Shrine - Jeff Beck
If we exclude the 2022 album of covers by Beck and actor Johnny Depp, "Shrine" is the last track on Jeff Beck's last solo album, "Loud Hailer", written and performed by the guitarist who died on January 10th of this year.
In a digital age which benefits the mediocre, Beck's excellence shines all the more brightly. He didn't so much follow musical trends and styles as explore them on his own terms, and re-energise them. In his solo albums, song after song, tune after tune, are anchored around his virtuoso guitar, never obtrusive, always perfectly articulated, straight from, and to, the heart.
So, last track, last side, last album, a fitting epitaph:
"Everything done, has been done before, hunger for power and thirst for war. Spent my days standing in the pouring rain, but I know that I'm on my way.
I'll never lose my faith in rock 'n' roll, never let hate make a home in my soul. Seven thousand temples came crashing down, but I know that I'm on my way.
Who do I believe in, I believe in me. Worship at the shrine of the human body. Who do I pray to, I think I'll pray to you. Got faith in the good things, that good humans can do.
Must we destroy what we don't understand?
All of these labels man-made by man.
Bad times have past, bad times will come,
but I know that I'm on my way........
.....Who do I believe in, I believe in me. Worship at the shrine... who do I pray to, I pray to you. Faith in the good things, that good humans can do."
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