(Credit: Alamy)
Tue 13 May 2025 18:30, UK
No one ever really talks about Paul McCartney as a technician. On the incredibly rare occasion you meet someone who is relatively unfamiliar with his work, you don’t speak to him as a sort of Jimi Hendrix-like figure who bent the mind with his skill. He’s more of an all-encompassing genius who seemingly has songs that exist deep in his bones.
While the kernel of McCartney’s genius is in his songwriting innovation, his instrumental technicality drives it forward. Be it the achingly tender finger-picking melody of ‘Blackbird’ or the abstract production of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, McCartney’s hands can put themselves to most instruments with relative ease and mighty skill.
As such, his place in the pantheon of greats isn’t just cemented, but it sits somewhere over the top, looking down at the great innovators and creatives who followed in his slipstream. For in the decade that followed The Beatles’ greatness, the floodgates of creativity opened. In the 1970s, the world welcomed the mind-altering style of the likes of Jimi Hendrix, John Bonham and Alice Coltrane, who not only ushered in new modes of songwriting, but did it with a signature playing style that made them bastions of respective instruments.
But one guitarist in particular caught the eye of McCartney for his technical ability. Labelling him “a superb technician” and someone who “could strip down his guitar and put it back together again in time for the show” was Jeff Beck.
McCartney said, “His unique style of playing was something that no one could match.”
He continued, “Jeff had immaculate taste in most things” and recalled how “his no nonsense attitude to the music business was always so refreshing”.
McCartney paid tribute to Beck after his death in 2023, as well as releasing a previously unheard recording of the legendary Beatle and guitar virtuoso collaborating. While the pair shared their primary passion of music, they also bonded over environmental activism. In the recording, Beck can be heard delivering an inspired message about environmentalism, where he discussed deforestation, cattle grazing, and vegetarianism.
But the message is laid on top of a piece of instrumental music which the pair collaborated on. It showcased a relatively signature McCartney tempo with a sprawling solo from Beck, who proves all of McCartney’s gushes to be true.
“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,” McCartney shared in an Instagram video. “It’s great guitar playing, because it’s Jeff. So if you’d like to hear it, if you’d like to hear what we did and the messages of the campaign, go to this link, and you’ll hear it.”
It was a tantalising look into a shockingly sparse collaborative offering. Given the mutually appreciated feelings between the pair, it could be considered as one of music’s great shames that the pair ever laid down nothing more substantial. In fact, it’s all the more gutwrenching when you learn that the opportunity did arise. On the power rock track ‘Rockestra Theme’ from Wings’ Back To The Egg, Macca enlisted an army of famous friends, including Pete Townshend, David Gilmour and the relentless John Bonham.
But Beck was perhaps the cook that spoiled the broth, and upon his agreement to join the project on the basis he would have creative control over the guitar parts, McCartney withdrew his invitation. So I guess that leaves us with a 90-second recording to savour as we spend the rest of our time wondering what could have been.
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