On his way to Auckland, esteemed axeman Jeff Beck talks about his diverse career to Graham Reid
KEY POINTS:
So here's a quote for you, Jeff Beck, from British rock writer Chris Charlesworth: "Of all the guitar heroes to emerge from the British blues boom of the mid-60s, Jeff Beck has been the most slippery to follow."
At his southern England home Beck, now 64, laughs and admits that yes, that's fair.
"Part of the reason," he says, "is never having attempted to get into mainstream pop, rock or heavy metal or anything like that. Shutting those doors means you've only got a limited space to squeeze through, especially if you are without a lead vocalist."
Yes but Jeff, that Charlesworth quote came from 1976, more than 30 years ago and well before you even began cutting a wayward path between loud rock, jazz-fusion and whatever else it is you chose to do.
And Beck - considered among the best rock guitarists on the planet and a nominee into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist this year - laughs even louder and longer.
Even after he'd been in the public eye for only a decade, Beck was hard to pin down.
He'd stepped into the spotlight when he replaced Eric Clapton as lead guitarist in the R'n'B-based pop band the Yardbirds in 1965 for a volatile 18 months. He earned a reputation as a difficult character and musical perfectionist, but his sound is heard on their best-known hits Over, Under, Sideways, Down and Shapes of Things.
When the Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 he jocularly noted they'd kicked him out of the band.
His career helming his own band at the end of the 60s was brief but impressive: he cracked an almost accidental single with the gimmicky Hi Ho Silver Lining (featuring a rare Beck vocal) and his Jeff Beck Group album Truth in '68 had Rod Stewart, current Rolling Stone Ron Wood, John Paul Jones - later of Led Zeppelin - and pianist Nicky Hopkins.
It staked out blues, rock, and loud R'n'B territory which Led Zeppelin would claim soon after.
The track Bolero - his signature tune even today and which opens his new, career-summing Live at Ronnie Scott's - is credited to Jimmy Page, who replaced him in the Yardbirds then quit to form Led Zeppelin.
"Well, the Yardbirds were dying and the manager suggested I do something to keep me quiet, happy and give me a solo career. Jimmy came out with this bolero rhythm on a 12-string guitar and I played the melody.
"It was my idea to cut off in the middle Yardbirds style - [Who drummer] Keith Moon who plays on it changes the tempo - and that's what gives it the kick. It's one of my favourites actually, it's a little bit of the Who, a little bit of the Yardbirds and a little bit of me.
"But I don't get a songwriting credit. I might have to let Jimmy get away with that one. You win some and you lose some down the years."
The Beck Group recorded another album, Beck Ola, then broke up.
Beck shifted sideways into heavier rock, slipped towards jazz-fusion with his acclaimed Blow By Blow album in '75 (recorded with Beatles' producer George Martin), hooked up synth/keyboard player Jan Hammer but - always a man happy to hang up the guitar it seemed - all but retired in the 1980s.
"I didn't feel the 80s had anything for me with glam rock and the pop things with synthesisers. When you think of players like [jazz guitarist] John McLaughlin and Jan Hammer whose music spun me around, I couldn't imagine settling for anything less than that kind of brilliance.
"The 80s were bereft of any music I would want to be involved in, and you had to have a video, which was cost-prohibitive for me. Everything had to be video for MTV and I didn't like the idea of power rotation and force-feeding people with stuff on TV. Rock'n'roll is a moment, it's an exciting jab in the arm. It's not all day.
"Then when Kiss cut new paths for rock'n'roll it was almost a prerequisite that you had to go to a specialist clothing shop. I wasn't going to wear 14-inch [35cm] heels or anything like that, or be part of a grand carousel of what I imagine would be sensational but embarrassing acts.
"I thought if I couldn't do what I wanted without all that, I'd find something else to do. Also Miles Davis' Jack Johnson album made me realise that highly rated world-class players were making the sort of music I felt attached to strongly and that enabled me to dismiss any temptation to get involved with mainstream rock.
"Having watched so many bands come and go when they pin themselves to certain masts, it was easy to not to do that. And I like to be elusive anyway. I enjoy the freedom."
Beck admits that because he only ever wanted to play with top-class musicians it was a problem keeping a permanent group together: the best players were always committed to other projects. And so the man whose career was described as "slippery" as far back as 1976 continued to follow an occasional and distinctive path in music between bouts of working at his home workshop on his beloved steel-body hotrods from the 50s.
"It has been a wonderful offset from what I do and I can forget myself. Then I go into the house and say, 'Whose is that guitar?"'
Oddly enough, car-fanatic Beck has never appeared on Top Gear.
"No, Ronnie Wood went on there. The only reason I wouldn't do it is I couldn't bear not being top. I couldn't sleep if I wasn't the fastest."
And so the man who plays only where and when he likes, and even quite enjoys periods not playing, would be more competitive on the track than in the music world?
"Oh yeah. I wouldn't want to be second to Ronnie Wood."
LOWDOWN
Who: Jeff Beck
Where: ASB Theatre
When: February 5
Trivia: Among Beck's many claims to fame are that he unwittingly lent his hairstyle (and accent) to the gormless guitarist Nigel Tufnel in the rock-parody movie This is Spinal Tap. "It was the wrong colour but pretty close. They'd studied me but it's mostly from bands like Black Sabbath because I never wore makeup or spandex pants. When I watched I was laughing."
