That would be a good separate thread: Montrose (whom VH kinda styled themselves after); Keel, Vandenberg, etc.
But Eddie can write songs and also was a singularity in the guitar world, changing everything with his technique, which got popularized because the songs were so good.
I would assume that the reason he is suddenly everywhere is that he got a better publicist/agent who is really pushing to make him seem to be everywhere.
He’s mercurial. I want to say I recall reading a few years ago that he updated his relationships with his manager and label and ended up feeling more inclined to gig.
::Googles::
Yeah, he got a new manager in 2009.
And that guy’s wiki page says
He’s not exactly a noob. Now, I don’t know who was managing/publicizing him before this (or even if Jeff wanted to be this much in the public eye), but back in the 60’s/70’s, this style of music was fairly new, it may have been harder to properly manage. Now, it’s 40-50 years old and we (well, they) know exactly who to market it to and how to market it to them.
I assume bigger better venues and televised concerts probably help quite a bit too. I mentioned in my OP that he was at the Crossroads concert. That’s probably really what got me to notice him the most. If that wasn’t in regular rotation on TV, not only would I not be asking about this, I probably wouldn’t really have thought much of the concert other than hearing it mention once in a while, like I do with the Neil Young Bridge School Benefit Concert. I hear about it, I know it has something to do with his wife, it’s been going on for a long time, I hear about famous people being invited to it, but that’s no substitute for seeing it. Seeing, at least portions of, the Crossroads concert is pretty amazing. It makes just talking about it pretty pointless.
All true. I do believe Beck had been down on touring for years and his new mgmt helped him back out of his shell. He has tinnitus and, again, is a high maintenance guy, so I guess that means Goldsmith has figured out how to help him continue to feel good about touring.
And yeah, seeing his Crossroads work or the Live at Ronnie Scott’s DVD on Palladia or whatever can be a real eye-opener. I always get a kick watching UK Country picker Albert Lee on the Crossroads videos, or Sonny Landreth, the slide virtuoso. Folks that aren’t big with crossover fame, but when you watch them play, your jaw hits the floor.
He was Beck before that other guy Beck.
I know. Drove me crazy for a few years.
Seeing anyone live can be an eyeopener (even on TV). Honestly, I have exactly zero interest in John Mayer, nada, don’t like the dreck he puts out on the radio. Then I saw either a concert or some kind of guitar thing or his crossroads performance, I don’t remember…the guy is an amazing (blues/jam) guitarist. Don’t get me wrong, I understand you can’t put that stuff out on the pop stations and pop is clearly what he’s going for, but I might have hated him less if I knew he could play like that*.
Regarding managers, for some reason, the first ‘classic rock’ (I know, I know British Invasion, kinda) manager I could think of was Peter Grant. He clearly did Led Zeppelin a world of good, but IIRC from reading Hammer Of The Gods, he was kind of an asshole. But I read that book a long time ago, checking his wiki page, it seems like he wasn’t an asshole to his acts, he was an asshole to everyone else, which, in the end, helped out Zeppelin. But I could be wrong.
Sidenote: whenever someone names their kid Joseph (Joe/Joey), I’ll say ‘aww, you named him after me!’, when they look at me all confused, I’ll say 'well, you didn’t name him before me.
*This reminds me of when I was in college, a friend of mine and myself were trying to teach ourselves the guitar, so there was usually one or two in the dorm. There was this guy that would stop over once in a while, ask if he could play it and bust out with some Dave Matthews. We all know that Dave Matthews guitar music is fast moving and (at least on the surface, beyond that, I don’t know) complicated. After a song, he say ‘okay, what do you want to hear next?’. Being that we were learning guitar, we’d say 'something blusey? Led Zeppelin, ‘don’t know any Zeppelin’ and we’d go on requesting all the songs that we knew were based around the 12 bar blues. Between each one he’d say ‘Nope, don’t know that one, how about [Dave Matthews song]’. After a while we realized he didn’t know how to play guitar, he memorized a bunch of DMB songs. I’d be willing to bet he couldn’t play a scale or name a chord. But it still looked impressive.
John Mayer: yeah, exactly. Can be a douche, but really a great player.
Sticking with songs you know: If the dude can play DMB riffs, he’s at least somewhat proficient. But we guitar players are always looking for that Shining Star Moment, where you get to trot out your chops. Players like your friend want to showcase their best riffs and miss that they are playing for themselves and not the listeners. They might as well be showing home movies.
I have never done that before. 
:rolleyes: :smack:
And yeah, Peter Grant was known for being loud, unafraid to use his size to intimidate and passionately committed to his band. As far as Zep was concerned, he was the best.
A favorite Beck photo of mine: Jeff and Tal on bass
Cool. Yeah, as stated upthread, Beck always has good musicians. Clearly getting in with Beck is one of those “enough said” things on your resume, like playing with Prince, or Miles Davis or Art Blakey.
In addition to the throughline of Eddie Lang > Django Reinhardt > Les Paul > Jeff Beck, the other favorite of Beck’s is John McLaughlin. You hear Mahavishnu’s influence in some of the out there stuff Beck incorporates in his phrasing and techniques.
Hey, hey HEY! Don’t just leave out one of the most respected phrases in music like that! “Ex-Frank Zappa band” is enough to keep someone gigging for decades too!
I saw Jeff “open” for McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra at Winterland back in the day. The evening ended with Jeff joining John onstage…it was a real treat to see them them trading off licks–what a night!
True, that. I have never really dug into Zappa, but I certainly agree that the imprimatur is a huge sign of respect in the biz.