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Lot Essay
Since seeing them perform as a child in the film The Girl Can’t Help It, Jeff Beck had been a huge fan of Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps, in particular the lead guitarist, Cliff Gallup. From the mid-1980s he went on somewhat of a quest to emulate Gallup’s playing, studying his technique and licks, and tracking down the perfect guitar with which to pay tribute to his hero. 'I knew Cliff [Gallup] used [a Gretsch Duo Jet] 'cause there's quite a good picture on the sleeve of the album "Blue Jean Bop"', Beck told journalist Douglas Noble in 1993. 'At the time it was a mystery guitar because you couldn't see the headstock so there were all these rumours flying around about what it could be. Once we'd established it was a Duo Jet we made inroads into getting one. I bought a totally wrong one - a '63, which is now sitting upstairs in my attic. Someone said the one to get was the '56 Duo Jet so I asked for one with a fixed arm Bigsby, only to be told that they don't exist.' Unable to locate a Duo Jet with fixed arm Bigsby initially, Jeff first acquired a swivel arm model [lot 44], which he used to record his 1993 album Crazy Legs with the Big Town Playboys in tribute to Cliff Gallup.
It was Peter Richardson who had first mentioned the Playboys to Beck, and urged him to see them for himself. Mike Sanchez, the Playboys' lead vocalist and pianist remembered that ‘Jeff came to see us on a few dates in London, and invited us to his house to jam. That early rock 'n' roll - Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, the Johnny Burnette Trio - was the first kind of music I really fell in love with, so it was well familiar.’ The Playboys were then invited by Richardson to perform on The Pope Must Die, so Beck and the guys met up again. ‘We've played together many times at parties and rehearsals, messing around with covers and original songs,’ says Sanchez. ‘Then we came up with the idea of the Cliff Gallup/Gene Vincent tribute.’ Beck recalled the event to Noble: 'I saw the Big Town Playboys on the recommendation of a friend and I fell in love with their music. They were really rockin' and they weren't even all that loud - they could get the audience excited without having to use blasting volume. You could hear everything clearly and there was more energy per square inch than any other band. They did have that kind of '50s Blue Caps aura about them even though they weren't playing Gene Vincent material. I just wanted to muscle in and try to help them in some way. So, I had a play with them but it wasn't too successful - I was just blowing too much and playing way too busy. I thought about what sort of music we could play in which I could still do my thing - you know, three solos per song! - but still have cred with them. The Gene Vincent material seemed the perfect solution.'
Having the right guitar was not enough for Beck, he wanted to have the rest of the package too: 'I had the right sort of guitar for when we started the 'Crazy Legs' album - a Gretsch Duo Jet - so I thought if I'd gone this far I may as well try to pick in the same way as Gallup,' Beck told Noble. 'I remembered reading this interview with Cliff Gallup in a magazine years and years ago [Guitar Player, December '83] where he talks about his playing technique but I couldn't remember where it was. I had a stack of magazines but I just couldn't find it! In the end I had to get in photocopied and faxed from the States. It was a bit smudgy and right where he was talking about picking the page was blurred! So I still couldn't use it! Then something amazing happened - an American journalist [Chris Gill] who had some of Cliff's picks gave them to me along with a little letter. He used metal fingerpicks on his middle and ring fingers, but to fit them in an envelope to post them Cliff had flattened them out! He also used a huge, triangular plectrum with his thumb and first finger. Now, I tried that but it was hopeless - I couldn't do it at all! I found myself using the pick only and the other two fingers were just hanging around doing nothing. My normal style is using thumb and first two fingers, so I put fingerpicks on my fingers and a thumbpick on my thumb.'
Recalling the recording of Crazy Legs, Beck told Noble: 'Before we recorded the album I put a new set of strings on thinking that was a good idea but I was getting a lot of string whistle. If I rolled off the top to get rid of it then I lost the tone so I sent my roadie out to get some flatwound strings and he thought I had gone mad! So I got a flatwound third, fourth, fifth and sixth and instantly that was the sound with no whistle. I don't know the gauge but they're thick! I used a Fender Bassman reissue - a nice mellow low end and a piercing top end - why they call it a Bassman when it's got such a top end I just don't know! I borrowed it from the Fender Sound House... We were roaring away for the first four days of recording and got four or five keepers then it slowed down. We had to fix the rhythm guitar a few times to get the right feel - the guitarist in the Blue Caps wasn't actually playing chords to be heard but for the "chunkiness" to fit with the drums. We did everything live - everyone playing together - and there was a bit of a problem with leakage, so we just had to make sure we got a good take. If there was a problem it was usually with the arrangement rather than the feel. It would take us about three takes to get a track - if you listen to the Vincent master tapes they would sometimes do 14 takes to get a song so I didn't feel so bad. But then again, we were copying rather than making a new song so it was a lot easier. The guitar parts were all difficult to get right. Some of the harder sounding things like the triplet runs were not hard at all but it's what you do after the runs that counts. I put myself in Cliff's shoes for a month and I've got to take my hat off to him - if he came out with those solos off the top of his head then the guy was more of a monster than I ever believed. Having said that, I've tried to copy myself sometimes and it's not easy to copy something spontaneous.'
