Jeff Beck

Not to be confused with Beck.

Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He was one of the three noted guitarists — the others being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page — to have played with The Yardbirds. He was ranked the 14th on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Much of Beck's recorded output has been instrumental, and his releases have spanned genres ranging from blues-rock, heavy metal, jazz fusion and (currently) a blend of guitar-rock and electronica. Beck has earned wide critical praise and four Grammy awards for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, and had two hit albums in the mid-1970s as a solo act. However, Beck has not been able to establish and maintain a broad following or the sustained commercial success of many of his collaborators and bandmates.

Beck was nominated for 2009 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was promptly chosen for induction for the April 4, 2009 ceremony. He was inducted on this day by his good friend and fellow former Yardbirds guitarist, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.

Biography

Early life

Beck was born in 1944 to Arnold and Ethel Beck in Wallington, England. As a ten year old Beck sang in a church choir. As a teenager he learned to play a borrowed guitar and then made several attempts to build his own instrument. His first attempt was by gluing and bolting together (forgetting the washers so that the bolt head sank into the wood) a selection of cigar boxes for the body and an unsanded fence-upright for a neck. The strings were aircraft control line wires, both single and double stranded were used depending on the effect he wanted to achieve. The frets, however, were a different matter. In an unknowing portent for the future use of fretless guitar, the frets were simply painted on. Another attempt at a home-build was when he studiously cut a body from a very thick piece of wood. When fabricating the neck he attempted to use memorized measurements. Unfortunately the measurements he had remembered were those of a bass guitar. He described the result as "The scale was so bad that it was only playable with a capo at the fifth fret...", he went on to say, "I was interested in the electric guitar even before I knew the difference between electric and acoustic. The electric guitar seemed to be a totally fascinating plank of wood with knobs and switches on it. I just had to have one."

Beck is cited as saying that the first electric guitar player he singled out as impressing him was Les Paul. Similarly Cliff Gallup, lead guitarist with Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps was also an early musical influence, followed by Chuck Berry and Steve Cropper. Upon leaving school he attended Wimbledon Art College, then he briefly worked as a painter and decorator, a groundsman on a golf course and spray painting cars. Beck's sister would also play an instrumental role in introducing him to another teen hopeful named Jimmy Page.

With The Yardbirds

Like many rock musicians in the early 1960s, he began his career working as a session guitarist. In 1965, Eric Clapton left the Yardbirds for John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and Beck was recruited to replace him on the recommendation of Jimmy Page, who had been their initial choice. It was during his tenure with the Yardbirds that they recorded most of their hits.

Stories about Beck's volatile temper began to circulate early. His perfectionism, coupled with the faulty equipment often in use during the 1960s, led to many stories about his willingness to take out frustrations on his equipment, though not in the form of smashing a guitar. The 1966 movie Blow-up contains a scene where the Yardbirds perform "Stroll On", and Beck becomes so enraged by equipment problems that he smashes his guitar. However, this scene was staged for the movie, as it was a re-creation of an actual event that director Michelangelo Antonioni witnessed at a concert of The Who. This was also spoofed in the movie This is Spinal Tap. In fact it is widely regarded that Nigel Tufnel from the film is based quite heavily on Beck.

His time with The Yardbirds was short, allowing Beck only one full album, "Yardbirds" a.k.a Roger the Engineer (1966); Beck left after 18 months, partly for health reasons. For a few months he shared the dual-lead guitar role with Jimmy Page, who had joined the Yardbirds as a bass player, but quickly moved to co-lead guitar, with Chris Dreja moving to bass.

