
The three-song EP includes unreleased live versions of "Going Down" and "Elegy For Dunkirk."
The music world is still reeling from Jeff Beck’s death earlier this year. The legendary guitarist, renowned by both fans and many of his peers as the greatest of all-time, passed away on January 10 at the age of 78.
ATCO/Rhino honors the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s immeasurable legacy with a three-song EP of unreleased music. Two of the songs were played at Beck’s memorial service, which was held on February 3 at St. Mary’s Church in Beddington, England. Jeff Beck Tribute is available today digitally.
Listen HERE.
The EP opens with “Midnight Walker Lament,” which combines the instrumental “Midnight Walker” from 18 (Beck’s 2022 album with Johnny Depp) with a spoken word poem by Imelda May written at Jeff’s suggestion and approval, which sadly was first performed live to track at his funeral. An Irish singer and poet, May first appeared with Beck on Rock ’n’ Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul), a live album he released in 2011 as a tribute to pioneering guitarist Les Paul.
Opera singer Olivia Safe, another Beck collaborator, appears on the EP’s live version of “Elegy For Dunkirk.” Beck released a studio version featuring Safe in 2010 on his Grammy-winning album, Emotion & Commotion. At Beck’s memorial in February, Safe sang composer Gabriel Fauré’s “Requiem: In Paradisum.”
Jeff Beck Tributeends with a blistering live version of “Going Down” recorded in Paris. Beck performed this Freddie King rocker live throughout most of his career. On this version, he’s backed by bassist Rhonda Smith, drummer Jonathan Joseph, vocalist Jimmy Hall, and guitarist Carmen Vandenberg.
“Imelda’s poem on ‘Midnight Walker Lament’ on top of Jeff’s beautiful guitar work brings tears to my eyes. ‘Elegy for Dunkirk’ featuring Olivia Safe is a reminder of how Jeff’s playing, and Opera interact. ‘Going down,’ an up-tempo tune, was played live at Jeff’s funeral with a powerful vocal from Jimmy Hall.” - Sandra Beck
Jeff Beck Tribute
EP Track Listing:
- “Midnight Walker Lament” – Jeff Beck featuring Imelda May *
- “Elegy For Dunkirk” (Live) – Jeff Beck featuring Olivia Safe *
- “Goings Down” (Live) – The Jeff Beck Band *
Beck’s widow, Sandra, and his friend and fellow guitarist Eric Clapton will honor the late guitarist’s memory and artistry with all-star concerts at the Royal Albert Hall on May 22 and 23. “A Tribute to Jeff Beck” will feature Doyle Bramhall, Eric Clapton, Gary Clark Jr., Johnny Depp, Billy Gibbons, Kirk Hammett, Imelda May, John McLaughlin, Robert Randolph, Olivia Safe, Rod Stewart, Joss Stone, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, and Ronnie Wood. The shows also include Rhonda Smith, Anika Nilles, and Robert Stevenson from the Jeff Beck Band.
Profits from the concerts will be donated to the Southern Wildlife Care and Advisory Service (aka Folly Wildlife Rescue Trust), a charity dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating injured, orphaned, and distressed wild animals and birds throughout West Kent, East Sussex, and the surrounding region. The Becks have been patrons of the charity for years. ATCO/Rhino will also make a donation to the charity in honor of Beck.
For more information, please visit jeffbeck.com.
- The Tao of Jeff Beck ›
- In Honor of Jeff Beck: Guitarists Pay Tribute ›
- Jeff Beck — “Blues to the Maximum” ›
- Exclusive Interview: Jennifer Batten on Jeff Beck - Premier Guitar ›
$149
Marshall 1959 Super Lead
The very definition of classic, vintage Marshall sound in a highly affordable package.
There’s only one relevant question about Marshall’s new 1959 Super Lead overdrive/distortion pedal: Does it sound like an actual vintage Super Lead head? The answer is, simply and surprisingly, yes. The significant difference I heard within the voice of this stomp, which I ran through a Carr Vincent and a StewMac Value Factory 18 kit amp for contrast, is that it’s a lot quieter than my 1972 Super Lead.
The Super Lead, which bore Marshall’s 1959 model number, debuted in 1965 and was the amp that defined the plexi sound. That sound is here in spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts. Like the Super Lead, the pedal is easy to use. The original’s 3-band EQ is replaced by a single, rangeful tone control. The normal dial and the volume, which together mimic the character created by jumping the first and second channels of a plexi head, offer smooth, rich, buttery op-amp driven gain and loudness. And the high-treble dial functions much like the presence control on the original amp.
