Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English
rock guitarist.
He is one of the three noted guitarists to
have played with The Yardbirds.
Beck also formed The Jeff Beck Group and Beck,
Bogert & Appice.
Much of Beck's recorded output has been instrumental,
with a focus on innovative sound, and his
releases have spanned genres ranging from
blues rock, heavy metal, jazz fusion and an
additional blend of guitar-rock and electronica.
Although he recorded two hit albums as a solo
act, Beck has not established or maintained
the sustained commercial success of many of
his contemporaries and bandmates.
Beck appears on albums by Mick Jagger, Tina
Turner, Morrissey, Jon Bon Jovi, Malcolm McLaren,
Kate Bush, Roger Waters, Donovan, Stevie Wonder,
Les Paul, Zucchero, Cyndi Lauper, Brian May,
Stanley Clarke and ZZ Top.
He was ranked 5th in Rolling Stone's list
of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time"
and the magazine, upon whose cover Beck has
appeared three times, has described him as
"one of the most influential lead guitarists
in rock".
MSNBC has called him a "guitarist's guitarist".
Beck has earned wide critical praise and received
the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental
Performance six times and Best Pop Instrumental
Performance once.
He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame twice: as a member of the Yardbirds
and as a solo artist.
Biography
Early life
Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born on 24 June 1944
to Arnold and Ethel Beck at 206 Demesne Road,
Wallington, England.
As a ten-year-old, Beck sang in a church choir.
As a teenager he learned to play a borrowed
guitar and made several attempts to build
his own instrument, first by gluing and bolting
together cigar boxes for the body and an unsanded
fence-post for the neck with model aircraft
control-lines and frets simply painted on.
When fabricating a neck for his next try he
attempted to use measurements for a bass guitar.
Beck has cited Les Paul as the first electric
guitar player who impressed him.
Beck has said that he first heard an electric
guitar when he was six years old and heard
Paul playing "How High the Moon" on the radio.
He asked his mother what it was, and after
she replied it was an electric guitar and
was all tricks, he said, "That's for me".
Cliff Gallup, lead guitarist with Gene Vincent
and the Blue Caps, was also an early musical
influence, followed by B.B. King and Steve
Cropper.
Upon leaving school he attended Wimbledon
College of Art, after which he was briefly
employed as a painter and decorator, a groundsman
on a golf course, and a car paint-sprayer.
Beck's sister Annetta introduced him to Jimmy
Page when both were teenagers.
Early career
Beck began his career in the early 1960s.
Drifting from one group to another, he would
play eight or nine gigs and move on.
He joined the Rumbles, a Croydon band, in
1963 for a short period as lead guitarist,
playing Gene Vincent and Buddy Holly songs,
displaying a talent for mimicking guitar styles.
Later in 1963 he joined The Tridents, a band
from the Chiswick area.
"They were really my scene because they were
playing flat-out R&B, like Jimmy Reed stuff,
and we supercharged it all up and made it
really rocky.
I got off on that, even though it was only
twelve-bar blues."
His first appearance on vinyl was as a session
guitarist on a 1964 Parlophone single by the
Fitz and Startz entitled "I'm Not Running
Away", with B-side "So Sweet".
In March 1965, Beck was recruited by The Yardbirds
to replace Eric Clapton on the recommendation
of fellow session man Jimmy Page, who had
been their initial choice.
The Yardbirds recorded most of their Top 40
hit songs during Beck's short but significant
20-month tenure with the band allowing him
only one full album, which became known as
Roger the Engineer, released in 1966.
Beck was actually pictured on the cover of
For Your Love, which was released by the Yardbirds'
American label in June 1965, however Clapton
played guitar on most of the songs.
From September to November 1966, Beck shared
lead guitar duties with Page in the Yardbirds,
who initially joined as bass player in June
of that year.
A clip of this iteration of the band can be
seen in the 1966 British film Blow Up.
Beck was fired in the middle of a US tour
for being a consistent no-show—as well as
difficulties caused by his perfectionism and
explosive temper.
After leaving the Yardbirds, Beck recorded
the one-off "Beck's Bolero" and two solo hit
singles in the UK, "Hi Ho Silver Lining" and
"Tallyman".