While on the surface Beck seems to have departed the group because of his health, Page, who had been invited into the band for a second time in 1966 by Beck himself, tells a different story:

It was on that Dick Clark tour—there were a few incidents. One time in the dressing room I walked in and Beck had his guitar up over his head, about to bring it down on Keith Relf’s head, but instead smashed it on the floor

Jimmy Page recalled years later. “Relf looked at him with total astonishment and Beck said, ‘Why did you make me do that?’ Fucking hell. Everyone said, ‘My goodness gracious, what a funny chap.’ We went back to the hotel and Beck showed me his tonsils, said he wasn’t feeling well and was going to see a doctor. He left for L.A., where we were headed anyway. When we got there, though, we realized that whatever doctor he was claiming to see must’ve had his office in the Whiskey. He was actually seeing his girlfriend, Mary Hughes, and had just used the doctor bit as an excuse to cut out on us.

The Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. Beck's speech at the induction ceremony was very short:

Someone told me I should be proud tonight...But I'm not, because they kicked me out. Fuck them!

Jeff Beck Group

The following year, after recording the one-off song "Beck's Bolero" (with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Nicky Hopkins, and Keith Moon) and having two solo vocals hit singles in the UK ("Hi Ho Silver Lining" and "Tallyman"), Beck formed a new band called The Jeff Beck Group, which featured him on lead guitar, Rod Stewart on vocals, Ronnie Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano, and Micky Waller on drums.

The group produced two albums, Truth (August, 1968) and Beck-Ola (June, 1969). Both albums are highly acclaimed. Truth, released five months before the first Led Zeppelin album, features a cover of "You Shook Me", a song first recorded by Willie Dixon which was also covered on the Led Zeppelin debut. It sold well (reaching #15 on the Billboard charts) and received great critical praise, Beck-Ola while well-received, was less successful both commercially and critically. Resentment, coupled with touring-related incidents, led the group to dissolve.

After the breakup, Beck decided to continue working with Stewart, and team up with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, the rhythm section of the Vanilla Fudge. This project was sidelined when Beck suffered head injuries in a car crash, and left the music scene for over a year. Rod Stewart left to team up with Ronnie Wood and the Small Faces; and Bogert and Appice formed Cactus instead.

When Beck regained his health, he reformed a band with entirely new members. The new ensemble — Bobby Tench on vocals and guitar, Max Middleton on piano and keyboards, Clive Chaman on bass and Cozy Powell on drums — although still known as the "Jeff Beck Group" featured a substantially different sound from the first lineup.

For the album Rough and Ready (1971), Beck wrote or co-wrote six of the album's seven tracks (the exception written by pianist Middleton). The album included elements of Soul, Rhythm and Blues and Jazz, foreshadowing the direction Beck's music would take later in the decade.

The follow-up, Jeff Beck Group, (1972) was recorded in Memphis, at the studio used by Booker T. & the M.G.'s; their guitarist, Steve Cropper, produced the album. The album, unsurprisingly, displayed a strong Soul influence. Five of the nine tracks were covers of American artists; one ("I Got To Have A Song") was the first of Beck's four covers of compositions written by Stevie Wonder.

Shortly after this release, Cactus broke up, leaving Bogert and Appice available. Beck dissolved the band in order to achieve his ambition to work with them, forming Beck, Bogert & Appice.

Beck, Bogert & Appice

The long-awaited lineup worked together for less than two years and released only one US album Beck, Bogert & Appice. While critics acknowledged the band's instrumental prowess, the album was not well received, except for its cover of Wonder's "Superstition". Beck left the group during recording sessions for the second album in 1974 and a double-album Beck, Bogert & Appice Live in Japan was released, followed by a second live album At last Rainbow. At last Rainbow was unusual, not only as a record of the last recorded work by the band, but for previewing songs that were intended for a second studio album.

Solo albums

Beck playing in 1973
Courtesy: Jean-Luc Ourlin

In October 1974, Beck began recording instrumentals at AIR studios backed by pianist Max Middleton (from the second Jeff Beck Group), bassist Phil Chen, and drummer Richard Bailey, with George Martin producing and providing string arrangements.

The resulting album, Blow by Blow (1975), displayed Beck's technical prowess in a jazz-rock format. The album reached #4 on the charts. It is Beck's most commercially successful release.

