Beck to basics

Guitar god rediscovers the joy of it all

Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, September 18, 2006

Jeff Beck has never really phoned in a performance, but lately his devotion to making music has soared. He's with a top-notch band, playing his best material and showing palpable joy 40 years into his career.

"I'm glad you stated that. That's the whole point of it, isn't it? Once it starts to become a drag and you hate yourself and hate music, it's time to pack it up," Beck says.

"The secret, really, is to get people who motivate you. It's a magical thing. If you can crack that, you can ride any storm. The guys in the band and me are probably 18 going on 17. We're still naughty little boys, I suppose."

Despite his reputation as reclusive and sometimes difficult, Beck, 62, is funny, open and engaging in a talk from his kitchen table in England in advance of his Thursday-night show at the Lecture Hall at the Colorado Convention Center.

It's a tour Beck fans crave. While his career has explored many tangents in concert over the years, this one is a career retrospective, doing the best-loved Beck songs from all eras with a band that has the guitarist re-energized.

"When I've been shoving stuff down their throats that they don't quite dig or don't understand, it's a relief to know that what they remember me for is going to be played," he says of the fans. "Plus we selected the songs that still hold up and can be interpreted in 2006."

After stints in The Yardbirds and the Jeff Beck Group, the guitarist took a solo career covering many genres and producing classics such as Blow by Blow and even an '80s hit single in Ambitious. The set list, including Beck's Bolero and Cause We've Ended as Lovers, developed from An Evening with JB, a show at London's Festival where he and guests (including the White Stripes and Roger Waters) played his career highlights.

"People just lapped it up," he says. "I wanted to take a similar show on the road and was immediately told it was ludicrously expensive. So we dropped that." So it's the career highlights without the extra guests.

He's kept himself musically engaged by playing on other people's music, but "I've stopped doing it now because I feel that I really should concentrate on my stuff," he says. "When I'm asked to play on someone's records or do other projects, I just think I should be spending this time working on my material and not just putting on a little guitar solo on some piece of music someone else slaved over.

"I love the experience, and there's nothing more enlightening, . . . just good experience to work with other people, just to see how they record and what they enjoy. But like I say, it's time to knuckle down and get on my own things now. But how are you going to say 'no' to Tina Turner?"

His current band, including Jason Rebello on keyboards, has pushed him in a more traditional rock direction after excursions into other genres.

"They've got it all. Jason can be the most avant-garde jazz pianist one minute then be Jan Hammer then just be Jason. That is a wonderful tool to have, the flexibility of the keyboard. All the songs that used to be a little bit ragged - he polishes them up and makes them funkier," Beck says. "He's a big old chunk of cement that holds the complicated stuff together."

In a joint interview with Mojo magazine a while back, Beck and fellow Yardbirds guitarist/Led Zeppelin founder Jimmy Page talked of doing a project together, but since then Page has balked.

"I'd like to know how many times I've asked him. It's getting rude now. I keep suggesting it and he goes 'Yeah' and nothing ever happens. How many times can you bang on someone's door?" he says.

The idea would be to get together, keep it informal and move forward only if it works. "Have a go at that just for the hell of it; you don't need any pressure. But he's a family man now. He has a busy schedule doing stuff. I can't imagine what it's like to have kids. I haven't got any."

Fans wonder whether the Jeff Beck Group – including original singer Rod Stewart – could ever re-form for a big-money reunion tour.

"I haven't had a single figure bandied about. I can tell you that it probably would be more expensive than people would pay," he says with a laugh. "I'm beginning to feel a little bit miffed that I'm falling short and that is the group that people hanker after."

He dismisses the notion, however.

"It's just nostalgia – ABBA and Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. (The Stones) are doing the rounds and making big money. People want what's gone and this huge retro movement of '50s doo-wop in America and the hot-rod scene. People don't want what's going on now. They just want to live in the past."

He has plenty of projects in the works. A new album of rock material is a first priority, but not a note has been recorded. He's also exploring classical music, replacing the lead violin in Mahler's Symphony No. 5 with his trademark Stratocaster sound.

"It's been hard. Mahler 5 is one of the slowest movements. There's no room for any mistakes whatsoever," he says. "To hold the note is one of the worst challenges, the strongest challenges - that and to not make any mistakes in those passages. But that's what I'm here for. If it was easy, people would be doing it. I'm just crazy enough to try to take it on."

He was approached to do a DVD of his life story, but he has a better idea.

"We can adapt the history of the guitar or something else, maybe do it like Ken Burns. He did this 10-DVD set of the history of blues and jazz. Maybe a slightly smaller version of that that covers what I've done, then we do a DVD of a performance to refer to as a point of reference, show where I got this run, that run," he says. "I wanna do the drama side of it as a comedy. People love to laugh. I don't mean Austin Powers gut-busting funny, but true stories. I recorded some of the most outrageous stories that would be great for a movie rather than a paperback."

Meanwhile, he continues touring around the world, hitting Europe, Japan and America. Despite his live following, Beck's work is rarely heard on FM radio these days.

"How come? How come? Get that sorted out!" he says mockingly. "If you're not Britney, you're not on radio. We still pull thousands of people. Do we not count for radio play? I don't know. Who cares anyway? The radio only shrinks the sound you're making. They can't broadcast the sound we make onstage. They'll never be able to do that."

Mark Brown is the popular music critic. Brownm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2674