Obituary, Jeff Beck (1944-2023)

Jeff Beck, the English guitar player who came to prominence in the Yardbirds and made a name for himself as a ‘guitarist’s guitarist’, has passed away aged 78. Beck was born and raised in London, and although some of his first musical experiences were singing in a church choir as a child, he cited Les Paul as the first electric guitar player who drew his attention to the instrument, specifically Paul’s recording of the jazz standard ‘How High the Moon’. After spending his teenage years learning on borrowed instruments and his own hand-made cigar box guitars, his sister introduced him to Jimmy Page and the two became fast friends. In fact, it was Page who recommended The Yardbirds to recruit Beck after the departure of Eric Clapton from the band (Page had been their first choice), as Clapton was more of a blues purist who disagreed with the pop music direction the band was taking.

Whilst it certainly garnered him some attention, Beck was fired from the Yardbirds relatively quickly for his somewhat unpredictable attendance record, but this only meant he was able to further pursue what would ultimately become a widely successful solo career. Beck’s musicianship was known to many; he was considered as a replacement for Syd Barrett after he left PInk Floyd in 1967, and even The Rolling Stones approached him about joining after the death of Brian Jones in 1969. Beck was renowned for his pioneering use of guitar feedback, achieved through the sheer volume he’d use on stage, which ended up becoming a key part of his technique as he learned to control it more tunefully. Following his departure from The Yardbirds, Beck spent a couple of years “wasting my career doing junk tunes”, mostly pop singles that he later described as “a disaster”.

After this brief brush with popular music, he formed the Jeff Beck Group in 1967 (which also featured Rod Stewart), recording two albums with the band – Truth (1968) and Beck-Ola (1969) – though following numerous fallouts the band split up, and Beck had to put his music career on hold while recovering from a car accident. He ultimately went solo in 1975, taking the approach many solo guitarists do nowadays with a lead guitar melody taking the place of a vocalist. Two of his most seminal albums, Blow by Blow and Wired (1975 & 1976 respecively) found Beck working successfully in a jazz-rock mode, with Wired featuring Weather Report keyboardist Jan Hammer and Mahavishnu drummer Narada Michael Walden. He continued to experiment in jazz, blues and even dabbled in electronic music throughout his career.

Beck’s long and acclaimed career didn’t exactly go unnoticed; he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, in 1992 as part of the Yardbirds, and in 2009 as a solo artist. Even all those years after they first met his old friend Jimmy Page recalled; "He'd just keep getting better and better, and he leaves us, mere mortals.”

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