George Martin, produced Blow by Blow at AIR Studios. Beck was fastidious about over-dubs but never seemed to be happy with his solos. A few days after a recording, when he'd had time to digest his own performance, he would telephone Martin and say "I think I could do a better one on this track", and they would return to AIR to try again. Beck would play over and over until he was satisfied that he had performed his best. A couple of months went by and Martin received another phone call from Beck: "I want to do this solo again." Bemused, Martin replied: "I'm sorry, Jeff, but the record is in the shops!"

Wired, which followed a year later, paired Beck with drummer-composer Narada Michael Walden and keyboardist Jan Hammer. It is a more straightforward work of jazz-rock fusion (sounding similar to the work of his two collaborators). A live album with Hammer followed.

1980's There and Back, featured three compositions from Hammer and five with keyboardist Tony Hymas.

Later career

Jeff Beck at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Photo: Mandy Hall

In 1981 he made a series of historic, joint live appearances with his Yardbirds predecessor Eric Clapton at the Amnesty International The Secret Policeman's Other Ball benefit shows. He appeared with Clapton on "Crossroads", "Further On Up The Road", and his own arrangement of Stevie Wonder's "Cause We've Ended As Lovers". Beck also featured prominently in the all-star band finale performance of "I Shall Be Released" with Clapton, Sting, Phil Collins, Donovan and Bob Geldof. Beck's contributions were seen and heard in the resulting album and film, both of which achieved worldwide success in 1982. Another benefit show, the ARMS Concert for Multiple Sclerosis featured a jam with Jeff, Eric and Jimmy Page performing "Tulsa Time", and "Layla". This is the only time all of the 1963-1968 Yardbirds lead guitarists appeared on stage together.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Jeff Beck recorded sporadically (due largely to a long battle with noise-induced tinnitus): There and Back (1980, featuring Simon Phillips, Tony Hymas, Jan Hammer and Mo Foster), Flash (1985, including performances with Rod Stewart and Jan Hammer), Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop (1989, with Terry Bozzio and Tony Hymas), Crazy Legs (1993), Who Else! (1999), and You Had It Coming (2001). He also accompanied Paul Rodgers of Bad Company on the album Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters in 1993. Jeff Beck won his third Grammy Award, this one for 'Best Rock Instrumental Performance' for the track "Dirty Mind" from You Had It Coming. The 2003 release of Jeff showed that the new electro-guitar style he used for the two earlier albums would continue to dominate. The song "Plan B" from this release earned him his fourth Grammy Award, again, for 'Best Rock Instrumental Performance'.

Recent performances

Jeff Beck performing at the Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007

In the past few years, Jeff Beck has performed on new albums by Roger Waters, Les Paul and Cyndi Lauper. Beck also is featured on one track on Queen guitarist Brian May's album Another World. He also appears on ZZ Top's album XXX. Beck made a cameo appearance in the movie Twins starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito.

Jeff Beck continues to perform shows on a regular basis, including opening for B.B. King in the summer of 2003, backed by Terry Bozzio and Tony Hymas.

Beck's recent tours in 2005 and 2006 have included Jason Rebello on keyboards, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums and Pino Palladino on bass (replaced by Randy Hope-Taylor due to Palladino's prior commitment to The Who). An Official Bootleg USA'06 from the tour has been released through Beck's website.

Jeff Beck accompanied Kelly Clarkson as the guitarist for her cover of Patty Griffin's song, "Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)", during the 2007 Idol Gives Back episode of American Idol, with both artists receiving a standing ovation from the audience. The performance, recorded live, was released for sale afterwards.

Crossroads Guitar Festivals

Beck with Tal Wilkenfeld on the 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival tour Photo: Mandy Hall

Beck was featured at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2004 and 2007, however, in the 2007 tour, he was accompanied by Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, Jason Rebello on keyboards, and Tal Wilkenfeld on bass guitar. Unfortunately, her name was omitted on some of the performances, and some viewers mistook her for Beck's daughter, due to her youth; she is a petite woman and was only 21 years old at the time of the tour.

