Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold ("Jeff") Beck (born June 24, 1944 to Arnold and Ethel Beck in Wallington, Greater London) is an English rock guitarist. He was one of three noted guitarists — the others being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page — to have recorded with the band The Yardbirds. He was ranked the 14th on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.[1]"
Beck has never attained the sustained commercial success of his fellow Yardbirds guitarists, though the band, along with Beck, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. Jeff Beck wise-cracked at the ceremony stating:
| “ | Someone told me I should be proud tonight...But I'm not, because they kicked me out. Fuck them! (Laughs)... | ” |
Much of his 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. This versatility has made it difficult for Beck to establish and maintain a broad following.
Nevertheless, Beck has gained wide critical acclaim for his work as a guitarist.[1] He has won four Grammy awards in the category for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
Away from the stage, Beck is an avid collector of American-style hot rods. Hot rods are a recurring theme in many of his more recent albums.
| Jeff Beck | |
|---|---|
 Jeff Beck performing at the Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 24 June 1944 Wallington, London, England |
| Genre(s) | Blues, rock, hard rock, electronica, instrumental rock, jazz fusion |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, Songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar |
| Years active | 1962–present |
| Label(s) | EMI, Epic |
| Associated acts | The Yardbirds, The Jeff Beck Group, The Honeydrippers, Beck, Bogert & Appice, Big Town Playboys, Upp |
| Website | www.jeffbeck.com |
| Notable instrument(s) | |
| Fender Jeff Beck Signature Model Stratocaster | |
Biography
Early life
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." [2]
Beck is cited as saying that the first electric guitar player he singled out as impressing him was Les Paul.[3] 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[4] 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.
Early career 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.
During Jeff Beck's time with the Yardbirds he pioneered the use of many new guitar techniques, such as the intentional use of feedback, heavy distortion and complex soloing. Rock critic Richie Unterberger wrote "While Beck's stint with the band lasted only about 18 months, in this period he did more to influence the sound of '60s rock guitar than anyone except Jimi Hendrix."
Rock critic Piero Scaruffi has described Beck as "Possibly the most influential guitarist in the history of Rock Music, one could say that rock music played with an electric guitar was invented by Jeff Beck. It was through him that the distortions, feedback, and many other techniques, that the rest of rock music did not rediscover until much later, became popular."
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. 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.[5]. This was also spoofed in the movie This is Spinal Tap.
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 on 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. | ” |
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, and considered by many critics to have inspired the heavy metal genre.[citation needed]
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. While it sold well (reaching #15 on the Billboard charts) and received great critical praise,[citation needed] Truth did not equal the impact of the release by Page's new band. 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 — Bob 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.
Solo albums
In October 1974, Beck began recording instrumentals at AIR studios backed by pianist Max Middleton (from the second Jeff Beck Group), bassist Phil Chenn, 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.
Arguably the world's most famous record producer, if only for his achievements with The Beatles, is George Martin, who was knighted in 1996. But even a man of his great wisdom was thrown into confusion when he produced Jeff Beck's album 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!"[6]
Wired, which followed a year later, paired Beck with drummer-composer Narada Michael Walden and keyboardist Jan Hammer. A more straightforward work of jazz-rock fusion (sounding similar to the work of his two collaborators), Wired sold slightly less well and also received less ecstatic reviews. A live album with Hammer was even less successful with critics complaining that Hammer had eradicated the subtleties of Blow By Blow.
1980s There and Back, featuring three compositions from Hammer and five with keyboardist Tony Hymas, sold less, but received better reviews. Hymas's compositions, which sounded to some like space-age jazz, gave the guitarist a more open framework for his pyrotechnics
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