The guitarist Jeff Beck called “the first shockwave”
Jeff Beck sits among the lineage of great rock guitar players. There is a reason why seemingly every musician in 1960s and ‘70s London was, at one point, part of the Jeff Beck Group as they clamoured to play alongside him. But in the guitarist’s own eyes, everything only got interesting when one American player emerged.
It’s easy to guess who it is. “For me, the first shockwave was Jimi Hendrix,” Beck said, inevitably picking out Hendrix as the player that changed everything. It is in no way a surprising or left-field take, as it would be tough to find a guitar player out there who didn’t recognise the incredible impact and influence Hendrix had in only his short 27 years on the earth.
There is no end of quotes paying tribute to Hendrix as legends have queued up to say their piece. “He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them,” Bob Dylan said. “There was so much music in him. A great improviser playing with such freedom,” Herbie Hancock declared.
Even beyond his peers, Hendrix’s legacy proves vital as people like The Cure’s Robert Smith, who is far removed from the guitarist’s 1960s American rock and roll circle, said it was him that made him want to be a musician, stating, “Hendrix was the first person who made me think it might be good to be a singer and a guitarist — before that I wanted to be a footballer.”
However, to Jeff Beck, the reason why Hendrix is so often and enduringly praised is because he utterly reinvigorated the game. Calling him a “shockwave”, he paints the guitarist as a ground-shaking, history-changing act after which nothing was the same. He also says that those shocks were felt everywhere, especially across the pond in London. “That was the major thing that shook everybody up over here,” he said, “Even though we’d all established ourselves as fairly safe in the guitar field, he came along and reset all of the rules in one evening.”
Talking about Hendrix’s London debut on October 25th, 1966, at Scotch of St James, Beck remembered that night as one that changed his local scene. Eric Clapton was in the crowd having his mind blown, The Who’s management was there checking him out, and Paul McCartney claims to have been there too. In the coming weeks and years, the entire London crowd, including the Beatles and Stones, all came along to Hendrix’s gigs to check him out, leaving absolutely astounded by what they saw, encouraging the country’s best players to do better.
After seeing one of his early shows, Beck recalled of his first Hendrix experience by saying, “He came on, and I went, ‘Oh, my God.’ He had the military outfit on and hair that stuck out all over the place. They kicked off with (Bob Dylan’s) ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, and I thought, ‘Well, I used to be a guitarist.’” But later down the line, the two players would jam together in Los Angeles, with Hendrix even playing Beck’s guitar.
For Beck, Hendrix’s arrival changed everything. But even since his sad departure from the world when he was still so young, his legacy still inspires people today.