'I'm not pretending that we've done a better job than the original [Gene Vincent material]', Jeff continued, 'in fact, I hope people go back and check out the original. This album is my first impression of what rock should sound like - I always mentioned this in earlier interviews but no one seemed to know what I was talking about. The original still has this incredible aura about it and we've missed that but we have been able to improve on the quality of the sound, not that that makes it necessarily better. We've got the right atmosphere and the grooves are right. There weren't any electronics to rely on - it's just four guys playing behind Mike Sanchez, the singer. I was the only electric instrument which struck me as quite frightening at first - the bass player was playing double bass. We used some old recording equipment as well - a Fairchild limiter and a battleship grey Pultec with black Bakelite knobs perched up on the desk. I don't know the technical details about how they work, but we used them to try to recreate the warmth of those early records - nowadays everything sounds very brittle, hissy and bright. If people are disappointed with the album 'cause I didn't do my own thing then they're missing the point. I wanted to show people what Cliff was doing and I wanted to be Cliff when we were doing it. The solos are so beautifully formed with a beginning, middle and end that they're like small miracles.'
Jeff continued his search and was lucky enough to locate his ideal Duo Jet with fixed arm Bigsby around the time that he wrapped recording on Crazy Legs. Beck told Noble: 'I kept looking and now I've got two - one with a swivel arm Bigsby, which I used on the album [lot 44] and one with an original fixed arm factory fitted Bigsby, which I got after the album [this lot]. When I got the fixed arm guitar - by golly! - it was a lot closer to the Gallup sound. I don't know whether it's the resonance through the Bigsby arm or what, but it seemed far closer.' After acquiring the fixed arm model, which better aligned with the Gallup look and sound, Jeff immediately opted to use this guitar in promotional photographs with the Big Town Playboys ahead of the release of Crazy Legs.
This guitar would remain a favourite for the rest of his career. When asked to induct Gene Vincent into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, Beck played Vincent's hit 'Be-Bop-A-Lula' on this guitar, with Jonny Lang on acoustic guitar and vocals. It would take centre stage again when Jeff paid tribute to another of his heroes - Les Paul - on what would have been Les' 95th birthday, when he played with Imelda May and her band at the Iridium Club in New York on 9 June 2010. A recording of the tribute show was later released as the live concert CD and DVD Rock 'n' Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul).
It was Peter Richardson who had first mentioned the Playboys to Beck, and urged him to see them for himself. Mike Sanchez, the Playboys' lead vocalist and pianist remembered that ‘Jeff came to see us on a few dates in London, and invited us to his house to jam. That early rock 'n' roll - Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, the Johnny Burnette Trio - was the first kind of music I really fell in love with, so it was well familiar.’ The Playboys were then invited by Richardson to perform on The Pope Must Die, so Beck and the guys met up again. ‘We've played together many times at parties and rehearsals, messing around with covers and original songs,’ says Sanchez. ‘Then we came up with the idea of the Cliff Gallup/Gene Vincent tribute.’ Beck recalled the event to Noble: 'I saw the Big Town Playboys on the recommendation of a friend and I fell in love with their music. They were really rockin' and they weren't even all that loud - they could get the audience excited without having to use blasting volume. You could hear everything clearly and there was more energy per square inch than any other band. They did have that kind of '50s Blue Caps aura about them even though they weren't playing Gene Vincent material. I just wanted to muscle in and try to help them in some way. So, I had a play with them but it wasn't too successful - I was just blowing too much and playing way too busy. I thought about what sort of music we could play in which I could still do my thing - you know, three solos per song! - but still have cred with them. The Gene Vincent material seemed the perfect solution.'
