Jeff Beck, Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Guitarist For Yardbirds, Passes At 78

Jeff Beck: A Great Is Gone.

JEFF BECK, a guitar innovator who was inducted into the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME in 1992 as a member of the YARDBIRDS, and again in 2009 on his own, passed away yesterday at the age of 78 after suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis.

Considered one of rock’s true virtuosos and one of its most innovative instrumentalists, he is not just a rock guitarist, but incorporates elements of jazz and fusion both on his own and with collaborators such as JAN HAMMER. His rather quixotic career careens like one of his guitar solos, from membership in THE YARDBIRDS and his own THE JEFF BECK GROUP, which produced a pair of groundbreaking instrumental albums in the mid-‘70s, “Blow By Blow” and “Wired.” 

An expert at precise melodies administered with nimble fingers as well as feedback effects and pedals, BECK was hailed by writer GENE SANTORO for “his strong vibrato, fierce attack and fat one, his acute microtonal sense of pitch when he bends or slides into a note, his sophisticated sense of melodic and rhythm playing, his ability to wring painfully true notes from up by the guitar’s pickups [and] his continuing use of the electric guitar to generate textures as well as notes.”

His style was so complete most of the time a vocalist was merely superfluous. 

Born JUNE 24th, 1944, in WALLINGTON, SURREY, ENGLAND, GEOFFREY ARNOLD “JEFF’ BECK was, like LES PAUL, an inveterate inventor, building his first guitar at the age of 15 and playing it through the radio. His early influences were rockabilly guitarists like CLIFF GALLUP (of GENE VINCENT’s BLUE CAPS) ad JAMES BURTON (who played with RICK NELSON).  He also favored blues players like BUDDY GUY and OTIS RUSH, favorites also of contemporaries like his friend ERIC CLAPTON and JIMMY PAGE. BECK’s style was at once feedback-drenched and fluid, helping shape the sound of – and stretch the limits of – electric guitar.

BECK’s early bands were THE DELTONES and THE TRIDENTS, but first made a name for himself when he replaced ERIC CLAPTON in THE YARDBIRDS, leading the group through its most successful period, with hits like “Heart Full Of Soul,” “I’m A Man” and “Shapes Of Things.”  Leaving the band in 1967, BECK went on his own, scoring solo hits with “Hi Ho Silver Lining,” which reached #14 in the U.K., featuring a rare lead vocal by the man himself.

Admitting later he didn’t like the song, his direction was more clearly delineated on the b-side, with “BECK’s Bolero,” an instrumental showcase that wove classical elements with rock thunder and featured THE WHO’s KEITH MOON on drums.

THE JEFF BECK GROUP included both ROD STEWART and RON WOOD, with WOODY switching from guitar to bass, and also included keyboardist NICKY HOPKINS and drummer MICK WALLER (soon to be replaced by TONY NEWMAN). That lineup recorded “Truth” in 1968 and “Beck-Ola” in 1969, the perfect mix of BECK’s guitar pyrotechnics and STEWART’s hoarse, soulful plaint.  BECK expanded his work with THE YARDBIRDS on metal-blues originals like “Plynth (Water Down The Drain)” and the instrumental “Rice Pudding” to rollicking covers of “Jailhouse Rock” and his former group’s “Shapes Of Things.” THE JEFF BECK GROUP proved unable to contain all those major personalities, and came apart just before their scheduled appearance at WOODSTOCK, with STEWART and WOOD going on to fame as members of THE FACES.

As fanatical about classic FORD hot rods as he is guitars, BECK was sidelined for six months with injuries sustained in a NOVEMBER 1969 car crash before forming a new JEFF BECK GROUP with drummer COZY POWELL, vocalist BOB TENCH, keyboardist MAX MIDDLETON and bassist CLIVE CHAMAN, recording a pair of albums, “Rough And Ready” (1971) and “JEFF BECK GROUP” (1972), before once more calling it a day for their brand of straightforward soul and R&B.

