Awhile back I was shocked to learn that Jeff Beck, perhaps the greatest rock & roll guitarist of all, had passed away due to spinal meningitis. I've always ranked Beck alongside my other favorite guitarist, Danny Gatton.
Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born on 24 June 1944 to Arnold and Ethel Beck at 206 Demesne Road, Wallington, Surrey (now London Borough of Sutton, Greater London). As a ten-year-old, Beck sang in a church choir. He had a sister, Annetta. He attended Sutton Manor School and Sutton East County Secondary Modern School.
Les Paul
Beck cited Les Paul as the first electric guitar player who impressed him. Beck 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. After she replied it was an electric guitar and was all tricks, he said, "That's for me".
Cliff Gallup
Cliff Gallup, lead guitarist with Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, was also an early musical influence, followed by…
Lonnie Mack
Beck considered Lonnie Mack “a rock guitarist who was unjustly overlooked and a major influence on him and many others.”
As a teenager, he learned to play on a borrowed guitar and made several attempts to build his own instrument, first by gluing and bolting together cigar boxes for the body and a fence post for the neck with model aircraft control lines and frets simply painted on it.
Often described as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, Beck – whose fingers and thumbs were famously insured for £7m – was known as a keen innovator. He pioneered jazz-rock, experimented with fuzz and distortion effects and paved the way for heavier subgenres such as psych rock and heavy metal over the course of his career.
Eric Clapton...Jimmy Page...Jeff Beck
"Beck was born in Wallington, Surrey. He began playing guitar in his teens, on a homemade model (which he constructed in emulation of one of his heroes, the American guitarist-inventor Les Paul). His idols included Gene Vincent’s lead guitarist Cliff Gallup and American bluesmen Buddy Guy and Otis Rush. In a striking coincidence, three of the greatest guitarists of the rock era, Clapton, Beck and Page — the latter two became friends in their early teens after being introduced by Beck’s sister — grew up within 15 miles of each other.
Like many young British musicians, he was drawn to blues and R&B, and his first bands — the Night Shift, the Rumbles, the Tridents — all drew from the classic American repertoire. His break came in 1965, when Clapton, impatient with the Yardbirds’ increasingly pop-oriented, experimental bent, exited the group to join John Mayall’s purist unit the Bluesbreakers.
The Yardbirds
A fleet, imaginative soloist, Beck brought formidable instrumental firepower to British band the Yardbirds, which he joined in 1965 as a replacement for Eric Clapton. Entirely at home with the group’s blues roots, he burnished their pop hits with an adventurous and virtually unprecedented use of feedback, sustain and fuzz.
After a precipitous exit from the Yardbirds — where he had been joined by another future guitar star, Jimmy Page — he established his own band, the Jeff Beck Group, which was fronted by vocalist Rod Stewart, soon to become a solo star. The unit proved as unstable as it was powerful, and lasted for just two albums.
During the ’70s, Beck assembled a second, more R&B-oriented edition of his group, and briefly formed a short-lived power trio with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge and Cactus.
The Jeff Beck Group at the turn of the decade, the guitarist founded a new quintet edition of the Jeff Beck Group that leaned heavily on the jazzy keyboard work of Max Middleton. Though the band’s albums Rough and Ready (1971) and its self-titled 1972 follow-up performed respectably, they were largely considered inferior to the records produced by the Stewart-Wood lineup.
Beck reached the probable apex of both his critical and commercial success with a pair of mid-’70s all-instrumental albums, Blow by Blow…
…and Wired, that found him moving into jazz-fusion terrain. The latter LP was recorded with keyboardist Jan Hammer, formerly of the top fusion act the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
From the early ’80s onward, the temperamental Beck — a notorious perfectionist in the studio and a prickly band mate — would sporadically reappear, retrench, retire and reappear again.
Collaboration years: 1980s and 1990s
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. In that show, he appeared with Clapton on Crossroads, Further on Up the Road, and his 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, during which 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. The aforementioned cover song was also released as a single which went on to become a hit. A video was made for the track and the clip achieved heavy rotation on MTV. The two also played a few dates together during this time but a full tour in tandem never materialized. 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 time, Beck made several guest appearances with other performers, including one in the 1988 movie Twins, where he played guitar with singer Nicolette Larson.
Jeff Beck's latter-day work ranged from an homage to rockabilly singer Gene Vincent to instrumental sets reflecting the influence of techno, electronica and ambient music.
While a famously mercurial personality, Beck was indisputably one of the greatest guitarists of the rock era, and his playing remained innovative, imaginative and full of surprises until the very end.
Solo career renewal: 1999 to 2020s
Beck's next release was in 1999, his first foray into guitar-based electronica, Who Else!. The album was Beck's first collaboration with a female instrumentalist, 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.