Having the right guitar was not enough for Beck, he wanted to have the rest of the package too: 'I had the right sort of guitar for when we started the 'Crazy Legs' album - a Gretsch Duo Jet - so I thought if I'd gone this far I may as well try to pick in the same way as Gallup,' Beck told Noble. 'I remembered reading this interview with Cliff Gallup in a magazine years and years ago [Guitar Player, December '83] where he talks about his playing technique but I couldn't remember where it was. I had a stack of magazines but I just couldn't find it! In the end I had to get in photocopied and faxed from the States. It was a bit smudgy and right where he was talking about picking the page was blurred! So I still couldn't use it! Then something amazing happened - an American journalist [Chris Gill] who had some of Cliff's picks gave them to me along with a little letter. He used metal fingerpicks on his middle and ring fingers, but to fit them in an envelope to post them Cliff had flattened them out! He also used a huge, triangular plectrum with his thumb and first finger. Now, I tried that but it was hopeless - I couldn't do it at all! I found myself using the pick only and the other two fingers were just hanging around doing nothing. My normal style is using thumb and first two fingers, so I put fingerpicks on my fingers and a thumbpick on my thumb.'
Recalling the recording of Crazy Legs, Beck told Noble: 'Before we recorded the album I put a new set of strings on thinking that was a good idea but I was getting a lot of string whistle. If I rolled off the top to get rid of it then I lost the tone so I sent my roadie out to get some flatwound strings and he thought I had gone mad! So I got a flatwound third, fourth, fifth and sixth and instantly that was the sound with no whistle. I don't know the gauge but they're thick! I used a Fender Bassman reissue - a nice mellow low end and a piercing top end - why they call it a Bassman when it's got such a top end I just don't know! I borrowed it from the Fender Sound House... We were roaring away for the first four days of recording and got four or five keepers then it slowed down. We had to fix the rhythm guitar a few times to get the right feel - the guitarist in the Blue Caps wasn't actually playing chords to be heard but for the "chunkiness" to fit with the drums. We did everything live - everyone playing together - and there was a bit of a problem with leakage, so we just had to make sure we got a good take. If there was a problem it was usually with the arrangement rather than the feel. It would take us about three takes to get a track - if you listen to the Vincent master tapes they would sometimes do 14 takes to get a song so I didn't feel so bad. But then again, we were copying rather than making a new song so it was a lot easier. The guitar parts were all difficult to get right. Some of the harder sounding things like the triplet runs were not hard at all but it's what you do after the runs that counts. I put myself in Cliff's shoes for a month and I've got to take my hat off to him - if he came out with those solos off the top of his head then the guy was more of a monster than I ever believed. Having said that, I've tried to copy myself sometimes and it's not easy to copy something spontaneous.'
'I'm not pretending that we've done a better job than the original [Gene Vincent material]', Jeff continued, 'in fact, I hope people go back and check out the original. This album is my first impression of what rock should sound like - I always mentioned this in earlier interviews but no one seemed to know what I was talking about. The original still has this incredible aura about it and we've missed that but we have been able to improve on the quality of the sound, not that that makes it necessarily better. We've got the right atmosphere and the grooves are right. There weren't any electronics to rely on - it's just four guys playing behind Mike Sanchez, the singer. I was the only electric instrument which struck me as quite frightening at first - the bass player was playing double bass. We used some old recording equipment as well - a Fairchild limiter and a battleship grey Pultec with black Bakelite knobs perched up on the desk. I don't know the technical details about how they work, but we used them to try to recreate the warmth of those early records - nowadays everything sounds very brittle, hissy and bright. If people are disappointed with the album 'cause I didn't do my own thing then they're missing the point. I wanted to show people what Cliff was doing and I wanted to be Cliff when we were doing it. The solos are so beautifully formed with a beginning, middle and end that they're like small miracles.'
Jeff continued his search and was lucky enough to locate his ideal Duo Jet with fixed arm Bigsby around the time that he wrapped recording on Crazy Legs. Beck told Noble: 'I kept looking and now I've got two - one with a swivel arm Bigsby, which I used on the album [lot 44] and one with an original fixed arm factory fitted Bigsby, which I got after the album [this lot]. When I got the fixed arm guitar - by golly! - it was a lot closer to the Gallup sound. I don't know whether it's the resonance through the Bigsby arm or what, but it seemed far closer.' After acquiring the fixed arm model, which better aligned with the Gallup look and sound, Jeff immediately opted to use this guitar in promotional photographs with the Big Town Playboys ahead of the release of Crazy Legs.
This guitar would remain a favourite for the rest of his career. When asked to induct Gene Vincent into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, Beck played Vincent's hit 'Be-Bop-A-Lula' on this guitar, with Jonny Lang on acoustic guitar and vocals. It would take centre stage again when Jeff paid tribute to another of his heroes - Les Paul - on what would have been Les' 95th birthday, when he played with Imelda May and her band at the Iridium Club in New York on 9 June 2010. A recording of the tribute show was later released as the live concert CD and DVD Rock 'n' Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul).