“Any music you want”: The nation Jeff Beck said all music originates from
I don’t want to blow your mind or anything, but when it comes to music, the 1960s were a very different time from today. It might sound silly to say that, but something I think we take for granted when talking about the music of that decade is how the very idea of pop music as an art form was something still in its infancy. Even an artist as seemingly straightforward as Jeff Beck is a perfect example of this.
Today, we look at virtuoso blues players of the day as something dime-a-dozen. We’ve all grown up in a world informed by those players, and we probably know someone personally who can pick up a Stratocaster and shred ‘Beck’s Bolero’ with a moment’s notice. The difference between now and then is that the likes of Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and the like were all doing it first.
They didn’t have people they could replicate. Sure, if you were really in the know and had the disposable income to spend on imported records, you could pick up a Big Bill Broonzy or Buddy Guy record. However, music just wasn’t as available back then as it is now, and even if you did have access to it, if you wanted to push the boat out with music like that, there was barely anyone showing the way forward.
All this to say that our heroes of the 1960s took inspiration from anywhere they could, oftentimes in the most literal sense. George Harrison famously fell head over heels for Indian culture in the mid-1960s, with particular focus on the music, and he’s not alone. In an interview with Steve Newton conducted in 2001, Jeff Beck didn’t just praise Indian music or credit it with inspiring his own; he talked about it as the starting point for all music in general.
How did Jeff Beck talk about Indian music?
In the interview, he said, “I think everything comes from Indian music. If you listen carefully to the way they play quartertones… You know, you can pretty much find any kind of music you want in Indian music, especially the new stuff that they’re comin’ out with.” Which is absolutely true. The scales used in Indian classical music styles like Carnatic and Hindustani music offer up many more sonic avenues than traditional scales in western music.
He didn’t stop there either. A few decades later, Beck was making music informed by Bulgarian folk music. In an interview with Guitar Player magazine, he said, “I got the Bulgarian Women’s Choir CD and I thought, Well, maybe I should just sit and listen to this for about ten years. That CD is the most agonisingly wonderful thing. It had nothing to do with rock and roll, but it impressed me just as much — a part of my psyche moves into tears every time I hear it.”
He would go on to have the vocal parts of that album transposed to sheet music so he could inform his guitar playing with their new and exciting melodic styles. A kind of musical daring and willingness to be inspired by all the music that could only come from the heady days of the 1960s.
