Credit: Wikimedia

Watch Billy Joel cover ‘People Get Ready’ in tear-jerking tribute to Jeff Beck

Sat 14 January 2023 17:52, UK

Since Jeff Beck passed away on January 10th, the music world has paid tributes to the former Yardbirds guitar icon. When Billy Joel took to the stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden for his monthly concert, he regaled the crowd with the classic ‘People Get Ready’ in homage to Beck.

“He was a musician that I always loved. He was the best. Jeff Beck just passed away,” an emotional Joel can be heard eulogising in the fan-shot footage. “I couldn’t let the night go by without doing something by Jeff.”

The songwriter chose to champion a tune from his Flesh record with Rod Stewart, ‘People Get Ready’. The song perfectly shows how seamlessly Beck could blend styles. As Alice Cooper said: “Eric Clapton is a great blues player, Jimmy Page is a great rock player, Jeff Beck is a great guitar player.”

Curtis Mayfield might have originally written the song, but Beck shines through it with his mournful fretwork. Joel’s stellar band try their best to mimic this outcry and soaring arrangement. And the whole thing comes together as a tender tribute. They also ended the set with an impromptu jam of ‘Going Down’ with Joel joking, “We should have rehearsed this today.”

Earlier in the week, Joel also took to Twitter to share his own written tribute. “I just heard the sad news that the great virtuoso guitarist, Jeff Beck, has died,” he wrote. “He was one of my heroes.”

Joel continued: “I was fortunate to meet him recently and I’m very grateful now that I was able to tell him how much I admired his musical skill. This is the end of an era.”

You can check out the tribute below.