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Geoffrey Arnold ("Jeff") Beck (born June 24, 1944 in Wallington, Greater London, England) is a guitarist who played in several influential bands in the 1960s and 1970s. He has maintained a sporadic solo career over the last 25 years. Despite never attaining the commercial viability of his contemporaries, Beck has gained widespread critical acclaim, especially in the guitar playing community. Never one to be tied to one particular genre, he has experimented with blues rock, heavy metal, and jazz fusion. Most recently, he has absorbed the influence of techno, creating a groundbreaking blend of heavy guitar rock and electronica.
Biography
Early career with The Yardbirds
Like many rock musicians in the early 1960s, he began his career working as a session guitarist. In 1965, following a gig with the Tridents, Beck was recruited to join the Yardbirds (after Eric Clapton had left the group for John Mayall's Bluesbreakers). It was during his tenure with The Yardbirds that they recorded most of their hits. He became known for smashing his guitar on stage, and his guitar-smashing antics can be seen in the 1966 film, Blowup. In 1966, he shared the dual-lead guitar role with Jimmy Page. His time with The Yardbirds was short, allowing Beck only one full album, Roger the Engineer (1966); Beck left after 18 months, partly for health reasons.
While on the surface Beck seems to have departed the group because of his health, Jimmy Page, who had been invited into the band in 1966 by Beck himself, tells a different story:
Jeff Beck Group
The following year, Beck formed a new band, the Jeff Beck Group, which featured him on lead guitar, Rod Stewart on vocals, Ron Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano, and Mick Waller on drums. The group produced two albums, Truth in 1968 and Beck-Ola the following year. These two albums are highly acclaimed, and are considered by some to be among the precursors to heavy metal. Owing to friction within the band, Stewart and Wood left the group in 1969 to replace Steve Marriott in the Small Faces. This new lineup, which included Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, and Kenney Jones shortened its name to "the Faces".
Fusion
Beck went on to form a second incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group, which featured Clive Chaman (bass), Max Middleton (keyboards), Cozy Powell (drums), and Bob Tench (vocals). This group took Beck in a new direction with increased levels of sophistication, entailing a varied melding of rock/pop with elements of R&B and jazz. They released two albums: Rough and Ready (1971, produced by Jeff Beck) and The Jeff Beck Group (1972, produced by Steve Cropper). After this second Jeff Beck Group disbanded in 1972, Beck formed the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice, with Carmine Appice on drums and Tim Bogert on bass. This group, too, failed to attract much critical attention and soon split up, although they did have a minor hit with a version of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" (Beck had earlier played lead guitar on Wonder's Talking Book album). In 1975, Beck did a solo, all-instrumental jazz fusion album entitled Blow by Blow which received unexpectedly positive critical reviews and substantial sales, reaching number 4 in the U.S. charts. It was followed up by a collaborative effort with former Mahavishnu Orchestra keyboardist Jan Hammer on the 1976 Wired album, which also received critical acclaim.
Later career
In 1981 he made a series of historic, joint live appearances with his Yardbirds predecessor Eric Clapton at the Amnesty International 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 produced by Martin Lewis, both of which achieved worldwide success in 1982. Another benefit show called the ARMS Concert for Multiple Sclerosis featured a jam with Jeff, Eric and Jimmy Page performing "Living on 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: There and Back (1980, featuring Simon Phillips and Tony Hymas), Flash (1985, including performances with Rod Stewart and Jan Hammer), 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. This style has been lauded by critics; Beck has skillfully fused an electronica influence with his blues/jazz past, with a sound mix which seems heavily influenced by the "brown" tone of subsequent guitarists like Van Halen and Joe Satriani. The song "Plan B" from this release earned him his fourth Grammy Award, again, for 'Best Rock Instrumental Performance'.
In the past few years, Jeff Beck has performed on new albums by Les Paul, Cyndi Lauper, and Roger Waters. Beck also is featured on one track on Queen guitarist Brian May's last solo 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 most recent tours in 2005 and 2006 have included: Jason Rebello on keyboards, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums and Pino Palladino on bass (recently replaced by Randy Hope-Taylor due to Palladino's prior commitment to The Who), and John Mayer.
Influence
Beck was one of the first electric guitarists in the 1960s to experiment with electronic distortion (most notably in The Yardbirds' 1966 album, Roger the Engineer) and 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.
Technique and equipment
Unlike some guitarists, Jeff Beck does not rely heavily on electronic effects. He produces a wide variety of sounds by using only his thumbnail and the stock vibrato bar on his signature Fender Stratocaster. Along with Stratocasters Beck occasionally plays Fender Telecaster and Gibson Les Paul models as well. His amplifiers are primarily Fenders and Marshalls. In his earlier days with the Yardbirds, Beck also used a Fender Esquire guitar. Recently, Fender created a Custom Shop Tribute series version of his beat-up Esquire.
