And on Wednesday it was the turn of Jeff Beck to leave us too early. He was one of that group of English exponents of the electric guitar which sprang up in the early to mid-sixties. But Beck was the electric guitarist’s electric guitarist.
Sadly he never gained the commercial success on his own account to match his status with his peers. He really only had the one hit and that track, Hi-Ho Silver Lining, wasn’t representative of Beck’s musical tastes.
I haven’t had Marillion here for a while. This is a clever reworking of the nursery rhyme, with a sly Yardbirds reference thrown in. As I recall when the band appeared on Top of the Pops with this Fish had a sore throat and was unable to sing so he held up the lyrics on cards à la Bob Dylan. Not that he needed to as I’m sure miming was prevalent in those days.
I mentioned when I began this category that The Jeff Beck Group’s Hi-Ho Silver Lining had been the runner-up in the competition which started off these musings.
Tallyman was The Jeff Beck Group’s follow-up single and as far as I recall failed to trouble the charts in any way and as a result is much less known these days than its predecessor. Tallyman has the distinction of being written by Graham Gouldman who composed 60s hits for among others The Yardbirds and The Hollies. Gouldman is now more famous for being a member of 10cc.
