The “maverick” guitarist David Gilmour thinks nobody can match
Like many of his peer virtuosos, including Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour learned to play the guitar by ear. While the former Pink Floyd guitarist absorbed fundamental theory by reading a Pete Seeger guitar tutoring book in his early teens, he sharpened his talent and unique style by listening to some of his favourite guitarists and emulating their intricate styles and tones.
Shortly after Gilmour’s induction to Pink Floyd in 1968, the band’s early leader, Syd Barrett, became unreliable amid his derailing psychedelic abuse and was regrettably asked to leave the band. Gilmour gradually incorporated a distinctive style into proceedings as the band developed in the late 1960s. However, at first, he earned merit within the group for his astonishing ability to emulate Barrett’s style after such a short period of study.
As Pink Floyd developed from the psychedelic rock of the latter Barrett years towards the more refined sound of 1973’s prog-rock powerhouse, The Dark Side of the Moon, Gilmour’s lead guitar style became a sonic integration of his most cherished luminaries.
During an interview with Guitar Classics in 1985, Gilmour listed some of his biggest influences as a musician. “I was a blues fan, but I was an all-around music fan,” he pondered. “For me, it was Lead Belly through B.B. King and later Eric Clapton, Roy Buchanan, Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen and anyone you care to mention.”
Gilmour has also long declared his advocacy for Hendrix. Speaking during his visit to BBC Radio 2’s ‘Tracks Of My Years’ in 2006, he picked out ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ as one of his all-time favourites and recalled when he first heard the late icon: “Jimi Hendrix, fantastic,” he began. “I went to a club in South Kensington in 1966, and this kid got on stage with Brian Auger and the Trinity and [held] the guitar the other way around and started playing. Myself and the whole place were with their jaws hanging open”.
He added: “I went the next day to the record shops, and I said, ‘You’ve got anything by this guy Jimi Hendrix?’ and they said, ‘Well, we’ve got a James Hendrix’. He hadn’t yet done anything. So, I became rather an avid fan waiting for his first release. Also, this is one of his beautiful ballads that I really love.”
Although Hendrix is widely regarded as the most innovative blues-rock guitarist of his generation, Gilmour singled out Jeff Beck as the most daring guitar hero. “He is a maverick,” Gilmour said in the 2018 documentary Jeff Beck: Still On the Run. “A maverick guitar player who doesn’t like to repeat himself. Who takes big risks all the time and has done all the way throughout his career,” Gilmour said.
As Gilmour notes, Beck’s talent has often been shrouded by his unwavering vision for artistic integrity and creative exploration. It’s noted that he was the only guitarist to have turned down an offer to join The Rolling Stones after Mick Taylor’s departure in 1974. As a former member of The Yardbirds, The Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice, becoming a Stone would have been a serious move for commercial exposure, but that’s not where Beck’s heart was.
In fact, Beck might well be considered Gilmour’s favourite guitarist of all time. “I have lots of favorite guitar players. Probably the person whom I have admired the longest and the most consistent is Jeff Beck, in the guitar playing stakes. A lovely guy,” explained Gilmour in an interview.
It was Beck’s presence on the stage that really stuck out for Gilmour. “Performing live, you try to get it right, and you also try to be brave. It doesn’t matter if you drop a clunker. The record lasts, the performance is transitory. They have different priorities. I’m an enormous fan of Jeff Beck because he is not afraid to screw up. People who are tend to get boring,” Gilmour told Guitar Classics in 1985.
Watch Jeff Beck and David Gilmour perform together below.