Discography
- Truth â?? 1968 #15 US
- Beck-Ola â?? 1969 #15 US
- Rough and Ready â?? 1971 #46 US
- The Jeff Beck Group - 1972 #19 US
- Beck Bogart and Appice - 1973
- Blow by Blow â?? 1975 #4 US
- Wired â?? 1976 #16 US
- Jeff Beck With the Jan Hammer Group Live â?? 1977 #23 US
- There and Back â?? 1980 #21 US
- Flash â?? 1985 #42 US (Winner 1986 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance)
- Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop â?? 1989 #49 US (Winner 1990 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance)
- Beckology - 1991
- Frankie's House â?? 1992
- Crazy Legs â?? 1993 #171 US
- Who Else! â?? 1999 #99 US
- You Had It Coming â?? 2001 #110 US
- Jeff â?? 2003
- Live Beck! â?? 2006
Appeared on
- Brian May's "The Guv'nor" from the album Another World
- Stevie Wonder's Talking Book
- Imogen Heap's Speak For Yourself
- Roger Waters' Amused to Death
- Mood Swings' song Skinthieves
- Tina Turner's Private Dancer
- Jon Bon Jovi's solo album Blaze of Glory
- Paul Rodgers song "Good Morning Little School Girl"
- Stanley Clarke's 1975 album Journey to Love.
- Stanley Clarke's 1978 album Modern Man.
- 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.
- Reunited with former Yardbirds bandmates in 1984 with the group Box Of Frogs
- Donovan's "Goo Goo Barabajagal (Love Is Hot)"
- Malcolm McLaren's album Waltz Darling, released in 1989, on the songs "House Of The Blue Danube" and "Call A Wave".
- Mick Jagger's "She's The Boss"
- The Honeydrippers: Volume One
- Appears in the movie Twins with Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger
- 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 guitar mouth tube (talk box), he gave it up).
- The 2003 Yardbirds' reunion album Birdland - on track "My Blind Life"
- Cyndi Lauper's song "Above The Clouds" from her 2005 album The Body Acoustic
- played guitar solo in Pavarotti's rendition of "Caruso"
- Rod Stewart's album "Camouflage" on three tracks, also appears in video for the song "Infatuation"
Trivia
- 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.
- Beck's girlfriend Mary Hughes is name-checked in The Yardbirds song "Psycho Daisies".
- Beck is a primary inspiration for the character Nigel Tufnel in the film This Is Spinal Tap. Tufnel's name is a parody of Eric Clapton, who was also a member of The Yardbirds. [1]
- He appears in the movie Blowup with The Yardbirds.
- Beck plays an instrumental version of Lennon/McCartney classic "A Day in the Life" on Sir George Martin's album In My Life (1998).
- Beck and Jimmy Page have known each other since Page was 11 years old.
- Beck is a vegetarian.
- Stevie Wonder originally wrote "Superstition" for Beck. However, Stevie's manager insisted that he record it before Beck did.
- When not touring or recording, Beck rarely plays guitar. Instead, he spends most of his time working on his classic Jaguars or building hot rods.
- Beck was asked to "audition" for The Rolling Stones before Ron Wood took the job.
- Jimi Hendrix considered Beck a close friend.
- Beck did a co-headline tour with Stevie Ray Vaughan in 1989.
- One of his songs, "Cause We've Ended as Lovers", was written by Stevie Wonder.
- He was interested in playing lead guitar for Iron Butterfly when the group reformed in 1968 after a brief split. Before deciding upon Erik Brann, the band also considered Neil Young and Michael Monarch.
- Beck appears on John McLaughlin's Promise.
- Beck was offered to replace Syd Barrett in Pink Floyd after Barrett's breakdown. He declined the offer, and David Gilmour was chosen instead.
- Joe Satriani claimed that if he could take a lesson from one player, it'd be Beck, saying "One of the most amazing things about Jeff is that he sounds even more like Jeff Beck today than he did before... He plays a classic guitar, doesn't use a pick, doesn't use any unusual equipment -- yet he sounds more amazing and pure with each outing."
- Beck's group plays with Donovan on the song, "Barabajagal (Love is Hot)"
- Beck was to play a song with Guns N' Roses in Paris in 1992 but couldn't perform due to ear problems. He did rehearse on stage with them though. Slash is a big fan of Beck.
- Beck never uses a pick while playing.
See also
- List of rock instrumentals
Further reading
External links
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