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On March 24th, 1999 I went to see the legendary Jeff Beck at Toronto’s even more legendary Massey Hall.
“Waitaminnit,” (some of you are probably thinking), “You [meaning: me] consider an old concert hall to be more legendary than Jeff freakin’ Beck?!?! Dude played with The Yardbirds for crying out loud…”
I know, I know…calm down. I certainly appreciated Jeff Beck, a guitar player’s guitar player if ever there was one. I realize that the guy had put more practise, finesse, and downright emotion into a semitone string bend than a lot of guitar players have put into their entire careers. And for this concert he included amongst his crackerjack band the fantastic Jennifer Batten, a two-hand tapping pioneer who tasted fame as Michael Jackson’s flamboyant guitar player.
And of course it was a great show, a veritable workshop on both technique and musicality from start to finish from everyone onstage. But getting back to Massey Hall itself…
When Jeff Beck was founded in 1944 (on the 24th of June, to be precise), Massey Hall had already been making headlines for fifty years (and ten days; the debut concert was held on June 14th, 1894), and since the official opening the hall has been hosting a mouthwatering who’s who of every genre imaginable for lucky Toronto audiences.
No less than the great John Philip Sousa (inventor of the sousaphone) performed in the grand concert hall shortly after it opened, and as the twentieth century kicked into high gear everyone started dropping in to share their talents.
Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson playing together in their early days, Pete Seeger, George Gershwin, Mahalia Jackson, Glenn Gould at the tender age of just thirteen, and of course the unforgettable Jazz At The Philharmonic concert starring Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell, and Charles Mingus.
Heck, Johnny Cash started his nearly annual concerts at Massey Hall as far back as 1961, a year that also saw Andres Segovia, Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk and the Foggy Mountain Boys (Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt) tread the boards. Bob Dylan played there in 1964 and must have done well; he was booked in for two nights the following year. While the place has always hosted exotic music like Ravi Shankar and Don Ho as far back as the ’60’s and a Reggae Spectacular as early as 1971, it wasn’t until 1968 that the first rock-like concert was staged there (as far as I can find, anyway), which was a show starring Sam & Dave.
After Iron Butterfly and The Electric Turtles (remember them? Me neither) performed at Massey Hall together in February of 1968 the flood gates were open. Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention, Johnny Winter, The Byrds, The Band, even the great Jeff Beck played this very same room way back in 1972.
February, 1973: The Kinks, War, Loretta Lynn with Conway Twitty, John Prine. April of that same year: BB King, Lou Reed, The James Gang, Randy Newman, and The Incredible String Band. Later, that very summer: The Eagles, Cheech & Chong, Dr. Hook, and The Beach Boys were on offer.
All of these bands played in Massey Hall in 1975 (yes, nineteen, freakin’ seventy-five!): Supertramp, Lou Reed, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Roxy Music, John Entwistle, Golden Earring, Santana, Kraftwerk, Rush, Nazareth, Aerosmith, and Paul Simon.
(It makes my mind reel to think that for most of the concerts in the previous three paragraphs I was living right there in the city. If only my parents had been live music freaks, they might just have dragged me out to some of those shows. Crazy.)
Imagine, if you will, seeing AC/DC (with Bon Scott) playing at Massey Hall in ’79. Imagine!
So yeah, Jeff Beck (1944-2023) was great and was also pretty legendary. Massey Hall frankly isn’t that great (Beck was definitely a better guitarist than Massey Hall is a venue) but it’s got him beat by a mile in the “legend” department.
(This history lesson was cheerfully brought to you by a pleasant morning wasted perusing the mouth-watering archives at masseyhallandroythomsonhall.com.)
Todd Man Out 