The pedal is sturdy and handsome too. A heavy-duty metal enclosure evokes the classic black-with-gold-plate plexi look and a vintage-grille-cloth motif. Switches and knobs (the latter with rubber sides for slip-free turning) are ultra solid, and–refreshingly–there’s a 9V battery option in addition to a barrel-pin connection. Whether with single-coils or humbuckers, getting beefy, sustained, historic tones took moments. I especially delighted in approximating my favorite Super Lead head setting by flooring the high treble, normal, and tone dials, and turning back the tone pots on my Flying V, evoking Disraeli Gears-era Clapton tone. That alone, to me, makes the 1959 Super Lead stomp a bargain at $149.Two guitars, two amps, and two people is all it takes to bring the noise.
The day before they played the coveted Blue Room at Third Man Records in Nashville, the Washington, D.C.-based garage-punk duo Teen Mortgage released their debut record, Devil Ultrasonic Dream. Not a bad couple of days for a young band.
PG’s Chris Kies caught up with guitarist and vocalist James Guile at the Blue Room to find out how he builds the band’s bombastic guitar attack.
Brought to you by D’Addario.
Devilish Dunable
Guile has been known to use Telecasters and Gretsches in the past, but this time out he’s sticking with this Dunable Cyclops DE, courtesy of Gwarsenio Hall—aka Jordan Olds of metal-themed comedy talk show Two Minutes to Late Night. Guile digs the Dunable’s lightness on his shoulders, and its balance of high and low frequencies.
Storm Warning
What does Guile like about this Squier Cyclone? Simple: its color. This one is also nice and easy on the back, and Guile picked it up from Atomic Music in Beltsville, Maryland.
Crushing It
Guile also scooped this Music Man 410-HD from Atomic, which he got just for this tour for a pretty sweet deal. It runs alongside an Orange Crush Bass 100 to rumble out the low end.
James Guile’s Pedalboard
The Electro-Harmonix Micro POG and Hiwatt Filter Fuzz MkII run to the Orange, while everything else—a DigiTech Whammy, Pro Co Lil’ RAT, and Death by Audio Echo Dream 2—runs to the Music Man. A TC Helicon Mic Mechanic is on board for vocal assistance, and a TC Electronic PolyTune 3, Morley ABY, and Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 3 Plus keep the ship afloat.
Ernie Ball, the world’s leading manufacturer of premium guitar and bass strings, is proud to announce the release of the Pino Palladino Signature Smoothie Flats, the newest innovation in flatwound bass strings.
Developed in collaboration with legendary bassist Pino Palladino, these signature sets are engineered to deliver an ultra-smooth feel and a rich, warm tone that’s as versatile as it is expressive. Available in two gauges—Extra Light (38–98) and Medium (43–108)— Smoothie Flats are crafted with a precision-polished cobalt alloy ribbon for low tension, flexible playability, and deep vintage-inspired sound.
Ernie Ball: Pino Palladino Signature Smoothie Flats Bass Strings
Product Features:
- Precision polished for an ultra-smooth feel
- Cobalt alloy ribbon winding for a rich, deep sound
- Flexible, low-tension design for superior playability
- Trusted by Pino Palladino for studio and live performance
Pino Palladino Signature Smoothie Flats bass strings are available at Ernie Ball dealers worldwide.
Cool compression profile that yields blooming and nasty fuzz with fangs. Simple. Excellent value!
Not a ton of variation in the fuzz’s simple controls.
One big, bad, and very boss no-frills fuzz.
On the surface, fuzz is an almost barbarian concept—a nasty sound that’s easy to grasp in our imaginations. But contrast David Gilmour’s ultra-creamy Big Muff sounds with James Gurley’s free and visceral fuzz passages from Big Brother and the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrillsand you remember that two different fuzzes, in the hands of two different players, can speak very different languages. The latter artist concerns us here because Gurley did his work with a Jordan Boss Tone, which is the inspiration for the Ananashead Spirit Fuzz.
Ananashead’s Pedro Garcia has a knack for weirder 1960s fuzzes. HisMeteorite silicon Fuzzrite clone, for instance, is a knockout. This take on the two-transistor Boss Tone is equally thrilling, and genuinely idiosyncratic when it runs at full tilt. It exhibits tasty inherent compression, and transient notes ring out as pronounced and concise before blooming into full viciousness—a quality that shines when paired with neck-position humbuckers (and which probably made the original circuit appealing to Spirit’s Randy California, another 1960s Boss Tone devotee). That tone profile gives the Spirit Fuzz meatiness that stands out among ’60s-style two-transistor circuits, and the sense of mass, combined with the pedal’s intrinsic focus, makes it superb for tracking. The Spirit loves humbuckers, which coax real sweetness from the circuit. But it was just as happy to take a ride with a Jaguar bridge pickup and an old Fender Vibrolux with the reverb at 10. Sounds painful, right? On the contrary, it was one of the most haunting fuzz sounds I can remember playing.