James Beaty: Ramblin’ Round: Remembering Jeff Beck and Robbie Robertson.

Dec. 29—Lost of music-related happenings occurred in classic rock in 2023, including the loss of two of the greatest rock guitarists ever — Jeff Beck and Robbie Robertson.

The loss of guitar great Jeff Beck came as a shock on Jan. 10, 2023, at the age of 78. His passing stunned many, especially since Beck had just completed a successful tour of the U.S. in the fall of 2022.

Duringh the tour, Beck looked and sounded great, accompanied by his friend, actor Johnny Depp, on rhythm guitar and occasional vocals. The two had just released a collaborative album titled “18” in 2022, and Beck’s performances on the tour were acclaimed by fans and critics alike.

Beck succumbed to bacterial meningitis on Jan. 10, 2023. His passing brought on a multitude of remembrances from his contemporaries.

Among the were two other brilliant lead guitarists who like Beck, had been members of the British group The Yardbirds in the 1960s.

Beck is truly among the best — if not the best — electric guitarists of all time. He became one of the first the first to utilize a distorted guitar solo on The Yardbird’s recording “Heart Full of Soul.”

Beck achieved the effect by trying to emulate the sound of a sitar on an electric guitar, when the rock rhythms proved too challenging for the sitar players who’d been booked to play on the session.

Beck joined The Yardbirds to replace Eric Clapton, who left the group soon after the band recorded the song that would become their first big hit on both sides of the Atlantic, “For Your Love.”

The story goes that Clapton considered “For Your Love” too much of a pop song for his blues purist tastes at the time.

That always puzzled me, because the song “Wrapping Paper” which he later recorded as part of the power trio Cream is about a hundred times poppier than “For Your Love.”

More changes in The Yardbirds lineup brought a new bassist on board, Beck’s longtime friend, Jimmy Page.

Of course a guitarist of Page’s proficiency was not going to remain a bassist for long, so for a time, The Yardbirds soon featured the incredible twin guitar lineup of Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.

Together and solo, they would sometimes play what they called “rave-ups” — extended jams sessions building to an intense climax, along with some of the first explorations of what would come to be called psychedelic guitar.

The twin guitar powerhouse did not remain together for long though — with Beck either leaving or being fired from the group, depending on who is telling the story.

Even if all Beck had accomplished had been his work with The Yardbirds, he still would be remembered as a virtuoso rock guitarist.

Oh, but there was so much more to come. And don’t feel too bad for Page after The Yardbirds initially broke up. He formed a band called The New Yardbirds with an upcoming vocalist named Robert Plant, with the group evolving into another band which did alright for itself, Led Zeppelin.

Beck went on to form the first version of The Jeff Beck Group, which also featured another young up and coming British singer of the day, Rod Stewart.

The Jeff Beck Group also featured a talented bass player — Ronnie Wood, who would go on to play guitar with The Faces and of course, the Rolling Stones.

Listening to that first version of The Jeff Beck Group today, it’s easy to tell the band must have been a powerful influence on Led Zeppelin.

After only two studio albums, “Truth” and “Beck-Ola,” that first version of the Jeff Beck Group fell apart, with Stewart and Wood jumping ship to become part of The Faces — before Stewart went on to his solo career and Wood later joined up with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and company.

Beck went on to find success with another lineup of the Jeff Beck Group, before starting his career as a solo artist.

Beck, who did not like to perform vocals, took a new path as an instrumentalist, finding great success when he teamed up with the Beatles’ producer George Martin, for Beck’s groundbreaking album “Blow by Blow.”

On the album, he proved he didn’t need a singer on his recordings by going fully instrumental and going full ahead with his jazz-rock fusion style.

“Blow by Blow” climbed all the way to #4 on the U.S. album charts and Beck followed it up with the album, “Wired” which helped further his reputation as a guitarist extraordinaire.

Beck ventured on sonic explorations that haven’t been equaled by any other guitarist. I’ve seen concert clips where Page and Beck performed together — and Page, himself among the greatest rock guitarists ever, would happily play rhythm guitar behind Beck’s lead.

He even wrote the song “Beck’s Bolero” — one of the standouts on the “Truth” album — for his buddy, Jeff Beck.

Beck continued those sonic explorations throughout his career, winning fistfuls of Grammys and other awards, while also taking his guitar stylings into opera, classical and other forms of music.

While the loss of Beck proved tough to take, the loss of Robbie Robertson also came as a shock.

Robertson, 80, had looked fit and full of enthusiasm in recent interviews, with his most recent recordings done for the soundtrack of the Martin Scorsese film, “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

His most well-known records were as the lead guitarist and chief songwriter with The Band, that group credited with creating what today is called Americana music, although Robertson and three of his fellow band members hailed from Canada, and Levon Helm, from Arkansas, was the only American in the group.

With their albums such as “Music From Big Pink” and their self-titled followup, “The Band,” the group brought rock music back down to earth, the opposite of the self-indulgent 20-minute guitar solos that were becoming the norm of the day.

The Band also famously backed Bob Dylan on two tours, including the one in 1966 when they were known as The Hawks and Dylan’s later 1974 arena tour, when The Band members were music stars in their own right.

Robertson also issued a series of solo albums, with the favorite among many being his self-titled first album, “Robbie Robertson,” which included the standout track, “Somewhere Down the Crazy River.”

After leaving The Band, Robertson would go on to work extensively with Scorsese on movie soundtracks.

Robertson had a talent for playing piercing lead guitar lines on his Fender Stratocaster.

One of my favorite Robertson performances comes in the movie “The Last Waltz,” a film about The Band’s final concert with all five of the original members together.

They invited many of their friends to perform in the concert, including Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Neil Diamond and Eric Clapton.

During Clapton’s set, he was in the midst of performing the blues classic, “Further On Up The Road,” when his guitar strap came loose in mid-song.

Robertson, seeing what happened, picked up the solo, with some of those needle-sharp, piercing guitar lines he played so well.

Clapton reattached his strap and came back in with some leads of his own, with the two engaging in an onstage guitar duel.

I would have to give the nod to Robertson, who seemed to sense the secret of playing well is to never overplay.

Jeff Beck and Robbie Roberston — two of the greatest guitarists ever.