He then formed the Jeff Beck Group, which
briefly featured ex Shadow Jet Harris on bass,
Rod Stewart on vocals, Ronnie Wood firstly
on rhythm guitar then later bass, Nicky Hopkins
on piano and, after a series of drummers,
eventually Micky Waller in early 1967.
The group produced two albums for Columbia
Records: Truth and Beck-Ola.
Truth, released five months before the first
Led Zeppelin album, features "You Shook Me",
a song written and first recorded by Muddy
Waters, that was also covered on the Led Zeppelin
debut.
It sold well.
Beck-Ola saw drummer Micky Waller replaced
by Tony Newman, and, while well-received,
was less successful both commercially and
critically.
Resentment, coupled with touring incidents,
led the group to dissolve in July 1969.
Nick Mason recalls in his autobiography, that
during 1967 Pink Floyd had wanted to recruit
Beck to be their guitarist after the departure
of Syd Barrett but "None of us had the nerve
to ask him."
In 1969, following the death of Brian Jones,
Beck was approached about joining the Rolling
Stones.
After the break-up of his group, Beck took
part in the Music from Free Creek "super session"
project, billed as "A.N.
Other" and contributed lead guitar on four
songs, including one co-written by him.
In September 1969, he teamed with the rhythm
section of Vanilla Fudge: bassist Tim Bogert
and drummer Carmine Appice, but when Beck
fractured his skull in a car accident near
Maidstone in December the plan was postponed
for two-and-a-half years, during which time
Bogert and Appice formed Cactus.
Beck later remarked on the 1960s period of
his life: "Everyone thinks of the 1960s as
something they really weren't.
It was the frustration period of my life.
The electronic equipment just wasn't up to
the sounds I had in my head."
In 1970, when Beck had regained his health,
he set about forming a band with drummer Cozy
Powell.
Beck, Powell and producer Mickie Most flew
to the US and recorded several tracks at Motown's
famed Studio A in Hitsville U.S.A. with the
Funk Brothers, Motown's in-house band, but
the results remained unreleased.
By April 1971 Beck had completed the line-up
of this new group with guitarist/vocalist
Bobby Tench, keyboard player Max Middleton
and bassist Clive Chaman.
The new band performed as "the Jeff Beck Group"
but had a substantially different sound from
the first line-up.
Rough and Ready, the first album they recorded,
on which Beck wrote or co-wrote six of the
album's seven tracks, included elements of
soul, rhythm-and-blues and jazz, foreshadowing
the direction Beck's music would take later
in the decade.
A second album Jeff Beck Group was recorded
at TMI studios in Memphis, Tennessee with
the same personnel.
Beck employed Steve Cropper as producer and
the album displayed a strong soul influence,
five of the nine tracks being covers of songs
by American artists.
One, "I Got to Have a Song", was the first
of four Stevie Wonder compositions covered
by Beck.
Shortly after the release of the Jeff Beck
Group album the band was dissolved and Beck's
management put out the statement that: "The
fusion of the musical styles of the various
members has been successful within the terms
of individual musicians, but they didn't feel
it had led to the creation of a new musical
style with the strength they had originally
sought."
Beck then started collaborating with bassist
Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, who
became available following the demise of Cactus
but continued touring as the Jeff Beck Group
in August 1972, to fulfil contractual obligations
with his promoter, with a line-up including
Bogert, Appice, Max Middleton and vocalist
Kim Milford.
After six appearances Milford was replaced
by Bobby Tench, who was flown in from the
UK for the Arie Crown Theatre Chicago performance
and the rest of the tour, which concluded
at the Paramount North West Theatre, Seattle.
After the tour Tench and Middleton left the
band and the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice
appeared: Appice took on the role of vocalist
with Bogert and Beck contributing occasionally.
They were included on the bill for Rock at
The Oval in September 1972, still as "the
Jeff Beck Group", which marked the start of
a tour schedule of UK, the Netherlands and
Germany.
Another US tour began in October 1972, starting
at the Hollywood Sportatorium Florida and
concluding on 11 November 1972 at The Warehouse,
New Orleans.
In April 1973 the album Beck, Bogert & Appice
was released.
While critics acknowledged the band's instrumental
prowess the album was not commercially well
received except for its cover of Stevie Wonder's
hit "Superstition".
