![\"Keith](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Keith-Richards-Jeff-Beck-Split-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Chris Hakkens \/ Marcel Antonisse \/ Anefo)<\/p>\n
Fri 31 October 2025 17:30, UK <\/p>\n
While it was a decade of unmatched musical diversity, the truth is, the 1970s<\/a> was the decade of the guitar.<\/p>\n While soul, disco and the early makings of hip-hop all introduced themselves in that decade, it was rock and roll that dominated. Building off the back of what The Beatles and Bob Dylan achieved in the 1960s, bands like The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath protected rock\u2019s position on the musical throne, through power, opulence and innovation. <\/p>\n Within that world existed some players who became icons, capitalising on this insatiable appetite for charismatic rock, saw guitarists stepping forward<\/a> into the limelight and creating an era that wasn\u2019t all about the vocalist. Now people were queuing up to buy tickets for guitar-led gigs, where a riff or a solo would be the star of the show, and among them were The Rolling Stones\u2019 Keith Richards and Jeff Beck, who became somewhat of the de facto leaders of the 1970s, representing everything that fellow musicians would admire.<\/p>\n While their position in the music industry in that decade felt entirely exciting and futuristic, the truth is, their approach was rooted in tradition. They were classic guitarists personified, who were building off the platform built by blues icons from the previous two decades, and more specifically, one guitarist in particular.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was Scotty Moore from Elvis\u2019 band. \u2018Hound Dog\u2019, \u2018Rock Around the Clock\u2019, there is an amazing solo in that,\u201d Beck proudly claimed<\/a> when asked about his influences. It was clear that no matter how much further popular culture and music had progressed, the trail that Elvis Presley and his band blazed in the 1950s hadn\u2019t been forgotten. <\/p>\n