Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck in Melbourne (2009)

Jeff Beck (* 24 June 1944 in Wallington , London Borough of Sutton ; actually Geoffrey Arnold Beck ) is a British rock - guitarist and multiple Grammy award winner. In 2011, Rolling Stone listed him at number five of the 100 best guitarists of all time .

Life

Like many guitarists in England in the early 1960s, Jeff Beck made his living as a session musician. In 1965 - after Eric Clapton switched to John Mayall - the Yardbirds were looking for a new lead guitarist . Beck was one of the first guitarists to experiment with electronic fuzz distortion and noise . After a legendary but brief lead guitar duo with Jimmy Page , he left the group in late 1966.

In early 1967 he released his solo single Hi Ho Silver Lining / Beck's Bolero , which became a huge hit. Beck sang himself here. In the same year Jeff Beck formed a new band, the Jeff Beck Group . There were Rod Stewart (vocals), Ron Wood (bass), Micky Waller (drums) and Nicky Hopkins (keyboard). The group produced two albums, Truth (1968) and Beck-Ola (1969). Regardless, tensions developed in the Jeff Beck Group, and in 1969 Stewart and Wood got out to join the Faces . Ron Wood then moved to the Rolling Stones in 1975 .

In 1968 the psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd Beck wanted to recruit guitarists. Pink Floyd needed an additional guitarist due to the psychological problems of Syd Barrett , who was the band leader of Pink Floyd at the time; Ultimately, however, the choice fell on David Gilmour .

After the second failure of the Jeff Beck Group (which fell apart in 1972) Beck founded the high-profile trio Beck, Bogert & Appice (BBA) with Carmine Appice (drums) and Tim Bogert (bass), both formerly with Vanilla Fudge and Cactus . This group, too, mainly attracted attention from specialist circles and soon disbanded. After all, they had a hit with Stevie Wonder's Superstition and Beck played the lead guitar in Lookin 'for Another Pure Love on Wonder's Talking Book album . In 1975 Beck released an instrumental, highly jazz- inspired solo album entitled Blow by Blow , which received rave reviews. This was followed by collaborative work with jazz-rock keyboardist Jan Hammer and his band in 1976: Wired , which also met with great approval. During this time Beck also produced two albums for the Upp group , in which he also played.

In the 1980s and 1990s Jeff Beck only released albums occasionally: Flash (1985, including some pieces with Rod Stewart and Jan Hammer), Guitar Shop (1989), Crazy Legs (1993, a tribute to his idol Cliff Gallup , the guitarist by Gene Vincent ), Who else (1999), and You Had It Coming (2001). Jeff Beck won the Grammy for the third time in the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category for his piece Dirty Mind from the album You Had It Coming. He also played as a guest musician in projects by other musicians (e.g. Jon Bon Jovis Blaze of Glory and Roger Waters Amused to Death 1992).

Jeff Beck had never celebrated such successes as Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page, but his musical visions range between jazz-rock and fusion music (e.g. on Wired and on There and Back , feat. Simon Phillips ), psychedelic and progressive Guitar music as an equally defining force in rock music. He has received six Grammy Awards for his rock instrumentals: 1986 for Escape , 1990 for Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop with Terry Bozzio and Tony Hymas , 2002 for Dirty Mind , 2004 for Plan B , 2010 for A Day in the Life and 2011 for Nessun dorma .

Beck plays Fender Stratocaster guitars almost exclusively . Together with him, Fender designed a "signature" Stratocaster model that is produced and sold by the Fender Custom Shop.

Gibson introduced a Jeff Beck model of a Les Paul in 2009 . The color is true to the original " Oxblood ". A widespread assumption is that the Seymour Duncan company has been making a series of humbuckers bearing the name of Jeff Beck (item no. SH-4 in the range) since the 1970s . However, this is wrong, the term "JB" stands for "Jazz / Blues" instead of "Jeff Beck".

Beck has rarely used a pick since the 1980s (only for particularly fast solo runs). Characteristic of his playing since the 1990s has been the excessive use of the tremolo lever based on Cliff Gallup's playing technique while simultaneously striking with the fingers of the right hand and the volume and tone controls of his guitar.

Discography

For publications with Jeff Beck Group see here .
For publications with Beck, Bogert & Appice see here .