On 3 July 1973 Beck joined David Bowie on-stage
to perform "The Jean Genie"/"Love Me Do" and
"Around and Around".
The show was recorded and filmed but none
of the released editions included Beck.
During October 1973 Beck recorded tracks for
Michael Fennelly's album Lane Changer and
attended sessions with Hummingbird, a band
derived from the Jeff Beck Group, but did
not to contribute to their eponymous first
album.
Early in January 1974 Beck, Bogert & Appice
played at the Rainbow Theatre, as part of
a European tour.
The concert was broadcast in full on the US
show Rock Around the World in September of
the same year.
This last recorded work by the band previewed
material intended for a second studio album,
included on the bootleg At Last Rainbow.
The tracks "Blues Deluxe" and "BBA Boogie"
from this concert were later included on the
Jeff Beck compilation Beckology.
Beck, Bogert & Appice dissolved in April 1974
before their second studio album was finished.
Their live album Beck, Bogert & Appice Live
in Japan, recorded during their 1973 tour
of Japan, was not released until February
1975 by Epic/Sony.
After a few months Beck entered Underhill
Studio and met with the group Upp, whom he
recruited as backing band for his appearance
on the BBC TV programme Guitar Workshop in
August 1974.
Beck produced and played on their self-titled
debut album and their second album This Way
Upp, though his contributions to the second
album went uncredited.
In October Beck began to record instrumentals
at AIR Studios with Max Middleton, bassist
Phil Chen and drummer Richard Bailey, using
George Martin as producer and arranger.
Jeff Beck's solo album Blow by Blow evolved
from these sessions and showcased Beck's technical
prowess in jazz-rock.
The album reached number four in the charts
and is Beck's most commercially successful
release.
Beck, fastidious about overdubs and often
dissatisfied with his solos, often returned
to AIR Studios until he was satisfied.
A couple of months after the sessions had
finished producer George Martin received a
telephone call from Beck, who wanted to record
a solo section again.
Bemused, Martin replied: "I'm sorry, Jeff,
but the record is in the shops!"
Beck put together a live band for a US tour,
preceded by a small and unannounced gig at
The Newlands Tavern in Peckham, London.
He toured through April and May 1975, mostly
supporting the Mahavishnu Orchestra, retaining
Max Middleton on keyboards but with a new
rhythm section of bassist Wilbur Bascomb and
noted session drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie.
In a May 1975 show in Cleveland, Ohio, he
became frustrated with an early version of
a talk box he used on his arrangement of the
Beatles' "She's a Woman", and after breaking
a string, tossed his legendary Yardbirds-era
Stratocaster guitar off the stage.
He did the same with the talk box and finished
the show playing a Les Paul and without the
box.
During this tour he performed at Yuya Uchida's
"World Rock Festival", playing a total of
eight songs with Purdie.
In addition he performed a guitar and drum
instrumental with Johnny Yoshinaga and, at
the end of the festival, joined in a live
jam with bassist Felix Pappalardi of Mountain
and vocalist Akira "Joe" Yamanaka from the
Flower Travellin' Band.
Only his set with Purdie was recorded and
released.
He returned to the studio and recorded Wired,
which paired ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra drummer
and composer Narada Michael Walden and keyboardist
Jan Hammer.
The album used a jazz-rock fusion style, which
sounded similar to the work of his two collaborators.
To promote the album, Beck joined forces with
the Jan Hammer Group, playing a show supporting
Alvin Lee at The Roundhouse in May 1976, before
embarking on a seven-month long world tour.
This resulted in the live album Jeff Beck
with the Jan Hammer Group Live.
At this point, Beck was a tax exile and took
up residency in the US, remaining there until
his return to the UK in the autumn of 1977.
In the spring of 1978, he began rehearsing
with ex-Return to Forever bassist Stanley
Clarke and drummer Gerry Brown towards a projected
appearance at the Knebworth Festival, but
this was cancelled after Brown dropped out.
Beck toured Japan for three weeks in November
1978 with an ad-hoc group consisting of Clarke
and newcomers Tony Hymas and Simon Phillips
from Jack Bruce's band.
Work then began on a new studio album at the
Who's Ramport Studios in London and continued
sporadically throughout 1979, resulting in
There & Back in June 1980.
