chord with Beck.
“The music on this is so graphic,” Beck stated. “Jan became my hero when he was in John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was playing bendy notes with a keyboard so it sounded like a guitar and I became obsessed with how he did it.”
<strong>The Jimi Hendrix Experience – ‘Are You Experienced?’</strong>
To round off his list of selections, Beck chose to include the ultimate member of rock royalty: Jimi Hendrix, and his classic debut album, Are You Experienced? The Seattle shredders starring style helped inspire Beck to push further with his own innovation.
The seminal album altered the trajectory of rock ‘n’ roll as Hendrix introduced the world to this whole new way of playing the guitar, and he remains the benchmark for the instrument. When Hendrix moved to London, his name was quickly on the whole music scene’s lips, including Beck, who became a fan after seeing him perform for the first time.
“Just before this came out, I saw Jimi live at an underground club. Dollybirds in Biba clothing were probably expecting a folk singer, but he came on and blew the house down,” Beck reminisced. “It shook all of us – me, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page. He was so good, we all wondered what we were going to do for our living.”
Miles Davis – ‘A Tribute To Jack Johnson’
A Tribute to Jack Johnson isn’t one of Miles Davis‘ best-known works, but it meant a lot to Beck nonetheless. Davis conceived the album for Bill Cayton’s documentary charting the life of the legendary boxer Jack Johnson, but it’s far more than a soundtrack. In fact, it may well be the jazz album that rockstar revere the most.
The record consists of two 25-minute tracks produced from recordings made at 30th Street Studio in New York City over a two-day period. Davis’ ability to record an album of this calibre in such a short time span epitomises his remarkable talent, and it also entered Beck’s life during a dark moment when he needed it most.
“This album got me out of the gutter after my split with Rod Stewart. I was working on a car outside my house when this amazing free-form shuffle came on the radio,” Beck revealed. “Davis’s trumpet comes in randomly with the melody and that freedom appealed to me. McLaughlin played on this as well and gave me my next career move,” he added.
Muddy Waters – ‘At Newport 1960 (Soul Jam)’
It says a lot about Beck that he is such a fan of live albums. Though he was certainly a studio whizz, it was on stage that Beck truly came alive, and listening to these kinds of records clearly gave him a connection to some of his most beloved guitarists.
But it wasn’t just a guitarist’s whim that Beck was enamoured by, for him, Muddy Waters had a vocal that could trump any guitarist. “Muddy Waters could sing with the worst guitar player and still sound amazing,” he explained, “because the voice is so deep and thick, with the bad grammar that blues singers have. This is live and he played up a storm.”
