Jeff Beck on Django

Michael Bauer · February 2007

I'm not sure what category this fits in, but I just saw a copy of "Guitar Legends" magazine (published by Guitar World) with a joint interview with Jeff beck and Jimmy Page. Being a die hard Yardbirds fan, I had to grab it. To my amazement, Django came up as Beck's most admired guitarist. I thought some of you might enjoy reading it.

Interviwer: "Jeff, what other guitarists do you admire."

Jeff Beck: "By far the most astonishing guitar player ever has got to be Django Reinhardt. I'm sort of a newcomer to his work, although I was always aware of him. Django was quite superhuman. There's nothing normal about him, as a person or a player.

His electric palying in the forties is just humiliating. His lead lick--whew! I slow them down, and I still can't grasp what he's doing. Recently I acquired some rare scratchy black-and-white film of Django playing. It's the most glorious, but tantalizing short footage, but he is playing like crazy. I've been studying it in slow motion, and all you can see are these two grubby fingers going like lightening up and down the fretboard."

MichaelHorowitz · February 2007

Michael Bauer wrote:

His electric palying in the forties is just humiliating. His lead lick--whew! I slow them down, and I still can't grasp what he's doing. Recently I acquired some rare scratchy black-and-white film of Django playing. It's the most glorious, but tantalizing short footage, but he is playing like crazy. I've been studying it in slow motion, and all you can see are these two grubby fingers going like lightening up and down the fretboard."

Sounds like Jeff needs a copy of Gypsy Picking...anyone have his address?

Michael Bauer · February 2007

Funny...I had exactly the same thought. Learning Django might even be enough to get him to play with a pick again.

Blue Drag · February 2007

A friend of mine owned a small record/cd shop in the S.F. Bay Area, just south of the Airport. One of his employees came up to him and said "Doesn't that dude over there look like Jeff Beck"? My friend said "Holy S__T ! That IS Jeff Beck (Jeff was playing the local amphitheater that night). Friend approaches Beck, introduces himself, and asks if he might help him find anything. Mr. Beck replied that he was looking for "Django Reinhardt and Dean Martin". Very cool, I thought.

Stackabones · February 2007

Blue Drag wrote:

Mr. Beck replied that he was looking for "Django Reinhardt and Dean Martin".

You mean, they did a session together? Man, I gotta find that recording.

stuology · January 2023

RIP Jeff Beck

billyshakes · January 2023

Cool stories about Jeff above.

ChrisMartin · January 2023

My two cents:

Jeff was in my opinion the last and best of the '60s guitar heroes; he kept trying new things and always stayed true to himself while still coming up with something fresh every time. I know this is a Gypsy Jazz forum (am I contravening any new PC dictats by using that term?) but for some of us who are also rock fans his passing leaves a big empty space.

RIP mate.

And another note on Jeff.

I used to hang out around the Kings Road in Chelsea in the 1970s when the famous 'Kings Road Cruise' was a new thing. The last Saturday of the month hot rods came from all over to just drive around, all good clean fun and this was a new game for London car nuts although you Americans may have grown up with such things a long time before. One night I had arranged to meet some friends at the Chelsea Potter pub and parked my metalflake blue and gold Ford Anglia in a side street coincidentally behind a copy of the yellow Deuce Coupe from the film American Graffiti and walked round the corner to find the gang sitting around a table on the corner of the street. Getting my beer I sat down to join them and just asked if anyone knew who had brought the '32 Coupe and this scruffy greasemonkey owned up it was his. He related how he had been up all night to get a few odd things finished on it so he could bring it along, and the greasy T-shirt and hands supported that claim. It was only after chatting cars for five minutes I recognised who I was talking too. Jeff had long been a hero of mine but at that time he looked just like the rest of us so it took a while to suddenly register that i was swapping hot rod tales with a major rock star.

I was slightly fearful for him though. As I have always been a better mechanic than guitar player I knew where my talents were and consequently my place in life, but I also knew I would suffer the occasional cuts and bruises to my hands, it goes with the job. Jeff had million dollar fingers, yet he was always building new cars for himself, doing everything, panel bashing, welding, machining but apart from a horrific car accident in the early '70s he seemed to get away with it.

He became a regular at the Saturday night cruises but was only there as a car nut, he never acted the big star and always seemed to want to just be a regular guy, never the show-off, quietly spoken, even slightly shy although of course he was a monster on stage. And also, in that wild world of rock stardom he was one of the few who tried to stay healthy and was never in the press in sordid sex and drug shenanigans. But now he is gone, we did not expect him to be next.

I will miss him.