It featured three tracks composed and recorded
with Jan Hammer, while five were written with
Hymas.
Stanley Clarke was replaced by Mo Foster on
bass, both on the album and the subsequent
tours.
Its release was followed by extensive touring
in the USA, Japan and the UK.
1980s
In 1981 Beck made a series of historic live
appearances with his Yardbirds predecessor
Eric Clapton at the Amnesty International-sponsored
benefit concerts dubbed The Secret Policeman's
Other Ball 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 an 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 Beck,
Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.
They performed "Tulsa Time" and "Layla".
In 1985 Beck released Flash, featuring a variety
of vocalists, but most notably former bandmate
Rod Stewart on a rendition of Curtis Mayfield's
"People Get Ready".
At Stewart's induction to the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in 1992, Beck gave the induction
speech, saying of Stewart, "We have a love
hate relationship – he loves me and I hate
him."
During this period, Beck made several guest
appearances with other performers, including
the movie Twins, where he played guitar with
singer Nicolette Larson.
After a four-year break, Jeff made a return
to instrumental music with the album Jeff
Beck's Guitar Shop, the first album to feature
Beck as a fingerstyle guitarist, leaving the
plectrum playing style.
It was only his 3rd album to be released in
the 1980s.
Much of Beck's sparse and sporadic recording
schedule was due in part to a long battle
with noise-induced tinnitus.
1990s
In the 1990s, Beck had a higher musical output.
He is featured on lead guitar on Roger Waters'
1992 concept album Amused to Death, and on
Kate Bush's 1993 album The Red Shoes.
He recorded the instrumental soundtrack album
Frankie's House, as well as Crazy Legs, a
tribute album to 1950s rockabilly group Gene
Vincent and the Blue Caps and their influential
guitarist Cliff Gallup.
Beck rehearsed with Guns N' Roses for their
concert in Paris in 1992, but did not play
in the actual concert due to ear damage caused
by a Matt Sorum cymbal crash, causing Beck
to become temporarily deaf.
The Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
In Beck's acceptance speech he humorously
noted that:
He accompanied Paul Rodgers of Bad Company
on the album Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute
to Muddy Waters in 1993.
Jeff's next release would not be until 1999,
his first foray into guitar based electronica,
Who Else!.
The album also marked Beck's first collaboration
with a female musician, Jennifer Batten, in
touring, writing, and recording as well as
the first time he had worked with another
guitarist on his own material since playing
in the Yardbirds.
Beck continued to work with Batten through
the post-release tour of You Had It Coming
in 2001.
2000s
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 song "Plan B" from the 2003 release Jeff,
earned Beck his fourth Grammy Award for Best
Rock Instrumental Performance, and was proof
that the new electro-guitar style he used
for the two earlier albums would continue
to dominate.
Jeff Beck was the opening act for B.B. King
in the summer of 2003 and appeared at Eric
Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2004.
In 2007, he accompanied Kelly Clarkson for
her cover of Patty Griffin's "Up to the Mountain",
during the Idol Gives Back episode of American
Idol.
The performance was recorded live and afterwards
was immediately released for sale.
In the same year, he appeared once again at
Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival, performing
with Vinnie Colaiuta, Jason Rebello, and the
then 21-year-old bassist Tal Wilkenfeld.
Beck announced a world tour in early 2009
and remained faithful to the same lineup of
musicians as in his tour two years before,
playing and recording at Ronnie Scott's in
London to a sold out audience.
Beck played on the song "Black Cloud" on the
2009 Morrissey album Years of Refusal and
later that year, Harvey Goldsmith became Beck's
Manager.
Beck was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame on 4 April 2009, as a solo artist.
The award was presented by Jimmy Page.
On 4 July 2009, David Gilmour joined Beck
onstage at the Albert Hall.
Beck and Gilmour traded solos on "Jerusalem"
and closed the show with "Hi Ho Silver Lining".
2010s
Beck's recent album, Emotion & Commotion,
was released in April 2010.
It features a mixture of original songs and
covers such as "Over the Rainbow" and "Nessun
Dorma".
Joss Stone and Imelda May provided some of
the guest vocals.
