While you would never label him a prog rocker, has there ever been a guitarist more dedicated to expanding his skills, stylistic range, and circle of collaborators than Jeff Beck? Now, with Blow by Blow: The Jeff Beck Story, we have an impeccably detailed journey through seven decades of evolution by the most forward-thinking guitarist to emerge from the classic rock era.
This 400-page opus is the work of two authors who know guitaring best, Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill. For 25 years, Tolinski was editor-in-chief of Guitar World Magazine. He is also the author of a series of acclaimed books, including Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound and Revolution of the Electric Guitar (2016) and Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen (2021), the latter co-authored with Gill, a longtime Guitar World contributor and Tolinski’s co-author on this definitive biography.
In December 2025, Brad launched a Substack titled Guitar Land. It features wonderful interviews, features, and debate-starting opinion pieces, such as his assessment of the best and worst guitar covers of “The Star-Spangled Banner” performed since Jimi Hendrix’s definitive rendition at Woodstock ’69.
Fear not. While these guys can be obsessed with guitar gear and the most obscure corners of the instrument’s history, this book is designed for everyone who loves music and the many genres Jeff Beck explored throughout his career. For gearheads, the book closes with a 25-page section detailing the history of the main axes Beck played, from his pre-fame days to his unexpected passing in 2023.
Blow by Blow is culled from more than 30 hours of interviews with the late guitarist and many of those closest to him: his fellow musicians, record company executives and producers, and his friends and family. Jimmy Page, John McLaughlin, Donovan, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, the Yardbirds’ Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Stevie Wonder, Jan Hammer, Max Middleton, Clive Davis, and Carmine Appice are among those whose memories are presented.
The authors provide a deep dive into Jeff Beck’s youth and how he became obsessed with the guitar and the unusual, soulful sounds he could draw from it. Seeing Gene Vincent and his guitarist, Cliff Gallup, in Frank Tashin’s 1956 comedy, The Girl Can’t Help It, lit the fuse. A lifelong hot rod builder, Beck would construct his own guitar and amp at first. His older sister played a role in cultivating his taste by bringing home the latest rock ‘n’ roll records and introducing him to another teenage guitar nut and star-to-be, Jimmy Page, at 16.
Inspired by equal doses of Buddy Guy’s blues, Cliff Gallup’s twang, and Les Paul’s electronic innovations and dexterity, Jeff Beck quickly became a sensation with his early groups, including the Tridents. From the book, I learned that he actually turned down the opportunity to follow Eric Clapton into John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, and that Page’s refusal to join the Yardbirds and his recommendation of Beck led to Jeff’s first taste of fame.
Beck’s influential stint with the Yardbirds and his innovations, such as his fuzz-laden sitar runs on “Heart Full of Soul” and his frenetic solo on “Shapes of Things” – which inspired Paul McCartney’s guitar freakout in The Beatles’ “Taxman” – made him a standout among Britain’s crop of 1960s guitar gods. The mercurial Beck would ultimately leave the Yardbirds mid-tour and go on to form his namesake group with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood. This heavy blues-rocking quartet would serve as the template for Page’s Led Zeppelin. They would steal Beck’s thunder and the group’s chance of success when the guitarist was laid up for a year following the first of his numerous car accidents.
Jeff Beck would spread his stylistic wings with the more R&B-influenced second iteration of the Jeff Beck Group, on albums like 1971’s Rough & Ready. We also learn that Beck recorded an unreleased album of Motown covers with the label’s legendary session bassist, James Jamerson, in 1970. Tolinski and Gill also shed light on and add to the confusion surrounding his collaboration with Stevie Wonder on the 1972 classic “Superstition”.
Some, including Jeff, believe the track’s genesis was Beck laying down a drumbeat and throwing out lyrical ideas that Wonder improvised over. Others believe it was nearly complete before Beck joined Wonder in the studio to work on his Talking Book album. This leads to the story of the short-lived power trio – Beck, Bogert, and Appice (BBA). Jeff believed Stevie wrote the song for his new band in recognition of his work on Wonder’s album.
BBA recorded the first version of “Superstition”, but it was released second, after Wonder’s manager insisted he release it under his own name. BBA would self-destruct in short order when bassist Bogert couldn’t get a ham sandwich before a show, which he blamed on Beck; then he punched him out.
