"It's a lot easier to appreciate Jeff Beck if you're a guitar player. He just has such natural control over the instrument."

I grew up listening to my parents' records, and my dad's a big rock & roll freak, so I knew Jeff Beck's name from when he was in the Yardbirds. But when I was a kid, guitars were just a sound; there was no such thing as technique. It was just a texture in my life, something intangible. Sort of like when Frankenstein hears the violin, and he's reaching out to grab it, and it's just a sound in the air. It's a lot easier to appreciate Beck's guitar playing if you're a guitar player. He just has such a natural control over the instrument. It's the ability to make it do something that you've never heard anybody else do. Blow by Blow is the album I had when I was a kid. He would go from love songs to a really blistering, hard-rock, heavy-sounding guitar without ever going over the top.

©1997-1998 Andreas Björlenstam -"We Ain't Dead Yet"...p@ge