Definitely check out his Live at Ronnie Scott's. That was the first thing I had ever heard from him and it was mind blowing to see someone use a vibrato and volume knob like that.
Granted, it's definitely not what most would consider a starting place but still
I actually struggled with Blow By Blow - the playing is great, but the production is both dated and kind of overly clean, and Beck is such a controlled player that I think it came across as awfully low energy to me. "Because We Ended As Lovers" is terrific, but that was about it, for me.
What finally made Beck click for me, oddly enough, was a bootleg I found somewhere, of a 2009 performance at International Forum in Tokyo. It's a really clean recording of a great band going for it live, and by this point in his career Beck has ditched his Les Paul for a Strat and developed his ungodly whamy bar control - it's really pretty uncanny. And I think hearing a player of his caliber tearing it up live just has an energy to it that you lose in a polished, carefully constructed studio recording.
Watch Live at Ronnie Scott's or listen to the live album, it's fantastic.
Potentially he is my favourite guitarist. He really is one of the only old school 60's guys who continually improved over time instead of just resting on their laurels and playing the same shit for the next 40 years or so.
Like it or hate it, I think you have to respect his trem work for the sheer amount of control he has. With a vintage Fender trem, and not even an OFR, at that. It's mind blowing.
Even if you choose to do something different with it, there's a lot you can learn there.
This is why I don't like Beck right here. This song is 3 1/2 minutes of absolutely nothing but Jennifer B tapping and a killer bass player that gets to shine for like 6 seconds.
Beck is right up there with Santana as MOST OVERRATED GUITAR PLAYER EVER. :shrug:
And before people start with "way to pick out one song and bash it" shit, A LOT of his tunes are like this.
EDIT: Oh, and it must be mentioned that he played in "The Yardbirds". FFS who gives a fuck? icard:
Beck really has grown the most out of the British triumvirate that included Clapton and Page.
Blow By Blow, while sounding dated as hell, has a lot of great playing and ideas. The thing that kinda bugs me about Beck is that he'll have a great motif but then proceed to beat it to death. I think his soloing is very expressive bordering on sounding like a vocalist, which I think is pretty damn amazing. Some great footage of him with Tal Wilkenfeld and Vinnie Colaiuta. He's definitely worth putting some time into.
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