BECK got heavier by joining bassist TIM BOGERT and drummer CARMEN APPICE – alumni of both VANILLA FUDGE and CACTUS – in BECK, BOGART & APPICE, a boogie power trio that lasted but a single album, released in 1973. The highlight of the band’s set was a take on STEVIE WONDER’s “Superstition,” a song he supposed wrote with BECK in mind.

After the dissolution of BBA, BECK turned his attention to instrumental music, with a prog/jazz feel, liberated by not having to co-exist with a lead singer. In 1975, he recorded his all-instrumental masterpiece, “Blow By Blow,” with GEORGE MARTIN, spurred by the fusion sounds being created by JOHN McLAUGHLIN’s MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA. Instead of a jazz guy playing rock, though, BECK was a rocker playing jazz, a crucial distinction.  “Blow By Blow” was a Top 10 album in the U.S. on the strength of songs like his lyrical interpretation of STEVIE WONDER’s “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers.”

On “Wired,” the follow-up, also produced by MARTIN, BECK went even more hard-edged, with contributions from drummer NARADA MICHAEL WALDEN and a remarkable reinvention of CHARLES MINGUS’ “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.” BECK the went on tour with MAHAVISHNU keyboardist JAN HAMMER to create what he called “musical turbocharging total self-propulsion.”

BECK entered the ‘80s with his first studio album in five years, “There And Back,” reuniting mid-decade with old friend ROD STEWART for a remake of THE IMPRESSIONS’ “People Get Ready,” from his ’85 album, “Flash.” Keyboardist TONY HYMAS and drummer TERRY BOZZIO were collaborators on the improvised techno grooves and fingerstyle picking of 1989’s “JEFF BECK’S GUITAR SHOP.” In 1981, he made a series of historic live appearances with ERIC CLAPTON at the AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL benefit concerts, dubbed “The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball,” performing with his guitar contemporary on “Crossroads,” “Further On Up The Road” and his arrangement of “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers.”

During this period, BECK played guitar on projects by TINA TURNER, ROD STEWART, DIANA ROSS, MICK JAGGER and ROBERT PLANT’s HONEYDRIPPERS, among others, and even contributed guitar when his old YARDBIRDS mates reunited as BOX OF FROGS.  His own sporadic recording schedule was due to his lifelong battle with noise-induced tinnitus. 

“BECKOLOGY,” a career-spanning three-disc box set came out in 1991, and two years later, BECK released “Crazy Legs,” a nod to his love of rockabilly guitar. By the end of the ‘90s, BECK continued to defy any consistency in style, releasing the electronica-infused “Who Else!,” “You Had It Coming” in 2001 (earning a GRAMMY for the track “Dirty Mind”) and “JEFF” in 2003 (earning him another GRAMMY for “Plan B”), continuing to explore ambient, techno and trance music.  An evocative instrumental cover of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” became a staple of BECK’s live shows. 

BECK was inducted into the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME as a solo artist in 2009, with the honor presented to him by JIMMY PAGE. BECK then performed “Train Kept A-Rollin’” with PAGE, RONNIE WOOD, JOE PERRY, FLEA and members of METALLICA. 

BECK ranked fifth in ROLLING STONE’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time,” describing him as “one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock.” He has received the GRAMMY for Best Rock Instrumental Performance six times and Best Pop Instrumental Performance once.  In 2013, BECK recorded several tracks for BRIAN WILSON’s solo album, “No Pier Pressure,” then accompanied him on a co-headlining tour. In 2014, he received the IVOR NOVELL AWARD for Outstanding Contribution to BRITISH Music, and in the summer of 2016, he appeared at his own tribute concert at HOLLYWOOD BOWL with BUDDY GUY, celebrating 50 years as a musician.  

BECK recently finished a tour with JOHNNY DEPP.

Fellow ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAMER ZZ TOP's BILLY GIBBONS noted, "I met JEFF BECK when I was 17 and I was glad to know a guy like that, a guy who was able to show me how this guitar playing thing should be approached and that’s still very much the case. Jeff’s was a wondrous soul and we already miss him terribly, but take comfort in the fact that he’ll be with us forever.  Hi Ho Silver Lining!"

Hear the BENZTOWN tribute here. 

BECK is survived by his wife SANDRA BECK, whom he first married in 2005.

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