Beck won his third Grammy Award, this one for "Best Rock Instrumental Performance" for the track "Dirty Mind" from You Had It Coming (2000). 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. 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. Additionally, in 2004, Beck was featured on the song 54-46 Was My Number by Toots and the Maytals as part of the album True Love which won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.
In 2007, Beck 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 afterward, 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 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 as a solo artist on 4 April 2009; the award was presented by Jimmy Page.
Beck performed "Train Kept A-Rollin'" along with Page, Ronnie Wood, Joe Perry, Flea, and Metallica members James Hetfield, Robert Trujillo, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Jason Newsted. 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".
Beck's album Emotion & Commotion was released in April 2010. It features a mixture of original songs and covers such as "Over the Rainbow", Puccini's Nessun Dorma and Benjamin Britten's Corpus Christi Carol, interpreted through Beck's "uniquely sensitive touch". 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 released a live album titled Live and Exclusive from the Grammy Museum on 25 October 2010. On 9 June 2010 Beck with Imelda May's band recorded a DVD named Rock 'n' Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul), of a concert at the Iridium in NYC featuring several Les Paul songs (with Ms. May doing the Mary Ford vocals).
In 2013, it was announced that Beck would be performing on Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson's solo album (alongside Beach Boys Al Jardine and David Marks) 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 (along with Jardine and Marks) on an 18-date fall 2013 tour, which started in late September and ended in late October (prior to which, Beck made clear that he regarded sharing the stage with Wilson as a complete honor for himself).
In 2014, to mark the beginning of Jeff Beck's World Tour in Japan, a three-track CD titled Yosogai was released on 5 April; the album had yet to be finalized at the time of the tour.
For the 2016 album Loud Hailer, Beck teamed up with Carmen Vandenberg and Rosie Bones of Bones UK. The album protests the state of the world, with titles ranging from Thugs' Club via Scared for the Children to O.I.L. (Can't Get Enough of That Sticky).
On 16 April 2020, Beck released a new single, in which he collaborated with Johnny Depp to record John Lennon's song Isolation, explaining that this was a first record release from an ongoing musical collaboration between the two men. They had been recording music together for some time, with the track being produced the year before, but Beck explained that the decision to release it was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns: "We weren't expecting to release it so soon but given all the hard days and true 'isolation' that people are going through in these challenging times, we decided now might be the right time to let you all hear it"
On 2 June 2022, Beck was in the news after Depp appeared with him at The Sage in Gateshead, following his victory in the high-profile defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard. Both also had performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London earlier in the week. Beck and Depp's first single from their collaborative album 18, titled "This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr", was announced on 10 June 2022.
Beck is featured on two tracks from Ozzy Osbourne's album Patient Number 9, which was released on 24 June 2022. On Dion DiMucci's 2020 album Blues with Friends he played lead guitar on "Can't Start Over Again".
Beck's final recording before his death was his contribution to a supergroup recording of "Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero" to support the Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America.
For me, one of the most moving moments that Jeff Beck ever did was his spectacular version of The Beatles' Day In The Life that took place at The 25th anniversary rock and roll hall of fame concert. His performance illustrated the depth of his artistry.
The Jeff Beck Band performing A Day In The Life @ The 25th anniversary rock and roll hall of fame concert knocked me out!
There aren’t many bands that can boast not one but three of popular music’s most celebrated guitar players. Formed in 1963, London’s The Yardbirds counts Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page lending their virtuoso fretwork for the psychedelic blues outfit, respectively launching Cream, The Jeff Beck Group, and Led Zeppelin before their first disbandment in 1968.
While Clapton and Page would dominate the 1970s, Beck would carve a heavyweight presence in the rock world in a much more low-key fashion, committing himself to an instrumental artist following the brief fronting of his Group and the short-lived Beck, Bogert & Appice trio. Guided by a fierce creative intuition and curiosity, Beck would explore jazz fusion, hard rock, classical reinterpretation, and electronic detours across his diverse body of work up until his death in 2023.
At the time of his death, Beck lived in a building called Riverhall in the civil parish of Wadhurst, East Sussex.
Beck also had an interest in classic Ford hot rods, performing much of the work on the exteriors and engines of the cars by himself.
Jeff Beck died from a bacterial meningitis infection at a hospital near Riverhall on 10 January 2023, at the age of 78.
Within minutes of his death announcement, musicians and friends began paying tribute; Jimmy Page wrote that "The six stringed Warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions. Jeff could channel music from the ethereal. His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless. Jeff I will miss you along with your millions of fans". Mick Jagger expressed his condolences, writing "With the death of Jeff Beck we have lost a wonderful man and one of the greatest guitar players in the world. We will all miss him so much." Ronnie Wood, a former bandmate of Beck's, stated “Now Jeff has gone, I feel like one of my band of brothers has left this world, and I'm going to dearly miss him.”
