One of my favourite albums of all time is 1989’s Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop. My first time listening to Jeff Beck was on a documentary from the late 80s about rock music and there was a clip of him playing the solo to “Just Ambitious“. That was 1987 or 88 I think. Then on a VHS tape of music videos I watched the video for People Get Ready. After that I think it was in the early 90s when, after listening to a lot of Joe Satriani, Steve Morse and Steve Vai, I wanted to get more and Beck was next on the list for more guitar instrumental music.
I bought the 1989 album at a time when I didn’t know what a whammy bar was I was wondering, how the heck did he get these amazing sounds out of the guitar. I listened to this album on cassette many many times and later on in the late 90s when cds were cheaper, I got it on cd. I can remember many weekend morning of me sitting in my room, glass of juice in my hand, with a magazine or novel lying open and teenage me listening to Jeff over and over again. Seriously all I could think about yesterday when I read about his passing, is sitting in the big bedroom, pulling out the cassette and then cd on certain days and playing it (its’ only about 40 mins long) and reading a book.
Great songs like Savoy, the title track, Sling Shot, Behind The Veil, Big Block and the melancholic Where Were You. No wonder he won the Grammy, one of 6 that he has won. But this is my favourite album of his and I play it all the time.
Goodbye Jeff. Thank you for all the great music.