Beck has announced a world tour in early 2009 through his website.

Influence

While Beck was not the first rock guitarist to experiment with electronic distortion, he nonetheless helped to redefine the sound and role of the electric guitar in rock music. Beck's work with The Yardbirds and The Jeff Beck Group's 1968 album Truth were seminal influences on heavy metal music, which emerged in full force in the early 1970s. Jeff Beck is still highly influential with many modern guitarists, who cite him as a major influence on their playing.

Technique and equipment

"...we shared a dressing room with the Yardbirds. At that point, it was kind of a peak period, Jimmy Page was playing bass; he had just joined the band. Chris Dreja was still playing rhythm guitar, Jeff Beck was playing lead through a Super Beatle and using banjo strings for the unwound G, 'cos they didn't make sets with an unwound G at that point. So he used banjo strings to complete his set. When he was in the dressing room, our guitar player went into his guitar case trying to find out his secrets and found a banjo string. I think he actually took one."

Scott Morgan of the Rationals.

Jeff Beck does not rely heavily on electronic effects. Beck stopped regular use of a pick (plectrum) in the 1980s. He produces a wide variety of sounds by using his fingers and the vibrato bar on his signature Fender Stratocaster, although he frequently uses a wah-wah pedal both live and in the studio. As Eric Clapton once said, "With Jeff, it’s all in his hands". Along with Fender Stratocasters, Beck occasionally plays Fender Telecaster and Gibson Les Paul models as well. His amplifiers are primarily by Fender and Marshall Amplification. In his earlier days with the Yardbirds, Beck also used a Fender Esquire guitar through Vox AC30s. He has also played through a variety of fuzz pedals and echo-units along with this set-up and has used the Pro Co RAT distortion pedal.

He is noted for his change of musical style and direction throughout his career. Ritchie Blackmore once praised this aspect of Jeff in an interview to Martin K. Webb, when the interviewer asked him what he means by "chance music", he replied:

"If you hold your guitar against the amp you might get a harmonic feedback, or you might get nothing. But that's what interests me: Playing with electricity. Like I can turn on some jazz guitarist, and he won't do a thing for me, if he's not playing electrically. But Jeff Beck's great to listen to, because he takes a chance, and when it comes off it's so emotional. When he gets feedback going right it's like an orchestra playing instead of just a guitar with a lot of brilliant runs. Actually, the real art of chance music is knowing what to do if you don't get what you tried for. Like if a ballet dancer falls over, it's knowing how to get out looking clumsy that counts. Beck takes a chance every night. Sometimes, he's absolutely useless, and you wonder why he's got a name. Other times he pulls things off that sound like nothing you've heard before. He's one of my favorite guitarists. But taking all those chances is why he gets such bad reviews, sometimes. The reviewers sometime catch him on nights when it doesn't work. The kind of things that you do in that kind of playing are subconscious and depend on what type of day you've had and thing like that. If I've read a lot, or if I've had a game of chess and my mind's working, I can play much better than if I've had a lazy day of sitting in a car or plane. But also, I just think there are good days and bad days, all having to do with the cycle of life. You know-thirty days forward and then ten days backward."

Ritchie Blackmore in an interview.

During the ARMS charity concerts in 1983, Jeff used his battered Fender Esquire along with a 1954 Fender Stratocaster and a Jackson Soloist. On the Crazy Legs album of 1993, he played a Gretsch Duo Jet, his signature Fender Stratocaster and various other guitars. Recently, Fender created a Custom Shop Tribute series version of his beat-up Fender Esquire as well as his Artist Signature series Stratocaster. The Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB guitar pickup was designed for him, however the "JB" stands for "jazz/blues" and not Jeff Beck as many have speculated.

