Revinylization

I only saw Jeff Beck live three times, but each concert has stuck in my memory. The first was in 1965, soon after he replaced Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds. Both his virtuoso soloing and his overall musicianship astonished the teenage me.

The second time was at a blues festival in 1967, where the Jeff Beck Group made its debut. Playing drums was the great Aynsley Dunbar, with Ron Wood on bass—Beck's bands always featured excellent sidemen and 'women—and a young Rod Stewart was on vocals. Again Beck's guitar playing wowed me, though the shy Stewart kept hiding behind the PA speakers.

The final time was at Albuquerque's Tingley Coliseum in 1989, where Jeff Beck, accompanied by Zappa alum Terry Bozzio on drums and Jack Bruce alum Tony Hymas on keyboards, was the opening act for Stevie Ray Vaughan. Again "Wow," but as the older me later wrote in Stereophile, "Why . . . does the music have to be played quite so loud? The sound of Mr. Beck's often lyrical, always gutsy Fender Stratocaster emerged from a sea of overloud low-frequency mud."

The performance that still brings senior citizen me to tears, however, such is the musical perfection, is Puccini's aria "Nessun Dorma," from Beck's 2010 album Emotion & Commotion. Beck sends his Stratocaster "soaring, singing into the aether," I wrote in my review for Stereophile. I played this track on repeat the evening I heard of Beck's passing; his like will not be heard again.—John Atkinson