For Your Love

Last week’s musing paid homage to Lisa Marie Presley, whose untimely passing on Jan. 12 came as a shock to millions of admirers, worldwide. Sadly, Lisa Marie’s passing was preceded by the timelier passing of guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck on Jan. 10.

I don’t mean to be cruel: Don’t be cruel to a heart that’s true. Baby if it made you mad for somethin’ that I might have said. Please let’s forget the past, the future looks bright ahead. Don’t be cruel, I got a heart so true. (“Don’t Be Cruel” – Elvis Presley – 1956)

Excuse me, I don’t mean to be cruel to Jeff Beck by calling his passing “timelier”; after all he was 78 at the time of his death, compared to Lisa Marie’s untimely passing at age 54.

Beck, the blues-rock innovator and two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee who revolutionized how the guitar was played, died suddenly after contracting bacterial meningitis. Beck, who is an eight-time Grammy winner, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, both as a member of the Yardbirds, as well as his work with his own Jeff Beck Group.

Beck’s Yardbirds bandmate Jimmy Page, who inducted the guitarist into the Rock Hall in 2009, immortalized him, saying, “The six-stringed warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions. Jeff could channel music from the ethereal.” Beck was encouraged by Page to audition for the Yardbirds in 1965 after Eric Clapton left the group for becoming “too poppy.”

Nevertheless, the Yardbirds soon recorded a string of hit songs that included “Heart Full of Soul,” “Evil Hearted You,” “Shapes of Things” and “Over Under Sideways Down.”

Another song, “For Your Love,” is one of my favorites: For your love, for your love, for your love, I’d give you everything and more, and that’s for sure. For your love I’d bring you diamond rings and things right to your door. To thrill you with delight, I’ll give you diamonds bright. There’ll be things that will excite to make you dream of me at night. (“For Your Love” – The Yardbirds – 1964)

You don’t hear Jeff Beck’s songs very much anymore, other than on Sirius Radio’s Classic Rock and Deep Tracks channels. However, I did hear “For Your Love” on a low-power radio station out of Yucaipa that I discovered recently, KQLH, located at 92.5 on the FM dial. Their low-power broadcast signal can be heard, not just in Yucaipa, it also reaches Oak Glen, Redlands, San Bernardino and, amazingly, Crestline. They mostly play songs from the 50s, 60s and 70s. Apparently, there are a lot of us older folks, like me, in these areas that enjoy listing to oldies.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll be seeing you again next week, same time, same station.

Keep it flyin’,

Uncle Mott