Other collaborations and near-misses

While Beck and Jimmy Page played together in The Yardbirds, the trio of Beck, Page and Eric Clapton never played together in the group all at the same time. The three guitarists did play on stage together at the ARMS charity concerts in 1983 in honour of Ronnie Lane

On July 3, 1973, Beck guested on David Bowie's last concert featuring the Spiders from Mars. Beck's appearance was due, at least in part, to the fact that Mick Ronson, the Spiders' lead guitarist, was a huge fan. Even though the show was recorded, filmed, and eventually commercially released, all editions are without "The Jean Genie/Love Me Do" and "Round and Round", the two numbers on which Beck played. A 1974 ABC-TV airing of selections from this concert did include "The Jean Genie/Love Me Do", but apparently not with Beck's permission. Rumoured reasons for Beck's absence on the various releases are his unhappiness with his performance and/or clothing.

Beck also rehearsed with Guns 'N' Roses for their concert in Paris in 1992, however he did not play in the actual concert as his ears were severely damaged in sound check after Matt Sorum hit a cymbal next to Beck causing him to become temporarily deaf.

Beck is credited as playing guitar on the third track of Morrissey's ninth solo album, "Years of Refusal", released on February 17, 2009 and recorded in Los Angeles in 2008.

Opportunities to join famous bands

Jeff Beck had several opportunities to join famous bands. Following Mick Taylor's resignation, Beck was invited to an audition for the The Rolling Stones. After staying for a couple of days at a hotel in Amsterdam, where the Stones had rented a studio, Jeff and his manager decided to leave because they got tired of waiting around for a phone call from the Stones. Subsequently, the Stones hired Ronnie Wood to play guitar on their 1975 Tour.

Pink Floyd originally considered Beck to replace Syd Barrett after the latter became difficult to work with. However, as Nick Mason recalls in his autobiography, 'none of us had the nerve to ask him. Roger finally managed it twenty years later'. David Gilmour became Pink Floyd's guitarist instead.

Personal life

When not touring or recording, Beck rarely plays guitar. Instead, he spends most of his time working on his classic Ford hot rods.

Beck is a vegetarian.

Beck has appeared in several films; he appears in the movie Blowup with The Yardbirds performing "Stroll On" and appears in the movie Twins with Nicolette Larson.

Discography

Year	Album	US Charts	RIAA Certification	Notes
1968	Truth	15	Gold	First album with original line up of Jeff Beck Group
1969	Beck-Ola	15	Gold	Second album with original line up of Jeff Beck Group
1971	Rough and Ready	46	—	First album with new line up of Jeff Beck Group
1972	Jeff Beck Group	19	Gold	Second album with new line up of Jeff Beck Group
1973	Beck, Bogert & Appice	—	Gold	Only studio album with Beck, Bogert & Appice
1975	Blow by Blow	4	Platinum	First solo album
1976	Wired	16	Platinum	Second solo album
1980	There and Back	21	—	Contains one of his more acclaimed pieces: "The Pump"
1985	Flash	42	—	Grammy award winner
1989	Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop	49	—	Grammy award winner
1993	Crazy Legs	—	—	Album with covers of Gene Vincent's songs
1999	Who Else!	99	—	Album with influence of electronic music
2001	You Had It Coming	110	—	One of his most experimental works
2003	Jeff	—	—	Grammy award winner
Live Albums
1974	Live in Japan	—	—	First live album
1977	Jeff Beck With the Jan Hammer Group Live	23	Gold	Last album with RIAA Certification
2006	Live At BB King Blues Club	—	—	Official bootleg
2008	Performing This Week...Live At Ronnie Scotts	—	—	Complemented later with a DVD
Compilations
1991	Beckology	—	—	Included songs from Beck's early bands such as Tridents and Yardbirds
1995	Best of Beck	—	—	Abbreviated compilation

