Recently Bob Lefsetz wrote about an event he saw at USC and watched a number of performers with one being Jeff Beck. He described the excitement of hearing the guitar god play and the electricity in the air. The feeling Bob’s attempts to describe really can’t be put into words but all I’ll say is that it’s one of the greatest feelings in the word when you get those goose bumps when you are in the presence of an incredible musician firing on all cylinders. I am a huge fan of “guitar rock” and Jeff Beck is one of the true legends.

“Beck employs a guitar, but the sound that emanates from the speakers sounds like no other. His left hand is moving up the neck, the fingers on his right hand are plucking the notes. And unlike Edward Van Halen, Clapton or Hendrix, he doesn’t miss one fucking note. It’s like watching Nadia Comaneci, a legendary Olympic athlete, scoring all 10’s.”

“I stared in awe. I got that tingle that made me go to the show in the seventies. I needed more of this religion.”

“Do yourself a favor. Go see Jeff Beck. Because he’s not going to be here forever, and when he kicks it’ll be over. You’ll be kicking yourself. That you had a chance to see the greatest guitarist of all time and you blew it.”-Bob Lefsetz

Read Bob’s USC night here.

If you’re a music fan and not on Bob’s email list I highly suggest joining. He often opens the mailbag of the emails people send him and today was from Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools.

“It’s funny, but for the last few nights Jimmy Herring and I (well, most of the band actually) have been wearing out a dvd a friend passed along of Jeff Beck’s performance at Clapton’s ‘07 Crossroads festival. And when I say wearing it out I mean it! We watch it every night, wishing that we had more footage of the man.

I have never passed up an opportunity to see Jeff Beck and I have seen him with a few different bands. His incredibly emotive playing always manages to get it’s SOUL around the sound of the different musicians sharing the stage. Because Beck has matured to the point where he is talking with his guitar. Without even thinking about WHAT to play pure thought seems to ring out of that Strat: beauty, sadness, humor, and even primitive grunts and squonks are all part of his vocabulary.

And we are amazed….some of the rocking tunes have been part of our musical lives: Led Boots, Blue Wind, Freeway Jam…but it’s the newer ones that really get us: Nadia, Angel Footsteps, Big Block, Behind The Veil, and like you mentioned, his emotional rendering of A Day In The Life. Heck, last time I saw him live he encored with a duet version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow and it damn near made me cry.

But the real reason I felt the need to respond to your blog was because of a point you often bring up: when you really FEEL what a musician is trying to say you feel compelled to tell EVERYBODY you know about it. Even if it is something as wonderfully simple as rediscovering an old flame like Jeff Beck.

My point being that last Sunday we played at The All Good Festival in West Virginia and there we were, asking EVERYBODY we saw if they had heard Jeff Beck lately. And if they hadn’t we told them that they damn sure needed to! Oh to have been a fly on the wall when Jimmy Herring asked Derek Trucks if he had heard Jeff Beck lately. I mean these are two of the greatest and most expressive modern day guitarists talking about how NO ONE has the range of expression that Beck does.

So it was really pretty funny when your email blast came through late Sunday night. Sometimes things just happen at the right time.”

TRUTHfully,

Dave Schools