Jeff Beck is one of the greatest electric guitar players in music history (#5 on the Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Guitar Players of All Time). His eclectic style runs from blues and hard rock to jazz, fusion and electronica. His stature among his peers far outweighs his commercial success. He is content to make music that interests him, popular tastes be damned. His reputation for being difficult is outdated, yet he seems to take a perverse delight in cultivating that image. A two-time inductee in the rock HOF (with the Yardbirds in 1992, and as a solo artist in 2009), Jeff Beck is an interesting man, with a keen wit, sharp tongue, and rich and diverse musical history.  

Geoffrey Arnold “Jeff” Beck was born June 24, 1944, in Wallington, London, England. He first heard an electric guitar at 6 and despite (or maybe because of) his mother’s distain for the instrument said “That’s for me.” By age 10 he was stumping for an electric guitar, but mum insisted on piano lessons. A Les Paul fan, Jeff adopted his idol’s habit of tinkering and inventing. He built his first guitar at 15, out of cigar boxes bolted together, wood, and fishing line. He played it through a radio. Later, Jeff’s alterations to his 1959 Les Paul Standard became famous.

The Yardbirds: Jeff Beck at left

After graduation, Jeff attended Wimbledon College of Art. He held a series of laboring jobs, including painter and decorator, golf course grounds crew, and car spray painter. He rather flew through a succession of London bands: The Night Shift, Trident, and Rumbles, before fellow session guitarist Jimmy Page recommended him to replace Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds. Page, the group’s first choice, wasn’t interested.

The Yardbirds -- Jeff Beck, second from left, Keith Relf, on harmonica, center

Jeff’s tenure with the Yardbirds lasted 18 months from 1965-1967, and one album: Roger the Engineer aka Over Under Sideways Down in the US. By 1966, he was sharing the lead with Page, who had hired on as the group’s bassist. During a US tour in 1967, Jeff was battling illness, unhappiness with the over-crowded tour bus and being separated from a starlet he had fallen for in Hollywood, and began missing gigs. He was fired, but it was announced that he had left the band due to illness.

On the occasion of his induction into the HOF with the Yardbirds, Jeff said (tongue in cheek): “Someone told me I should feel proud tonight, but I’m not because they kicked me out. They did. F&uck them!”

Jeff Beck in blue jeans, next to Jimmy Page in white suit

After leaving the Yardbirds, Jeff recorded one-off singles “Beck’s Bolero” (with Page, Keith Moon, John Paul Jones, and Nicky Hopkins), and “Hi Ho Silver Lining” and “Talleyman.” He then formed the Jeff Beck Group, with vocalist Rod Stewart, drummer Tony Newman (who replaced Mickey Waller, who replaced Aynsley Dunbar), keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, and bassist Ronnie Wood. This lineup released two highly regarded albums, Truth (1968) and Beck-Ola (1969). These albums have been called the bridge from hard rock to heavy metal, with special reference to “Hangman’s Knee.”

The JBG scored its breakthrough in the US at the Fillmore East in October, 1968, on a bill with the Grateful Dead. Needing a second album to back up Truth, the group rushed home and recorded Beck-Ola in just 4 days, filling it out with covers of Elvis’ “All Shook Up” and “Jailhouse Rock”. They flew back to the US and resumed touring. For all their success, internal stresses over Rod Stewart’s rock star aspirations and Ronnie Wood’s desire to play lead and rhythm guitar, resulted in the band breaking up right before they were scheduled to appear at Woodstock.

Jeff and Rod have collaborated since then, and clearly each respects the other. But, in another example of Jeff’s acid wit he’s quoted as having said: “Rod Stewart and I have a love/hate relationship – he loves me, and I hate him.”

Jeff Beck Group (1968): Jeff Beck, Ronnie Wood, Mickey Waller, Rod Stewart

After the breakup of the JBG, Jeff planned to form a power trio with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, the rhythm section of the Vanilla Fudge. But, in November of 1969, Jeff was sidelined for almost a year with serious injuries suffered in a car crash. He has permanent facial scarring from the accident, but it hasn’t quenched his thirst for fast exotic cars. Bogert and Appice then joined Cactus. The Rolling Stones approached Jeff about replacing Brian Jones, but they weren’t nearly precise enough for his liking. The Stones would come back a second time in 1974 when they were replacing Mick Taylor, but a one-day “audition” proved to everyone that they were incompatible. Ronnie Wood was hired instead.