Two tracks from Emotion & Commotion won Grammy
Awards in 2011: "Nessun Dorma" won the Grammy
Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance,
and "Hammerhead" won the Grammy Award for
Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
Beck collaborated on "Imagine" for the 2010
Herbie Hancock album, The Imagine Project
along with Seal, P!nk, India.Arie, Konono
N°1, Oumou Sangare and others and received
a third Grammy in 2011 for Best Pop Collaboration
with Vocals for the track.
Beck's 2010 World Tour band featured Grammy-winning
musician Narada Michael Walden on drums, Rhonda
Smith on bass and Jason Rebello on keyboards.
He has also released a live album titled Live
and Exclusive from the Grammy Museum on 25
October 2010.< 9 June 2010 Beck with Imelda
May's band recorded a DVD of a concert at
the Iridium in NYC featuring several Les Paul
songs with Ms May doing the Mary Ford vocals.>
In 2011, Beck received two honorary degrees
from British universities.
On 18 July 2011, he was honoured with a fellowship
from University of the Arts London in recognition
of his "outstanding contribution to the field
of Music".
He was also presented with an honorary doctorate
from University of Sussex by Sanjeev Bhaskar,
the university's chancellor for "an outstanding
musical career and celebrated the relationship
between the university and the Brighton Institute
of Modern Music" on 21 July 2011.
In 2013, it was announced that he will be
performing on Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson's
new solo album on Capitol Records.
On 20 June, Wilson's website announced that
the material might be split into three albums;
one of new pop songs, another of mostly instrumental
tracks with Beck, and another of interwoven
tracks dubbed "the suite".
Beck also accompanied Wilson on an eighteen
date fall 2013 tour starting in late September
and ending in late October.
According to Beck pre-tour, "Brian will kick
things off, but I'll also be given enough
time to establish what I'm about.
In the end, we'll mix and match.
It's a complete honor to be on stage with
him."
In 2014, to mark the beginning of Jeff's World
Tour in Japan, a three-track CD titled Yosogai
was released on April 5; the album had yet
to be finalized at the time of the tour.
Style and influence
One of the most influential guitarists in
the history of rock music, Jeff Beck has cited
his major influences as Les Paul, the Shadows,
Cliff Gallup, Ravi Shankar, Roy Buchanan,
Chet Atkins, Django Reinhardt, Steve Cropper
and Lonnie Mack.
Of John McLaughlin, he said: "[he] has given
us so many different facets of the guitar
and introduced thousands of us to world music,
by blending Indian music with jazz and classical.
I'd say he was the best guitarist alive."
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.
Beck was ranked No. 5 in Rolling Stone's list
of the "100 Greatest Guitarists".
Technique and equipment
Beck stopped regular use of a pick in the
1980s.
He produces a wide variety of sounds by using
his fingers and the vibrato bar on his signature
Fender Stratocaster, and he frequently uses
a wah-wah pedal both live and in the studio.
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 Fender and Marshall.
In his earlier days with the Yardbirds, Beck
also used a 1954 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.
The Seymour Duncan JB model's name is an acronym
for both Jazz & Blues and Jeff Beck, as it
was designed in conjunction with the guitarist.
During the ARMS Charity Concerts in 1983 Beck
used his battered Fender Esquire along with
a 1954 Fender Stratocaster and a Jackson Soloist.
On Crazy Legs he played a Gretsch Duo Jet,
his signature Fender Stratocaster and various
other guitars.
In 2007, Fender created a Custom Shop Tribute
series version of his beat-up Fender Esquire
as well as his Artist Signature series Stratocaster.
Personal life
Beck has been married to Sandra Cush since
2005.
He has been a vegetarian since 1969.
He is a Patron of the Folly Wildlife Rescue
Trust.
He has an interest in classic Ford hot rods,
performing much of the work on the exteriors
and engines of the cars by himself.
Beck lives near Wadhurst, East Sussex.
Discography
Studio albums
Truth
Beck-Ola
Rough and Ready
Jeff Beck Group
Beck, Bogert & Appice
Blow by Blow
Wired
There & Back
Flash
Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop
Frankie's House
Crazy Legs
Who Else!
You Had It Coming
Jeff
Emotion & Commotion
References
Bibliography
External links
Official website
Jeff Beck at Epic Records
IMDB Profile
Jeff Beck 1954 Les Paul Oxblood
Jeff Beck unofficial website
Jeff Beck at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
