Beck, Jeff

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JEFF BECK

Born: Wallington, England, 24 June 1944

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Who Else (1999)

Revered by many as a "guitar god," Jeff Beck is one of the legendary rock guitarists. At every step, Beck pioneered advances in guitar technique, from his waves of roaring feedback overtones in the early days to an innovative techno-guitar style later on. He has traveled a long distance musically from his rock/blues beginnings. Yet for all his technical mastery and tasteful note phrasing, Beck has had a curiously spotty career.

Beginnings

Born in Wallington, England, Beck studied violin and cello as a child. He received a strong foundation in classical and jazz music from family members, and he attended the Wimbledon School for the Arts in London in the 1960s. His first gig as a guitar player was as the opening act for Jimmy Page's band. Later the two played together with the Yardbirds, a group famous for a string of hits in the 1960s, including "For Your Love" and "Heart Full of Soul."

Yardbirds and After

After toiling around London in the 1960s as a guitar player for hire, Beck received an invitation in 1965 to join the well-established Yardbirds as a replacement for Eric Clapton. A few months later Page joined the band. The group disbanded in 1967, never having taken full advantage of harboring two guitar virtuosos on each side of the stage. Page went on to form Led Zeppelin, and Beck went searching for a singer, a recurring theme in his career. He settled on Rod Stewart. He also added guitarist Ron Wood, who shifted reluctantly over to bass. The Jeff Beck Group, as they were named, recorded two classic albums, Truth (1968) and Beck-Ola (1969). Both albums are power rock/blues primers and demonstrate Beck's remarkable ability to arrange other people's songs into his own mold. They also show his capacity to take the guitar to new heights, particularly with the use of feedback. With the volume turned ear-splittingly high, Beck would hit a note and then move the guitar close to the amplifier. The ensuing cacophony was something that any amateur could achieve; Beck, however, learned to manipulate this screeching sound into entrancing, harmonious tones. The only other guitar player pushing those same boundaries was Jimi Hendrix, to whom Beck was soon compared. Hendrix's famous version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" is a good example of these controlled overtones.

New Departures

On November 2, 1969, Beck nearly died in an automobile accident that left him hospitalized for months. During his long recovery he discovered that Stewart and Wood had left him to join a band called Faces. (Stewart went on to a megastar solo career and Wood has enjoyed many years with the Rolling Stones.) Beck began touring and recording with several musician assemblies, but none of them were quite what he was looking for—especially the singers. In 1975 he decided that the voice could be replaced by inventive guitar work. His next release, Blow by Blow, (1976), was his first in a series of instrumental albums. While this breakthrough album contains remnants of Beck's rock/blues past, it also featured a funky melodic jazz sound, or, as it is sometimes labeled, jazz/rock fusion. The stunning "Cause We Ended as Lovers," from Blow by Blow, was Beck's fitting tribute to Roy Buchanan, a guitar player whom Beck admired. The track exemplifies one of Beck's trademark guitar "tricks": With the volume knob of his guitar turned completely off and his amplifier full up, he would strike a chosen string and at the same time twist up the guitar's volume by wrapping his little finger around the volume knob. The effect is a long sustaining note that builds in force somewhat in the way a train whistle sounds as it approaches fast into a station. Beck followed up with Wired (1976), another successful effort sans singer, in which he collaborated with jazz keyboard maven Jan Hammer. Wired was a further journey down the rock/jazz fusion path and enough of a success to justify Beck's turning down opportunities to play with the Rolling Stones and Elton John, both of whom sought his services at various times.

Throughout his career, Beck has obsessively avoided being pigeonholed into any one type of musical form. He reasoned that playing with new people for each recording would force him to keep striving to make inventive and challenging music. Working selectively through the 1980s, Beck managed to win a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental with "Escape," from the album Flash (1985). Different from other efforts, the album has a pop music style and includes guest vocalists. It also reunited him with Rod Stewart on "People Get Ready," which became a hit.

Beck toured with blues-guitar great Stevie Ray Vaughan in the 1990s before entering a period of semi-retirement, during which he got a chance to tinker with his collection of vintage cars, something that has always been his passion. He returned by teaming with the Big Town Playboys, a 1950s novelty group with a local London following, and recorded Crazy Legs (1993). On this album, Beck moves from the blues and jazz/rock of his past work into a world of three-chord sock-hop ditties. Crazy Legs contains eighteen previously written rockabilly songs and is Beck's tribute to Cliff Gallup, the guitarist with singer Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps who once had a hit song called "Be Bop A-Lula." His guitar sound, usually fat and sustained, was pure tin as he painstakingly recreated authentic rockabilly solos that scurry up and down the guitar's fret board. A departure from anything else he had done, Beck drew raves on Crazy Legs for his fast and clean playing.

Despite having no record to promote, Crazy Legs being a niche recording, Beck went on tour with another distinguished guitarist, Carlos Santana, in 1995 and continued to tour throughout the 1990s. Finally, he released the long-awaited Who Else (1999), his first album of new material in almost a decade. Once again, Beck's choice of material surprised his listeners with songs featuring electronic backgrounds and a pounding technobeat. The chunky "Space for the Papa" and the hard rock "What Mama Said" sound like disco or club music leavened by Beck's searing guitar riffs. "Declan" features an interesting New Age music style as flutes trade phrases with Beck's guitar. The album, which is completely instrumental, also features a traditional blues, "Brush with the Blues." Who Else was nominated for a Grammy.

Beck waited just two years to release You Had It Coming (2001). The album features the Grammy winner for best rock instrumental, "Dirty Mind." He teases a mixture of wailing tones from his supercharged guitar and rips through the album's wide-ranging musical styles. "Nadia" is a gorgeous Middle Eastern ballad, and "Earthquake" vibrates with thrashing rock. Beck fashioned the idea for "Blackbird" by recording a bird that was chirping outside his home and then trying to recreate the sound on his guitar. You Had It Coming is an instrumental album with the exception of "Rollin and Tumblin." Beck has singer Imogen Heap lend a rich vocal interpretation to his masterful arrangement of the Muddy Waters classic.

Beck is an agile musical arranger, although not a particularly strong songwriter. His shortcomings as a composer and singer have lowered the ceiling on his commercial success. Nevertheless, whereas many of his contemporaries merely rest on their decades-old laurels, Beck moves forward, always pushing the musical envelope. An icon to his musical peers, he will long be considered one of the top guitarists in the history of rock music.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Truth (Epic, 1968); Beck-Ola (Epic, 1969); Rough and Ready (Epic, 1971); Jeff Beck Group (Epic, 1972); Blow by Blow (Epic, 1975); Wired (Epic, 1976); Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group LIVE (Epic, 1977); There and Back (Epic 1980); Flash (Epic 1985); Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop (Epic, 1989); Frankie's House (Epic, 1992); Crazy Legs (Epic, 1993); Who Else! (Epic, 1999); You Had It Coming (Epic, 2001).