Rod Stewart & Jeff Beck -- People Get Ready

 

When it comes to instrumentalist masters on this side of the Pacific Ocean, I've usually stayed within the jazz realm with folks such as Bill Evans, John Coltrane and Miles Davis. On the far side of the ocean, it's been with the fusion bands including Casiopea and T-Square. My anime buddy, who's also been an avid guitar fan (so not surprising that he's been very high on "Bocchi the Rock"), has often told me about his odyssey with the instrument through things such as the humbucker, amps and even the types of guitars such as the many Yamahas and Gibsons.

However, despite all that, I'm certainly not a guitar enthusiast and my knowledge of the famous rock guitarists is still considerably limited to the very famous: Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Another guitarist that I know about is Jeff Beck, who unfortunately passed away a couple of days ago at the age of 78. That age may sound rather advanced but I still think that he left us way too soon. And it's all because of the reason that I first got to know about Beck, it was his collaboration with Rod Stewart in 1985 for their cover of The Impressions' "People Get Ready" from 1965. Once again, I'm no expert on guitars or guitarists, but there was something about Beck's work on "People Get Ready" that said that this was a true masterpiece performance on an original. I don't know of many guitars that not only sound as if they're crying but are also in rapture. In fact, I could posit that the singer and guitarist have both stamped an indelible mark with their version as the song to accompany folks taking that train to a far far better place.

The music video (which I first saw back on one of the local music shows in my university days) with the sepia tone and its conclusion of Stewart and Beck finally greeting each other warmly at the dusty train station takes on a lot more poignancy now that the latter has left this mortal coil. I can only imagine now that it is Stewart along with Beck's admirers standing at the station now as Beck leaves on the train to that place, contentedly playing away on his Fender Stratocaster. My condolences to Beck's family, friends and fans.

For comparison, here is The Impressions' original as created by Curtis Mayfield.

For this Reminiscings of Youth, I've decided to go with three of the Gold Prize winners at the Japan Record Awards in 1985.

Hiroshi Itsuki -- Soshite....Meguri Ai （そして。。。めぐり逢い）

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Touch （タッチ）

Yu Hayami -- Passion