‘Jeff Beck: Still On The Run’ Is Predictable Bio-Doc Of Unpredictable Guitar Hero 

There’s a pretty good chance Jeff Beck is your favorite guitar player’s favorite guitarist. However, for someone generally accepted as one of the greats of the electric guitar, I’m willing to wager most people couldn’t name a song of his. That’s part of what makes him cool, and also what can be frustrating if you’re a fan. The new Showtime documentary Jeff Beck: Still On The Run tries to unravel the mystery of “the guitar player who builds hot rods,” as friend and rival Eric Clapton calls him.

Since emerging in the mid-’60s, Beck has repeatedly upended expectations, breaking up groups and changing musical styles with little care for their effects on his career. He pioneered leaden hard rock with the first Jeff Beck Group, flirted with funk and R&B with the second, and released two of the most successful fusion albums of all time. Even his playing is unlike other guitar heroes, with moments of extended shredding nearly absent from his discography. Beck plays guitar like a boxer, jabbing you with short displays of his power landing a knockout with a devastating combination of indisputable technique and raw emotion. If a note gets flubbed or an amp explodes along the way, so be it.

The documentary begins with Beck in his garage building hot rods. It’s long been assumed he cares more about his automobiles than his music, but really, both are extensions of his restless desire to keep himself amused. We then see a parade of classic rock musicians pay homage to the consummate guitarist’s guitarist. Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour calls him “a maverick.” Singer Rod Stewart – who arguably owes him his career – says he’s “The most original guitar player, ever.” Slash of Guns N’ Roses’ describes him as, “the Pablo Picasso of electric guitar.” They’re all correct. Except for Slash, to whom Beck said, “I would think I was more the Jackson Pollack.” Quite right Jeff.

As a boy Beck gravitated to the guitar after hearing Les Paul’s innovative ’50s recordings and later flipped his lid over the first rush of rockabilly and rock n’ roll artists. In high school his sister introduced him to “a geek at school who’s got a weird looking guitar like yours.” That geek was future Led Zeppelin guru Jimmy Page. Beck describes their relationship as “like two brothers,” and their sibling rivalry would push guitar playing to new heights as they dissected their favorite licks and guitar sounds, and became two of the most important British rock guitarists of all-time.

The traditional third in the Holy Trinity of Brit Guitar Gods is Clapton, who Beck replaced in blues-minded British Invasion group The Yardbirds (they originally asked Page, who recommended his mate before joining a couple years later). After seeing his replacement with the group, Clapton claims he considered retiring. With The Yardbirds, Beck’s aggressive and progressive guitar work powered a string of hits, but touring didn’t suit the mercurial guitarist, and he quit / got fired several dates into a U.S. tour.

Back in England, Beck recruited then-unknowns Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood into the first Jeff Beck Group, whose two albums set the template for the next decade of guitar-heavy hard rock. The band, however, was not to last. Stewart had solo aspirations and Beck still didn’t care much for touring. They broke up a month before a scheduled appearance at the historic Woodstock Festival. A couple years later he formed another Jeff Beck Group, which included powerhouse drummer and Beck-lookalike Cozy Powell, who explored funk and R&B textures on two interesting if uneven albums, which are given short shrift in the documentary.

After a one-off detour into boogie metal with Beck, Bogart & Appice, the guitarist decided he was done with lead singers and the band format altogether. In the mid-’70s he teamed up with former Beatles producer George Martin and put out two instrumental jazz rock fusion albums which reinvigorated his career and cemented his reputation. Since then he has released records whenever he feels like it, unafraid to explore new avenues, and even on occasion has deigned to collaborate with vocalists again, though his guitar playing is always front and center. As George Martin says, “He sings with his guitar.”

Jeff Beck: Still On The Run is a fine enough biographical documentary of the guitarist, but doesn’t fully capture or explain his greatness beyond a bunch of talking heads telling you he’s great. Brief interludes are spent explaining his unique technique and the major plot point of his career are covered, but you’re left wanting more. More music, more guitar playing. Ironically, it’s a problem shared by his career, which is full of starts and stops, great albums followed by half-assed follow ups, and incredible ideas never fully brought to fruition. Beck, however, has never been eager to please, and in an industry of glad-handers and hacks, that’s admirable. As Aerosmith’s Joe Perrys says, “There’s a certain amount of fuck you-ness to everything that Jeff does,” and rock n’ roll and guitar playing are the better for it.

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer, guitarist and Jeff Beck fan. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.

Stream Jeff Beck: Still On The Run on Showtime