Having recovered from his injuries, Jeff put together a new Jeff Beck Group. JBG II had Cozy Powell, drums, Bob Tench, vocals, Max Middleton, keys, and Clive Chaman, bass. Two albums were released, Rough and Ready (1971), and Jeff Beck Group (1972), before this iteration of the JBG dissolved.

Beck Bogert & Appice: Carmine Appice, top left, Tim Bogert, bottom left, Jeff Beck

Jeff went back to session work, and in 1973 played on Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book. In exchange, Stevie wrote a song for Jeff, “Superstition”. At the same time, Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice left Cactus, and the Beck Bogert & Appice band was back in play. They recorded “Superstition” for their debut album, but its release was delayed. In the meantime, Stevie Wonder released his album, with “Superstition” included on Barry Gordie’s orders. Stevie’s version became a hit, and BBA’s an after-thought. Jeff held it against Stevie for a few years, but they eventually reconciled. Read more on the story here. BBA broke up after a successful tour of Japan in 1974, resulting in Jeff’s first live album Beck Bogert & Appice: Live in Japan.

Finding himself at loose ends once again, Jeff veered into the realm of instrumental jazz/fusion. He has mostly lived in that world ever since. It was around this time that he began playing without a plectrum (pick). He also found a way to make his guitar “sing” in such a way as to make a vocalist unnecessary. His first two solo albums, Blow by Blow (1975), and Wired (1976), produced by George Martin at his Air Studio in Monserrat, B.W.I., are triumphs in the genre even today. Jeff followed up by touring with Jan Hammer, producing another great album, Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live.

Jeff Beck (2009) HOF Induction

Since the 1980s, Jeff has popped out idiosyncratic albums at the rate of a few per decade, his relatively sparse production due in part to a life-long battle with noise-induced tinnitus (ringing in the ears). Still, album after album has been regarded as the best instrumental of its time. Escape, Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop, Dirty Mind, Plan B, A Day in the Life, and Hammerhead all won Grammys for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

Jeff is also highly sought as a collaborator, having recorded or appeared with Bowie, Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger, Roger Waters, Paul Rodgers, Robert Plant, ZZ Top, Brian Wilson and Box of Frogs (Yardbirds reunion). He also appeared at charity concerts with Eric Clapton, Secret Policeman’s Other Ball, and Jimmy Page. ZZ Top is currently streaming “Rough Boy”, featuring. Jeff Beck, from the band’s Greatest Hits Live, due out in August, 2016.

You could maybe make a band with these guys: Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Bill Wyman, Paul Rodgers (A.R.M.S. Benefit, 1983)

Jeff Beck starts a 21 date US tour on July 19 at Port Chester, NY, running through August 21. Most dates will also feature Jeff’s guitar idol, Buddy Guy. The show at the Hollywood Bowl on August 10 will be a special celebration of Jeff’s 50 years in the music business.

An interviewer in The Telegraph, March 31, 2010, recounted:

“A phone rings in the middle of my interview with Jeff Beck. ‘F--- off!’ he snarls, comically. But then he looks closer at the digital display. ‘Oops, sorry, it’s Eric, I better take this.’

It is Eric Clapton, Beck’s fellow guitar god, calling to discuss a planned performance together. ‘It’s in D, Eric. Nah, don’t worry about that, I’ll do all the riffs,’ chatters Beck. ‘You just play fills and solos. I’ll do everything else. We’ll give it a shot, anyway, if it doesn’t work, heave ho.’

It is a fascinating glimpse into the private world of guitar heroes. Not least because, at 65, remarkably fit, muscular and alert, it is Beck who appears to be calling the shots with arguably his more celebrated peer, giving some indication why he is so often referred to as the guitarist’s guitarist.”

Happy Birthday to Jeff Beck!