ALL-STAR Salute

Jeff Beck's friends offer tributes to the guitarist described by his peers as the greatest of them all.

SIR BRIAN MAY
"THIS IS SUCH an extraordinary loss and he was such an extraordinary person. Jeff was completely and utterly unique and the kind of musician who was impossible to define. And I was absolutely in awe of him. He was only a couple of years older than me, and came from the same area where I came from, but he was a hero to me all along. Doing things which I kind of dreamed of doing when I was at school, even. He was already up there in the Tridents, in the Yardbirds, doing extraordinary things and a major, major inspiration for me to try and do the same. Not the same, but to give myself a voice the way he had.

"If you want to hear his depth of emotion, and sound and phrasing, and the way he could touch your soul, listen to 'Where Were You' from the Guitar Shop album. It's unbelievable. It's possibly the most beautiful bit of guitar music ever recorded. So sensitive, so beautiful, so incredibly creative and unlike anything you've ever heard anywhere else. Yes, of course, he had his influences too, but he brought an amazing voice to rock music, which will never ever be emulated or equaled.

"I saw him play so many times, always with my jaw on the ground thinking, how does he do that? I often think it must have been like being around Mozart and seeing that incredible genius at work and wondering where it could possibly come from. How could he be that great? And if you were with Jeff, if you were round his house, he’d come out from the garage, having been under one of his cars for the last few hours, his fingers all covered in grease and muck and looking like he’s just kind of crawled out from a ditch somewhere. And then he’d pick up the guitar and this beautiful, beautiful sensitive music would come out.