Jeff Beck Hates The Other Beck

In an unexpected move, legendary rock guitarist Jeff Beck has announced that he has been in the throes of depression for six years, based on the growing success of the singer Beck Hansen, who goes by the name one-word moniker Beck. The Rag spoke with Jeff Beck, who is currently touring the US, at his hotel in Detroit.

In case you‚ve never heard of Jeff Beck, he has been playing music professionally since the early 60‚s, and was inducted in the Rock and roll Hall of Fame in 1992 as a member of the Yardbirds, a group that also spawned more famous guitarists Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

"It started out pretty innocently when that "Loser" song came out in 1994," Jeff Beck explains. "People made jokes about the chap, saying "Oh, you mean like Jeff Beck? I thought it was cute, and I certainly wasn't worried about the shoe being on the other foot."

It wasn't until Beck released his second album, Odelay, in 1996 that Jeff Beck began to realize his incumbent status as the lesser-known musician named Beck.

"I'd heard a lot about Odelay, and I‚d meant to check it out. I remember getting the call from my manager telling me it was nominated for Album of the Year. For fuck‚s sake, I haven‚t been in the running for an Album of the Year nomination since Wired in 1976!" Jeff Beck then started to cry.

Wondering whether or not he should go to the Grammys, Jeff Beck opted to face his fears and arrange for tickets. He was unable to acquire them. "It was pretty demeaning. I mean, I‚m in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fucking Fame!"

"I guess it makes sense that they would only want people at the Grammys who have sold more than 500 records in the last 20 years, but it still hurts to know you‚re an ex-legend." The week after the Grammys, Beck was dropped by Epic, his record label.

"After Odelay won album of the Year, I knew that whenever anyone referred to "Beck", they were talking about that fucking man-child. Not only does no one ever refer to me as Beck anymore, I started to get the feeling no one referred to me at all anymore, except when saying things like "Hey, look at all these Jeff Beck albums in the used section.‚ " Jeff Beck has had numerous troubling experiences while touring. "When I'm booking a hotel room, it‚s really annoying having the same conversation over and over. [mimes phone] 'No, I'm not Beck, I'm Jeff Beck, I'm in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame'‚ Sometimes they hang up, and I have to call back, because they think I‚m crank calling them."

Jeff Beck is now in intensive therapy, and is trying to pick up the pieces of his Rock and Roll ego. His catalogue has just been released by Smells Like Records. The Rag spoke to Smells Like founder Buzz McCorkindale, who told us, "Yeah, we released the old Lee Hazlewood records recently, and I'd heard Jeff Beck had fallen on hard times, so we gave him a call. It's been a lot of fun putting out those records, because now we get to tell everyone "we own the rights to the Beck catalogue.‚ "It's been a pretty good gag around the office, if a bit expensive. I mean, obviously, the next Christina Rosenvinge album will outsell all the Jeff Beck albums. I still think it‚s a funny joke though.

"I should give some credit- the whole idea was Thurston Moore's. We were drinking one night at Thurston's with the real Beck and Mike D. of the Beastie Boys. Mike D. says, "Put on your favorite Beck album. So Thurston goes to his record room, and comes out with this record, but he won‚t show us what it is. He puts it on, and we had no idea what it was. Then Thurston whips out the cover, and it was Beck-ola! We all instantly lost it- everybody just fell over themselves laughing. I mean, who owns any Jeff Beck records? I must say, it‚s a pretty good record, if extremely dated.

Jeff Beck's new album, My Name is Jeff Beck and I Am in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, will be released in the spring on Smells Like Records.