BECK IS BACK; DIFFERENT SOUNDS ABOUND FOR LEGEND'S RETURN TO U.S.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer

In the '60s, Jeff Beck, the guitar hero's guitar hero, gave Jimi Hendrix a run for his money. In the '70s, he jazz-rocked with the best of 'em and in the '80s did cameos on some of the decade's top albums. Then he simply vanished.

Now, the man Eric Clapton called ``the best guitarist around'' is back with ``Who Else!'' (Epic), his first album of originals since the Grammy-winning ``Guitar Shop'' in 1989. So, where have you been, Mr. Beck?

``I knew I had to do something now,'' Beck says. ``It's been frustrating to have done so much and then sort of get passed by. But it's always been difficult for me - I'm basically an instrumentalist who doesn't sing - to put albums together and keep a band on the road. That's why there's been so many career moves.''

To say the least. Beck is almost as well-known for his mercurial moods and ever-changing band members as he is for spectacular fretwork. A contemporary of Clapton and Jimmy Page and generally considered better than both, Beck's restless creative spirit won't allow him to trade on past glories.

Instead of cutting a blues album or a pale imitation of ``Blow by Blow,'' the George Martin-produced jazz-fusion classic that went to No. 4 in the albums chart in 1975 and sold a million copies, Beck appropriates the rhythmic energy of electronic music forms such as techno and jungle while also exploring the intriguing modalities of Arabic and Irish music on ``Who Else!''

``He's one of those rare musicians that keeps growing, that gets more creative and imaginative all the time, that keeps changing,'' said Annette Carson, author of ``Crazy Fingers,'' a self-published biography of Beck. ``And I think that's hurt him in the marketplace today because you really have to keep up with what he's doing to appreciate him. It seems today's music fans like to get their entertainment in easily digested packages.''

Today's fast-paced rhythms are a perfect setting for the six-string intensity of a guitarist who first went public replacing Clapton and preceding boyhood pal Page in the Yardbirds. Afterward, he formed the first Jeff Beck Group with singer Rod Stewart and future Rolling Stone Ron Wood. The group's ``Truth'' album is generally considered the blueprint for hard rock.

``That record was done with genuine love,'' Beck, 54, says from London. ``We'd gotten polished on the road to the point where we just set up some microphones and played. We just chose the best guitar solos and vocals, and it was in the box - finished. Most of the records we love from the '50s were done the same way. There was an event, an exciting event that took place and that was captured. It wasn't a feet-up-on-the-couch thing. Today, it's listening to a click track for three hours. Recording has become a horrible process.''

Beck appears Saturday at the Universal Amphitheatre with a new band that includes virtuoso guitarist Jennifer Batten, who spent 10 years on the road with Michael Jackson.

``After 10 years of playing `Billy Jean,' it's just awesome to stretch and grow,'' Batten said from her Fillmore home. ``I'm playing guitar synth with Jeff, and there's a lot of room for improvisation. It's a whole new world of sound. And I'm trying to get him to bring back some older stuff, even as far back as the Yardbirds.''

Beck's missteps are almost as well-known as the things he's done right.

He admits breaking up the first Beck group just days before playing Woodstock (``It was one of the worst things I've ever done.''); going to Detroit to record at Motown (``My drummer moves the drums out of the studio and puts his in. This engineer comes up and says, `You guys came for the Motown sound, right? Well, it just went out the door.' ''); the ill-fated '70s power trio Beck, Bogert and Appice (``Completely out of control''); and making one of the worst albums of the '80s, ``Flash,'' produced with an apparent complete lack of interest by Chic's Nile Rodgers (``I had nothing to do with it!'').

But there's also been some fine session work from Beck on '80s albums by the likes of Tina Turner, Mick Jagger, Roger Waters and Buddy Guy.

For most of the '90s, though, Beck has been relatively quiet, except for ``Crazy Legs,'' a lovingly detailed tribute to rockabilly guitarist Cliff Gallup of Gene Vincent's original Bluecaps, and a soundtrack for the TV movie ``Frankie's House.''

Beck - who has spent much of the past 15 years building '50s hot rods at his 420-year-old manor house in Sussex, England, but tools around the city in a '96 Corvette - concedes the millennium's approach put a scare into him.

``There's a lot of people who think I'm from the '60s, but I don't go out there and play Yardbirds songs, and I've certainly never done a reunion tour of some sort,'' he said. ``I've kept moving on this whole time. And it's cost me dearly. I don't think I've ever been less popular than I am now.''

El Becko's longtime fans, at least, are rabid. Reports from the road say his ``Who Else!'' gigs are bringing down the house.

``I'm not that fond of touring - and that's another thing that hasn't helped me,'' Beck said. ``I know it's weird, but I get scared at the openness of America. It frightens the hell out of me. Something hit me in the '60s when we'd been going across the Texas plains for 20 hours and not seeing a tree. I mean, I love the thought that all that space is there, but I don't want to actually be in the middle of it. For me, the road is three months' luxury imprisonment.''

Beck's instrumental sound has changed dramatically over the past decade. Inspired by the ethereal sound of the Bulgarian Choir - the Mystery Voices (Mystere des Voix Bulgares), Beck has fashioned a distinctive sound, based on harmonics, which he shapes into long whistling passages by manipulating the whammy bar on his signature Stratocaster.

``When I first heard the Bulgarian Choir, it took me by surprise,'' the guitarist recalls. ``I was in tears inside for weeks because of their quality and precision. The scales they sing are almost unplayable. It hit me almost as hard as when I first heard Elvis Presley and Little Richard in the emotional sense. In some places, I'm playing sounds that some people don't even recognize as coming from a guitar.

``That's another thing I need at the moment - playing music that doesn't sound like it comes from a guitar!''

THE FACTS

Who: Jeff Beck.

Where: Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza.

When: 8:15 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets: $25.50 to $48.

Information: [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) Guitar Man

Legendary picker Jeff Beck comes blazing back

(2) `There's a lot of people who think I'm from the '60s, but I don't go out there and play Yardbirds songs, and I've certainly never done a reunion tour of some sort. I've kept moving on this whole time. And it's cost me dearly. I don't think I've ever been less popular than I am now.'

Jeff Beck

guitarist returns with ``Who Else!'' CD and rare tour