To get some idea of how influential Jeff Beck was, you only have to look to the greatest rock documentary of them all. “These go to 11,” said This Is Spinal Tap’s guitarist Nigel Tufnel as he demonstrated to the rockumentary’s director, Marty DiBergi , the benefits of an amplifier modified for extra loudness.
Tufnell was undoubtedly based in part on Beck, but affectionately so. Here was one of the greatest guitarists of the rock era, who helped to turn a style of music that started out as a teenage diversion into the global phenomenon it remains today.
Beck’s genius, and it was a genius of an intuitive, singular sort, was to use the guitar as something that did not require classical training or a