Beck, Jeff (24th June 1944-10th January 2023)

He was a guitarist and singer-songwriter born Geoffrey Arnold Beck in Wallington Surrey, England who started out by singing in the church choir when he was 10 years old. By that time he had already heard the electric guitar on the radio and when he got to his teenage years taught himself on a guitar which he’d borrowed. He also tried to make his own at one point. After high school he went to Wimbledon School of Art and then worked in variety of jobs briefly.

At some point, while still in his teens, his sister introduced the guitarist Jimmy Page to him and in 1963 put together The Nightshift who played at the 100 Club in London. He also briefly joined The Rumbles as lead guitarist before moving onto The Tridents.

In 1964, while still a student, he played with the band Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages and performed on their single “Dracula’s Daughter”. That same year he also played on “I’m Not Running Away” by Fitz and Startz. The following year, after being recommended by Jimmy Page, he joined The Yardbirds as Eric Clapton’s successor. He remained with the group for just under two years and during that time performed on the majority of the songs that entered the UK Top 40 and on the 1966 album Roger the Engineer. He was let go by the band in 1966 while the band toured the US for not showing up for some of the shows.

Also in 1966 he released his solo single “Beck’s Bolero” where his backing musicians on the track were Jimmy Page on rhythm guitar, the keyboard player Nicky Hopkins, the bassist John Paul Jones and the drummer Keith Moon. The following year he released several other singles that included “The Tallyman” and the Top 20 chart hit “Hi Ho Silver Lining” and put together his The Jeff Beck Group with the vocals being sung by Rod Stewart, the bass played by Ronnie Wood, drums by Aynsley Dunbar before Micky Waller succeeded him and Nicky Hopkins with him again on keyboards. They released the albums Truth in 1968 and Beck-Ola in 1969, with Tony Newman taking over from Micky Waller.

The Jeff Beck Group broke up in 1969 and after that he was lead guitar and co-writer of four songs, credited as A.N.Other, in the super session Music from the Creek, which comprised many top international artists. He then joined the American band Vanilla Fudge with the musicians Carmine Appice on drums and Tim Bogert on bass, who both went on to co-form Cactus.

It all stopped for a while after he suffered a skull fracture in a car accident, but in 1970 he formed a band with drummer Cozy Powell. They went to America with the producer Mickie Most and performed with the Funk Brothers on several tracks at the Motown studios.

In 1971 he put together a new line-up of The Jeff Beck Group with the bass player Clive Chaman, the keyboard player Max Middleton and the guitarist and singer Bobby Tench. They released the album Rough and Ready where he wrote and co-wrote six of the tracks and the following year in 1972 released Jeff Beck Group, with the production being done by the guitarist and songwriter Steve Cropper. The album had five cover songs including Stevie Wonder’s “I Got to Have a Song”. The band were dissolved after the release of its second album.

He went back into collaboration with Carmine Appice and Tim Bogert whose group Cactus had disbanded. They toured the US together in 1972 with Max Middleton and the singer Kim Milford, later replaced by Bobby Tench, where he was still obliged by contract requirements to go by the name The Jeff Beck Group. Once the tour had finished the three of them became the trio Beck, Bogert & Appice and gave performances the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, still having to go by the name The Jeff Beck Group. Still in 1972 they did another tour of the US and then in 1973 released Beck, Bogert & Appice which contained a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Supersitition”. That same year he performed “The Jean Genie”, “Love Me Do” and “Around and Around” on the stage with David Bowie.

As part of a tour of Europe in 1974 he and Bogert and Appice performed a show in London which was later broadcast in the US on the show Rock Around the World. Tracks from that appeared on the bootleg At Last Rainbow and later on the compilation Beckology. Although there was no second studio album and the trio had split up in April 1974 the album Beck, Bogert & Appice Live in Japan managed to reach the shelves until 1975.

His work in 1974 continued when he took on the band Upp as a backing band when he appeared on the BBC TV show Guitar Workshop and performed on their first and second albums. He also worked again with both Max Middleton and Bobby Tench and used the producer and arranger George Martin for his own 1975 Blow by Blow which reached No. 4 on the US Billboard album chart. He put a band together for a tour of the US, often supporting the Mahavishnu Orchestra and at one show in Cleveland, Ohio threw both his guitar and talk box off-stage after breaking a string and getting frustrated with them. During the tour he and Bernard “Pretty” Purdie performed at the World Rock Festival put on by the singer and producer Yuyu Uchida.

In 1976 he recorded and released his Wired with the musicians Narada Michael Walden and Jan Hammer. He promoted the album by joining up with the Jan Hammer Group and after he had toured he released the 1977 album Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live. He remained in the US as a tax exile in 1977 and in 1978 did some rehearsals with the drummer Gerry Brown and the bassist Stanley Clarke for a performance at the Knebworth Festival which didn’t materialise. In late 1978 he toured Japan and then returned to London to work on his next album.

When the 1980s came around he released his There & Back in 1980 where his bassist was Mo Foster on the album and on tour. The following year he performed in The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball live series of concerts with Eric Clapton. He and the musicians Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Donovan, Bob Geldof and Sting appeared together in an all-star finale which appeared on a film and album in 1982.