Appeared On

• John's Childrens single "Just What You Want - Just What You'll Get" b/w "But She's Mine" (rel. Feb 1967) as uncredited session musician.
• Beck's group plays with Donovan on the songs "Goo Goo Barabajagal (Love is Hot)," "Trudi" and "Homesickness"
• Stevie Wonder's Talking Book
• Stanley Clarke's 1975 album Journey to Love
• Stanley Clarke's 1978 album Modern Man
• The soundtrack to the movie Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band featuring The Bee Gees and Peter Frampton (Beck was once quoted as saying that after he saw Peter Frampton use the talk box, he gave it up).
• Murray Head's "Voices" (1981)
• Rod Stewart's 1983 album "Camouflage" on three tracks, also appears in video for the song "Infatuation" and in the video for " People Get Ready"
• Tina Turner's Private Dancer
• Reunited with former Yardbirds bandmates in 1984 with the group Box of Frogs
• Mick Jagger's "She's the Boss"
• The Honeydrippers: Volume One
• Malcolm McLaren's album Waltz Darling, released in 1989, on the songs "House Of The Blue Danube" and "Call A Wave".
• Tony Hymas's Oyaté, on the track "Crazy Horse" (feat. John Trudell) and "Tashunka Witko" 1990.
• Buddy Guy's Damn Right, I've Got the Blues, on the tracks "Mustang Sally" and "Early In The Morning" 1991.
• Kate Bush's 1993 album The Red Shoes
• Two songs of the Italian singer Zucchero: the song Papa Perche? (from the 1995 album Spirito DiVino) and Like the sun (from out of nowhere) (from the 2004 album ZU & Co, also featuring Macy Gray).
• The 2003 Yardbirds' reunion album Birdland - on track "My Blind Life"
• Toots & the Maytals 2004 album "True Love" on the song "54-46."
• Ursus Minor's Zugzwang released in 2005
• Cyndi Lauper's song "Above The Clouds" from her 2005 album The Body Acoustic
• American Idol on 24 April 2007 for the Idol Gives Back special, with Kelly Clarkson, playing "Up to the Mountain", originally by Patty Griffin
• played guitar solo in Pavarotti's rendition of "Caruso"
• The rare blues album Guitar Boogie with Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page
• Guitarist for Hans Zimmer's Days of Thunder Instrumental Score.
• Beck plays an instrumental version of Lennon/McCartney classic "A Day in the Life" on Sir George Martin's album In My Life (1998), which also appeared in Julie Taymor's Beatles-inspired movie, Across the Universe.
• His song "Hot Rod Honeymoon" was on the soundtrack for the video game Gran Turismo 4
• Stone Free: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix on Manic Depression with Seal.
• The Pretenders album Viva El Amor on the song "Legalise Me"
• Stevie Wonder originally wrote "Superstition" for Beck. However, Wonder's manager insisted that he record it before Beck did.
• John McLaughlin's The Promise, on the track "Django".
• Joe Cocker's Heart & Soul album on 4th track I (Who Have Nothing) playing lead guitar.
• Brian May's "The Guv'nor" from the album Another World
• Imogen Heap's Speak for Yourself
• Roger Waters' Amused to Death
• Mood Swings' song Skinthieves
• Jon Bon Jovi's solo album Blaze of Glory
• Paul Rodgers' song "Good Morning Little School Girl"
• Appears in the movie Twins with Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Morrissey album Years of Refusal on the song Black Cloud.
• "Mystery Train" on Never Stop Rockin', Carlo Little All Stars album (released 2009, Angel Air Records)
• Beverly Craven album Love Scenes on the song Hope

See also

• List of rock instrumentals

Further reading

• Carson, Annette (2002). Jeff Beck: Crazy Fingers. Backbeat books. ISBN 0-87930-632-7.
• Jeff's book : A chronology of Jeff Beck's career 1965-1980 : from the Yardbirds to Jazz-Rock. Rock 'n' Roll Research Press, (2000). ISBN 0-9641005-3-3 (

External links

• Jeff Beck Official Site
• Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame: Jeff Beck FuseTV
• Jeff Beck at Epic Records
• Jeff Beck.co.uk
• Review of Jeff's Book. Hjort, Chris and Hinman, Doug. RocknRoll Press.

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