Beck’s turn toward jazz in the early 1970s set him apart from Clapton, Page, and other British guitar giants who chose not to stray too far from their blues roots. The dirty secret the writers elaborate on is that Beck loved jazz. He would listen to Miles Davis’s early jazz-fusion masterwork, Jack Johnson, both on tour and while working on his hot rods. A concert by John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra in Central Park and his album Apocalypse, helmed by the Beatles’ producer George Martin, led to Beck’s best-selling album, the all-instrumental jazz-fusion classic Blow By Blow (1975).
With Martin behind the board, it was quick work: nine tracks recorded in 12 days. According to the authors, the album’s “Freeway Jam” was directly inspired by Miles Davis’ “Right Off” from 1971’s Jack Johnson. Wonder would also provide vital assistance in penning the classics “Cause We Ended As Lovers” and “Thelonius”. The album and its successors, like Wired (1976), would bring Beck together with Mahavishnu’s keyboardist, Jan Hammer, who, according to the authors, would have a lasting influence on Beck’s music and on his nuanced articulation and phrasing on the guitar.
In addition to his ongoing solo career, Jeff Beck would become a sought-after collaborator with a vast array of musicians. Opera great Luciano Pavarotti, Guns N’ Roses, Diana Ross, Kate Bush, Kelly Clarkson, Jon Bon Jovi, Tina Turner, Seal, Cyndi Lauper, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Carlos Santana, Steve Vai, and Ozzy Osbourne are just a few artists who called on Jeff’s guitar chops to add spice to their records and live shows. Blow by Blow also covers the “dismal” time Jeff had during a half-hearted “audition” for the Rolling Stones in Rotterdam in 1975.
Jeff Beck’s Continuing Progression
Tolinski and Gill’s book made me dig even deeper into an era of Jeff Beck’s playing that I truly love, when he embraced another emerging genre: techno.
In the late 1990s, Beck became fascinated with the Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Massive Attack, and KLF, and produced a trio of albums in which he blazed through breakbeats, loops, samples, and industrial textures. The authors explore the making of these albums, Who Else! (1999), You Had It Coming (2000), and Jeff (2003). They include some of his fiercest and most gentle melodic offerings, including “Brush with the Blues”, “Behind the Veil”, “Bulgaria”, and “Plan B”. His version of the Puccini opera classic, “Nessun Dorma”, from his 2010 disc, Emotion & Commotion, fits this mode. It’s a jaw-dropping tribute to the aria made famous by his late friend, Pavarotti.
Blow by Blow covers more of Jeff Beck’s many stylistic detours, including roots rock and rockabilly with Crazy Legs (1993), film scoring with Frankie’s House (1992), and Rage Against the Machine-style metal thrash with Loud Hailer (2016). It also speaks about his unique relationship with women, both his long-term partners, such as English model Cecilia Hammond, and his role in introducing many of the most talented women instrumentalists in rock and jazz. This list includes bassists Tal Wilkenfeld and Rhonda Smith, guitarists Jennifer Batten and Carmen Vandenberg, and current Rush drummer Anika Nilles.
The authors offer a look at the final chapter of Jeff Beck’s life, especially the close personal and musical relationship he forged during the COVID-19 years with Johnny Depp, a hardworking musician before Hollywood called.
Together, Beck and Depp would produce the posthumous album 18 (2022). While Depp may suffer from a rock star fashion sense culled from heroin-era Keith Richards, he comports himself well vocally on the album. It’s definitely worth a listen, especially their heartbreaking rendition of the ballad, “Let It Be Me”, and their full-throttle cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs”. With his thick rooster haircut and 28-inch waist, his death from meningitis came as a surprise to both his friends and his fans.
One thing that is difficult, even for these experts, to put into words is Beck’s astounding skill, imagination, taste, power, and sensitivity as a player of an instrument that millions have tried to master. It is something I can personally attest to, having witnessed his concerts from the late 1970s through 2010.
His touch, his command of the awesome power of an electric guitar, was astounding. He could swell to a hurricane or dive to a whisper within a second. While many musicians seem to stall their progress after success, Jeff Beck was a guitarist who kept getting better with each passing year, with each new musical genre and challenge he tackled. With Blow by Blow, music lovers have a resource that helps them fully appreciate the ceaseless quest for creativity across 50-plus albums waxed by this massive talent.