No miracles here: The Jimi Hendrix song that “shook” Jeff Beck
These days, we can’t think of a rock band without thinking of the lead guitarist. It feels like everything we know about rock music was built on top of the quality of a guitarist, who is often perceived as the coolest and most important part of any rock outfit. However, this wasn’t always the case, as Jeff Beck was one of the first musicians to pioneer this attitude.
When Beck initially joined The Yardbirds, he did so with the intention of bringing the guitar and, subsequently, the guitarist into a new light. He relied heavily on loud feedback and would play the guitar behind his head, letting loose while on stage. It was one of the first times that the guitarist became the frontman, as in The Yardbirds, people were turning up for the instrumental and the music more than the singer.
People have consistently expanded upon what already influences them, so when Hendrix took to the stage, he drew from a lot of what Jeff Beck was doing. Beck admired him for it, essentially elevating everything that guitarists did at the time. “I was embarrassed because I thought, ‘God, that should be me up there’,” he admitted, “I just hadn’t had the guts to come out and do it so flamboyantly, really. He just looked like an animal, played like an animal, and everybody went crazy.”
Beck and Hendrix developed a good friendship, jamming in New York and covering each other’s songs. “He’d start playing ‘Beck’s Bolero’, so I’d play rhythm for that, and then I’d play ‘Purple Haze’, and he’d play rhythm,” Beck recalls, “We’d just mess around and give people a good laugh, and of course, the mandatory twelve-bar blues would come into it somewhere.”
Beck wasn’t on his own in his admiration of Hendrix. He developed a massive reputation as a life-changing musician, and subsequently, people everywhere were keen on going to watch him perform. In his short run in the mainstream, he was considered the best guitarist in the world. Even now, decades later, people still talk about him as the greatest, and his influence as a guitarist and performer still lingers.
“His version of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and ‘Stone Free’. ‘Stone Free’ is the main thing – it’s amazing, simply amazing,” said Beck, remembering how much of an inspiration Hendrix became to him. Beck also remembers the darker days, though, as Hendrix’s skyrocketing to fame meant continued pressure, which eventually took its toll.
“There was also some bad stuff that he did,” said Beck, “That ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ on the Isle of Wight album, that business where I think his mind was gone a bit because of the intense pressure on him. That shook me. I said to myself, ‘Jimi, c’mon, go back into the studio and start some new stuff,’ because playing live to people expecting miracles every night was just too much for him, really.”
Hendrix had a superhuman ability when he played guitar, so much so that many people forgot he was human. There was so much pressure on him that he resorted to escapism, meaning substance abuse took over a lot of his life. “I could see him going down as a result of it; his playing suffered, and then, unfortunately, the worst happened.”