With The Yardbirds

• 1965: For Your Love
• 1966: Having a Rave Up
• 1966: Roger the Engineer

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1975	Blow by Blow	-	-	-	-	US4th platinum (25 weeks)US
1976	Wired	-	-	-	UK38 (5 weeks) UK	US16 platinum (25 weeks)US
1980	There and Back	-	-	-	UK38 (4 weeks) UK	US21 (20 weeks) US
1985	Flash	DE60 (1 week) DE	-	-	UK83 (1 week) UK	US42 (18 weeks) US
1993	Crazy Legs	-	-	-	-	US171 (1 week) US	Cover album with songs by Gene Vincent
1999	Who Else!	-	-	-	UK74 (1 week) UK	US99 (5 weeks) US
2001	You Had It Coming	DE96 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	US110 (2 weeks) US
2003	Jeff	DE96 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	US122 (1 week) US
2010	Emotion & Commotion	DE30 (6 weeks) DE	AT44 (1 week) AT	CH40 (4 weeks) CH	UK21 (4 weeks) UK	US11 (9 weeks) US
2016	Loud Hailer	DE23 (4 weeks) DE	AT25 (3 weeks) AT	CH11 (6 weeks) CH	UK27 (1 week) UK	US41 (2 weeks) US

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More studio albums

• 1986: Lotus Gem
• 1989: Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop
• 1989: Blue Wind
• 1992: Frankie's House

Live albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1977	Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live	-	-	-	-	US23 gold (15 weeks)US
2008	Performing This Week ... Live At Ronnie Scott's	DE71 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	with Vinnie Colaiuta , Tal Wilkenfeld , Jason Rebello Recording from 2007 at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
2011	Rock'n'Roll Party Honoring Les Paul	DE96 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	US54 (2 weeks) US
2015	Live +	-	-	-	-	US148 (1 week) US

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More live albums

• 1974: Live in Japan
• 2006: Live at BB King's Blues Club
• 2007: Official Bootleg USA '06 (Blu-Spec)
• 2014: Live In Tokyo

Compilations

• 1991: Beckology, Anthology
• 1995: The Best of Beckology

EPs

• 2014: Yosogai (released in Japan only)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	CH	UK	US
1967	Hi Ho Silver Lining	-	-	UK14 (29 weeks) UK	-	B-side: Beck's Bolero again at number 17 in 1972, again at number 62 in 1982
	Tallyman	-	-	UK30 (3 weeks) UK	-	B-side: Rock My Plimsoul
1973	I've been drinking	-	-	UK27 (6 weeks) UK	-	B-side: Morning Dew / Greensleeves with Rod Stewart
1985	People get ready	-	CH24 (2 weeks) CH	UK48 (7 weeks) UK	US48 (10 weeks) US	B-side: Back on the Street / You Know, We Know with Rod Stewart highest ranking in UK after re-release in 1992
2010	I Put a Spell on You Emotion & Commotion	DE72 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	feat. Joss Stone

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More singles

• 1975: Cause We've Ended as Lovers
• 1980: The Final Peace
• 1985: Ambitious
• 1985: Gets Us All in the End
• 1985: Stop, Look and Listen
• 1989: Guitar Shop (with Terry Bozzio & Tony Hymas )
• 1989: Day in the House (with Terry Bozzio & Tony Hymas)

Guest Posts

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	CH	UK	US
2007	Up to the mountain	-	-	UK56 (2 weeks) UK	-	Kelly Clarkson feat. Jeff Beck
2014	No Man's Land (Green Fields of France) No Man's Land (Green Fields of France)	-	-	UK49 (2 weeks) UK	-	Joss Stone feat. Jeff Beck

Video albums

• 2008: Performing This Week ... Live at Ronnie Scott’s (US:platinum)
• 2011: Rock & Roll Party: Honoring Les Paul (US:gold)
• 2014: Live In Tokyo
• 2017: Live at the Hollywood Bowl
• 2018: Still On the Run Documentary

swell

1. ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 18, 2015, accessed August 8, 2017 . 
2. ^ Hannes Fricke: Myth guitar: history, interpreters, great hours. Reclam, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-15-020279-1 , pp. 69 and 91.
3. ↑ Allmusic: Crazy Legs (Engl.)
4. ↑ Jeff Beck Stratocaster ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Michael Leonhard: Gibson launches Jeff Beck Les Paul. In: MuscRadar. January 29, 2009. Retrieved October 28, 2019 . 
6. ^ Hannes Fricke: Myth guitar: history, interpreters, great hours. Reclam, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-15-020279-1 , p. 91 f.
7. ↑ ^{a b c d} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
8. ↑ ^{a b c d} Music Sales Awards: US

literature

• Stambler, Irwin: The Encyclopedia Of Pop, Rock And Soul . 3rd Revised Edition, New York City, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989, pp. 42-44 - ISBN 0-312-02573-4

Web links

Commons : Jeff Beck  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Jeff Beck in the catalog of the German National Library
• Jeff Beck in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Official website of Jeff Beck