Beck's funeral service took place at St Mary's Church in Beddington, Sutton on 3 February. A private burial, with only Beck's widow Sandra, the couple's dog, and Johnny Depp in attendance, followed at Riverhall.
RIP Jeff Beck...blessings for eternal peace.
May you swing the good thing always!
JEFF BECK DISCOGRAPHY
ALBUMS
Truth 1968
Beck-Ola 1969
Rough and Ready 1971
Jeff Beck Group 1972
Beck, Bogert & Appice 1973
Blow by Blow 1975
Wired 1976
There & Back 1980
Flash 1985
Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop 1989
Crazy Legs 1993
Who Else! 1999
You Had It Coming 2001
Jeff 2003
Emotion & Commotion 2010
Loud Hailer 2016
18 (with Johnny Depp) 2022
SINGLES
1967 "Hi Ho Silver Lining" / "Tallyman"
1968 "Love Is Blue (L'amour est bleu)"
1969 "Goo Goo Barabajagal (Love Is Hot)" (with Donovan & Jeff Beck Group)
1972 "Hi Ho Silver Lining" (re-issue)
1973 "I've Been Drinking" (with Rod Stewart)
1975 "She's a Woman"― "Cause We've Ended as Lovers"― "You Know What I Mean"
1976 "Come Dancing"
1980 "The Final Peace"―
1982 "Hi Ho Silver Lining" (2nd re-issue)
1985 "Gets Us All in the End" ― "Stop, Look and Listen" ― "Ecstasy"― "Ambitious"―
"People Get Ready" (with Rod Stewart)
1986 "Wild Thing"
1989 "Stand on It"― "Guitar Shop" (with Terry Bozzio and Tony Hymas)
1993 "Manic Depression" (with Seal)
2014 "No Man's Land (Green Fields of France)" (with Joss Stone)
2022 "This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr" (with Johnny Depp)
GUEST APPEARANCES
Beck has appeared as a guest artist on many recordings, including the following:
1968 Donovan's album Barabajagal on the title track and "Trudi"
Stevie Wonder's 1972 album Talking Book on the track "Lookin' for Another Pure Love"
Badger's song "White Lady" from the 1974 album White Lady
Stanley Clarke's 1975 album Journey to Love on the title track and "Hello Jeff"
Narada Michael Walden's 1976 album Garden of Love Light on the track "Saint & the Rascal"
Stanley Clarke's 1978 album Modern Man on the song "Rock 'n Roll Jelly"
Rod Stewart's album Camouflage (on three tracks)
Tina Turner's album Private Dancer
Diana Ross's album Swept Away
Mick Jagger's 1985 album She's the Boss & 1987 album Primitive Cool
Malcolm McLaren's 1989 album Waltz Darling, on the tracks "House of the Blue Danube" and "Call a Wave"
Buddy Guy's 1991 album Damn Right, I've Got the Blues on the tracks "Mustang Sally" and "Early in the Morning"
Kate Bush's 1993 album The Red Shoes
Jimi Hendrix's song "Manic Depression" from the 1993 album Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix with Seal
Duff Mckagan's 1993 solo album Believe in Me on the tracks "(Fucked Up) Beyond Belief" and "Swamp Song"
Seal's 1994 album Seal
Instrumental version of "A Day in the Life" on the 1998 album In My Life
ZZ Top's 1999 release XXX on the track "Hey Mr. Millionaire".
ZZ Top's 2016 live album Live: Greatest Hits from Around the World on the songs "Rough Boy" and "Sixteen Tons"
Joe Cocker's Heart & Soul album on the track "I (Who Have Nothing)"
Brian May's song "The Guv'nor" from the album Another World
Pretenders song "Legalize Me" from the 1999 album Viva El Amor
Chrissie Hynde's song "Mystery Train" from the 2001 album Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records
Roger Taylor's song "Say It's Not True" from the album Fun on Earth
Vanilla Fudge's album Mystery (credited as J. Toad)
Roger Waters' album Amused to Death
Cozy Powell's album Tilt on the tracks "Cat Moves" and "Hot Rock"
Jon Bon Jovi's solo album Blaze of Glory
Paul Rodgers' songs "Good Morning Little School Girl" & "I Just Want To Make Love To You"
Morrissey's album Years of Refusal on the song "Black Cloud"
Imelda May's album Life Love Flesh Blood on the song "Black Tears"
The Yardbirds' 2003 album Birdland on the song "My Blind Life"
Ruth Lorenzo's 2018 album Loveaholic on the song "Another Day"
Dion´s 2020 album Blues with Friends on the song "Can't Start Over Again"
Ozzy Osbourne's 2022 album Patient Number 9 on the songs "Patient Number 9" and "A Thousand Shades"
