Jeff Beck, the legendary British guitarist, has died at the age of 78. According to an official statement posted on Beck’s social media accounts by family members, the musician passed away after a short battle with bacterial meningitis.
Geoffrey Beck was born in Wallington, in southwest London, on June 24, 1944, and he grabbed a guitar with a passion after hearing Les Paul’s How High The Moon on the radio.
Beck first stepped into the center of the buzzing ‘white blues’ boom that swept Britain in the mid-sixties when he replaced Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds in 1965.
Having honed his chops in a bunch of local bands before joining The Yardbirds, Jeff Beck used his innovative guitar technique, pioneering new ideas about what could be played and coaxed out of an electric guitar, to let The Yardbirds widen their expression and start reaching for arrangement ideas that flirted with psychedelic rock as well as world music. In his playing, Beck combined ‘fuzz’ tones, ‘reverb’, ‘feedback’, ‘sustain’, ‘distortion’ and daring ‘hammer-on’ soloing, which fit perfectly with the growing urge in British beat music to chase sonic sharpness and rawness. His distinctive right-hand position, with the pinky on the vibrato arm and the ring finger on the volume knob while soloing (no pick!), remains iconic!
During Jeff Beck’s time with them, The Yardbirds cut a whole pile of groundbreaking recordings, including the hit singles “Heart Full of Soul”, “Evil Hearted You”, “Still I’m Sad”, a cover of Bo Diddley’s “I’m a Man”, “Shapes of Things”, “Over Under Sideways Down”, and in 1966 they released the album “The Yardbirds”, far better known as “Roger The Engineer”. Later that same year, at the end of November 1966, Beck left The Yardbirds. According to some accounts, he got the boot from the band over missed gigs, excessive perfectionism, and a hot-headed temper.
In Nick Mason’s autobiography you can find the claim that Pink Floyd warmed to the idea of getting Beck when they showed Syd Barrett the door, but nobody in the band had steady enough nerves to actually make the phone call.
From there, Beck devoted himself to a solo path. In 1967 he recorded a few singles for pop producer Mickie Most, including Hi Ho Silver Lining and Tallyman. He then formed the Jeff Beck Group and introduced the public to two then-unknown faces, Scottish singer Rod Stewart and guitarist Ron Wood, who also discovered America for the first time with Beck. The albums “The Truth” (1968, released as Jeff Beck) and “Beck-Ola” (1969) followed. The Truth featured a cover of Willie Dixon’s You Shock Me. The Truth came out five months before Led Zeppelin’s debut album, which contained the same cover in a nearly identical arrangement, which stirred up some bad blood between the former Yardbirds buddies Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.
The Jeff Beck Group also put out “Rough And Ready” (1971) and “Jeff Beck Group” (1972), after which Beck joined forces with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice in the short-lived Beck, Bogert & Appice, who released a self-titled studio album in 1973. Although the album wowed critics with its outstanding playing, it was a commercial flop for the band, with a cover of Stevie Wonder’s Superstition as the only single. Long after the band had broken up, a live album that Beck Bogert & Appice recorded on the Japanese leg of their 1973 tour came out in 1975. After a brief fling with the band Upp, with whom he recorded two albums, in 1975 he released his second solo studio album, “Blow By Blow”, which is still considered his biggest commercial success. With his innovative guitar technique and the eclectic jazz-rock fusion spirit of its all-instrumental improvisations, he set new standards for electric guitar expression on it. In 1976 came the album “Wired”, on which he teamed up with two former Mahavishnu Orchestra members, drummer Narada Michael Walden and keyboardist Jan Hammer.
When Mick Taylor left The Rolling Stones in 1974, they turned to Beck and asked if he’d join them, but Beck turned the offer down.
Alongside his solo albums, Beck widened his eighties and later output with numerous guest appearances on albums by artists such as Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Mick Jagger, Kate Bush, Duff McKagan, ZZ Top, Joe Cocker, Brian May, Pretenders, Roger Waters and Jon Bon Jovi. Beck’s last guest spot is on Ozzy Osbourne’s current studio album “Patient Number 9” (2022, RockLine review), where Beck played guitar on two tracks. Beck recorded and released his last album, “18”, together with his friend and movie actor Johnny Depp last year.
Over his career, Jeff Beck won eight Grammys. Seven of them were for best instrumental performance, while one came for a cover of Lennon’s Imagine, a joint effort with Pink, Seal, India Arie, Konono N°1 and Oumou Sangare. Jeff Beck was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: in 1992 as a member of The Yardbirds, and in 2009 as a solo artist.
RockLine caught Jeff Beck on July 20, 2022, at his joint show with Johnny Depp in Pordenone, Italy, where the famous musician at times radiated real youthful mischief and nobody had the slightest inkling that his days were numbered. Beck also toured the US with Depp in the fall of 2022. His last show was with Depp too, when the two played The Chicago Theatre on October 23, 2022.