Three years later in 1985 he released Flash, which include a cover of “People Get Ready” with vocals by Rod Stewart that became a Top 10 hit on Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs and No. 48 on the Billboard Hot 100. On the big screen he appeared as a guitarist with the singer Nicolette Larson in the film Twins in 1988 and the following year, four years after his last album he released Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop.

The 1990s saw him busy at work with several other artists as well as on film scores. He was set to appear in Paris in 1992 at a concert by Guns N’ Roses but he was unable to continue with it after he had suffered temporary deafness due to the crash of a cymbal. Also in 1992 he was inducted with other members of The Yardbirds into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The following year he and the singer Paul Rodgers worked together on Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters. It wasn’t until 1999 that he released his next album Who Else! where he collaborated with the guitarist Jennifer Batten who he also toured and wrote with until 2001.

Into the 2000s and he won a Grammy Award for “Best Rock Instrumental Performance” on “Dirty Mind” from his 2000 album You Had It Coming. His next album Jeff released in 2003 earned him another Grammy Award for “Best Rock Instrumental Performance” on the track “Plan B”. He worked with B.B. King as his opener in 2003 and at the Crossroads Guitar Festival put on by Eric Clapton in 2004. In 2007 he appeared with Kelly Clarkson on an episode of American Idol, with the performance recorded live and put on sale straightaway. In 2009 he announced his world tour and that same year he was inducted as a solo artist into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, being presented with the award by Jimmy Page. In a performance at the Albert Hall in 2009 he was joined onstage by the guitarist and singer David Gilmour.

When the 2010s came about he released his Emotion & Commotion in 2010, which had vocals by the guest singers Imelda May and Joss Stone over a variety of original and cover songs. The tracks “Hammerhead” and “Nessun Dorma” from the album both won Grammy Awards and his third Grammy that year was awarded for his work on Herbie Hancock’s The Imagine Project. Also in 2010 he released his Live and Exclusive from the Grammy Museum and recorded the 2010 DVD Rock ‘n’ Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul) with Imelda May’s band.

The following year in 2011 he was presented with a fellowship for his “Outstanding contribution to the field of music” by the University of the Arts London and a few days later received an honorary doctorate by the University of Sussex.

In 2013 he worked on Brian Wilson’s solo album with the other Beach Boys members Al Jardine and David Marks as well as touring with him. The next year he began his world tour in Japan and released the 3-track CD Yosogai. He also performed that same year with Joss Stone at the Festival of Remembrance at the Albert Hall. His next album released was Loud Hailer in 2016 and then four years later he released the single “Isolation” in 2020 with Johnny Depp who he had been working in collaboration with. In 2022 they released their album 18 which would become his final album. His last recording would be on the track “Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero” which support the Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America.

He was a winner of 8 Grammy Awards and nominated for a further 8 during his career. After playing, writing and recording for countless other artists and bands he appeared on many albums, other than his own. A small selection of these include Inside Out by Philip Bailey, Blaze of Glory by Jon Bon Jovi, The Red Shoes by Kate Bush, Blues Years by Eric Clapton, Journey to Love by Stanley Clarke, Heart & Soul by Joe Cocker, Chain Reaction by The Crusaders, Blues with Friends by Dion, Barabajagal by Donovan, Damn Right I’ve Got the Blues by Buddy Guy, Ballad of Forty Dollars/Homecoming by Tom T. Hall, Drive by Jan Hammer, The Weird Tapes No. 5: Live ’76 & ’77 by Hawkwind, More Friends: Small World Big Band Vol. 2 by Jools Holland, She’s the Boss by Mick Jagger, Live In Concert by The James Gang, Japan Live Session 1986 with Steve Lukather, The Body Acoustic by Cyndi Lauper, In My Life by George Martin, Shook by Ian Matthews, Another World by Brian May, Roll with the Punches by Van Morrison, Years of Refusal by Morrissey, Patient No. 9 by Ozzie Osbourne, Hip Young Guitar Slinger by Jimmy Page, Ti Adoro by Luciano Pavarotti, The Girl from Detroit City by Suzi Quatro, Tilt by Cozy Powell, Billy Preston by Billy Preston, Pirate Radio by The Pretenders, Spitfire by LeAnn Rimes, Chronicle by Paul Rodgers, Swept Away by Diana Ross, Faithful by Todd Rundgren, Seal by Seal, Camouflage by Rod Stewart, Just for the Record by Barbra Streisand, Fun on Earth by Roger Taylor, True Love by Toots & The Maytals, Private Dancer by Tina Turner, The Turtles: More Golden Hits by The Turtles, Redux 1992: Live in Japan by Utopia, Sound Theories Vols. 1-2 by Steve Vai, The Fire Meets the Fury by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Amused to Death by Roger Waters, ‘Tis the Seasons by Frankie Valli, Winwood & Friends by Steve Winwood, Talking Book by Stevie Wonder and Greatest Hits by The Yardbirds and XXX by ZZ Top along with numerous soundtracks, compilations and collections.

He died in hospital near his home in East Sussex, England after suffering from a bacterial meningitis infection in January 2023 when he was 78 years old. He left a legacy of being looked upon as an innovator and one of the greatest guitarists of all time.

Sources:

Beck, Jeff (24th June 1944-10th January 2023)

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