Joe Satriani on Jeff Beck’s Legacy
Guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani started imagining a recording career for himself based around instrumental compositions, he knew it could be possible — thanks in large part to the fact that the late Jeff Beck Hit albums were recorded by him (Blow by Blow, Wired) Without the assistance of a singer a decade earlier. Satriani, who also replaced Beck on Mick Jagger’s 1988 solo tour, shared his thoughts on Beck’s legacy in a new interview on our Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. Here’s his tribute in his own words:
My first playing experience was with a group that included Jeff, Jimmy Page and Keith Richards. Pete Townshend, George Harrison and Martin Barre were among the players. [of Jethro Tull], Jimi Hendrix — all those players. They were my first introduction to electric guitar playing. I didn’t know about Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Albert King, and all the other guys who had an influence on that group of players.
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As a young guitarist, it was fascinating to create a style on second-generation electric blues players. And tHen after a while discovering who their foundations were, and then going back and then look at Buddy Guy and say, “OK, now who is he influenced by?”
Jeff had an irreverent attitude whenever he paid tribute to the blues musicians, regardless of whether he intended it or not. This was Jeff Beck being Jeff Beck. He didn’t care who he played with; he simply took control and redesigned everything.
Eric Clapton was very respectful. Eric would show you, “These are my roots. I’ve studied. I’ve created this cultured style based around these people, and I’m showing you.” And Page was a little crazier. Hendrix took it up a notch. With Jeff, it was almost like he was saying, “Yeah, yeah. I’ve listened to all these guys and they’re great, but watch what I’m doing with it.”
For me, it would’ve started with [1968’s] Truth. I was too young to play with the Yardbirds. When I was 14 years old, I joined a high school band with guys about a year and a half older than me. They introduced me to Jeff Beck and all the other players. The first time I heard “Going Down,” I just thought that was the definitive version.
It couldn’t get any better. I loved the way Jeff would dart in-and-out. This is a unique way to play a blues tune. What a great way not to copy every other blues player who’d done it. That was a brilliant idea and so unique.
Beck has only gotten better over the years. I don’t want to say he refined what he did. He added so much to what the guitar could do. His work with the Stratocaster was very interesting technically. Hendrix was a pioneer in the use of the Stratocaster. Beck was there as well.
Beck just really focused in on picking with his fingers, using the guitar in the arrangements in a sort of a quasi-melodic, riff-meets-rhythm way accompanying the singer. Jimi sang the song, so it was slightly different, but you could still see. [the] “Hey we’re coming from the same place” in what they were trying to do with the Strat.
He kept adding to it. When I think about it, [1989’s] Guitar Shop, I think that’s a perfect example of a record that blew people away the same way that Blow by Blow Oder Wired did.
He would expand his horizons by playing with new people, writing new material, and he’d always bring out some technical thing, like using harmonics. And he would represent his personality with these things — not copying a trend, but somehow bringing out more of himself. He was always more than the technique.
His melodic style is what attracted me the most. I loved playing crazy guitar and making noises, and I love the showbiz attitude about rock & roll. But if it’s not melodic, I somehow check out. If it’s just a display of technique, I’m not there, and Jeff had a way of just being really beautifully melodic.
Jeff had that wild attitude. You knew he was a dangerous rock & roll guitar player. With every song he sang, he made it clear. In the middle Eighties, when I felt like I might be doing something else with my life, I carried that idea with me. I wanted to make some recordings at home. Jeff had made a wonderful career of doing what he liked.
He looked for musicians who were at the forefront of great new music. He tried to integrate that in his vision of the electric guitar and how it would fit into his new concept of combining jazz and blues. It was fusion. He never lost his sense of self in it. He never lost that Jeff Beck attitude, no matter with whom he played.
It was like a reminder: You don’t have to water your stuff down. You have to do the opposite. Take a look at Jeff’s work. He just became more Jeff with every record, and that’s why every time he released a record, people would go, “Oh my God, what the fuck is that? What’s he doing now?”
When Blow by Blow When I came out, I had just finished playing in a disco band for about one year. The rhythm section was made up of all musicians just looking for money. We wanted a job that paid every week. So that’s why we were in this band. But our hearts were in rock & roll. And when that record came out, we would just always be jamming on that stuff, especially “Freeway Jam.”
Jeff uses harmonics the way he does [later on] — to me, the song “Where Were You” is probably one of the most outstanding instrumental pieces on guitar ever recorded.
I’ve seen him play it live and it’s really breathtaking. He was never able to do it the same way twice, but every time he did it he made it look amazing. This was his tour de force in putting together a difficult technique and pulling off the feat. Watch him do it live. [it] at Ronnie Scott’s, you really get the feeling, like, OK, here’s a guitar player who’s taking the biggest risk ever. Because this can’t be done in tune, really. Not every harmonic will come out exactly the same as it did on the album.
Yet, there he is, putting his heart and soul into the project with just a bit of a smile. You can see how hard it is, and how his hands feel like treasures. It’s amazing. It’s like the guitar loves his hands and they’re saying, “OK, we’ll play along with this.” When he hits those high notes, it just takes your breath away, and you forget about the technique. Until somebody says to you, “Hey, do you know how to play that?” And you go, “Yeah, but no. I’ve got it memorized and I can play all the notes, but man, does it not sound like Jeff doing it.”
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