Beatles legend Paul McCartney recently paid tribute ot British guitar legend Jeff Beck, recently passed away at age 78. The eight-time Grammy winner is survived by his wife Sandra. Beck’s death quickly reverberated around the music world, with tributes pouring in from rock icons, Paul McCartney, Ozzy Osbourne, with whom Beck once collaborated, and Kiss lead singer Gene Simmons, who called Beck’s passing “heartbreaking.”
A Tweet from his Twitter account on January 11 noted that on behalf of his family that “after suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday,” as can be seen here.The Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer rose to prominence with The Yardbirds. He died “suddenly.”
Beck famously replaced Eric Clapton as The Yardbirds lead guitarist in 1965 and later went on to form The Jeff Beck Group, which featured Rod Stewart on vocals and Ron Wood on bass. Their two albums — “Truth” (1968) and “Beck-Ola” (1969) — would become musical touchstones for hard rockers in the years to come.
Paul McCartney reveals Jeff Beck’s unreleased song
McCartney shared the song they collaborated on during the ’90s as a part of a vegetarianism campaign. The track is entitled “Why Are They Cutting Down The Rainforest?”
As the title suggests, the song carries a strong environmental message as a response to the damaging impact of deforestation.
The news came via an Instagram post in which McCartney wrote the following:
“With the sad passing of Jeff Beck – a good friend of mine, and a great, great guitar player – it reminded me of the time we worked together many years ago on a campaign for vegetarianism. – Paul
Almost 30 years since it was recorded, Jeff’s message remains as relevant as ever. Check out the message and never-before-heard piece of music by Jeff and Paul at @meatfreemonday.”
The song itself is short in length and sprinkled with some straightforward Beck dialogue concerning the topic in question. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that there’s still plenty of solid, gain-laden guitar work here, along with some acoustic guitar progressions.
