Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck, one of the most influential rock guitarists of all time, has died at the age of 78. The British musician rose to fame as part of the Yardbirds, where he replaced Eric Clapton, before forming the Jeff Beck group with Rod Stewart.

And you can't ignore me'," wrote Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers in an essay for Rolling Stone's Greatest Guitar Players of All Time, where Beck placed seventh. He was not holding back." "He'd just keep getting better and better," Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page once recalled. "Even in the Yardbirds, he had a tone that was melodic but in-your-face - bright, urgent and edgy, but sweet at the same time. Posting a picture of the pair together on Instagram, he wrote: "Jeff Beck was on another planet. I'm sure the same goes for lots of people." "Five pounds, which to me was 500 back then [so] I went ahead and did it [myself]. That year, he recorded an album, Blow By Blow, with Beatles producer George Martin. Play on now and forever". I'd keep that in if I were you.' And then I got fascinated. RIP."

Jeff Beck, among the most innovative and certainly the most unpredictable of '60s guitar heroes, has died. He was 78.

At the Grammys the following year, the original “Hammerhead” and a rendition of Puccini’s aria “Nessun Dorma” received awards as best rock instrumental performance and best pop instrumental performance, respectively; the guitarist also took home a best pop collaboration trophy for his work on Hancock’s “Imagine,” with India.Arie. His musical collaboration with Depp began in 2020 with a cover of John Lennon’s “Isolation,” which was released in April, just after the Coronavirus pandemic took hold. His collaboration with Depp continued, even as the actor was the focus of a high-profile defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard. 171, 1993), comprising new renderings of Gene Vincent’s repertoire with lead vocals by Mike Sanchez and hot Beck lead work, and “Who Else!” (No. After the 1992 soundtrack “Frankie’s House,” Beck issued only “Crazy Legs” (No. The mainly instrumental collection garnered a second Grammy in the rock instrumental category. The set also produced his first Grammy winner, the rock instrumental “Escape.” He returned to the studio in 1985 for “Flash,” a largely instrumental affair produced in part by Nile Rodgers of Chic; the collection contained Beck’s only solo chart single, a No. Its successor “Beck-Ola” (1969), billed to the Jeff Beck Group (with Tony Newman replacing Waller) and featuring two crunching Elvis Presley covers and the searing instrumental “Rice Pudding,” was even more potent. Martin also produced the instrumental sequel “Wired” (1976), which featured appearances by keyboardist Hammer and fusion drummer Narada Michael Walden; it reached No. At the turn of the decade, the guitarist founded a new quintet edition of the Jeff Beck Group that leaned heavily on the jazzy keyboard work of Max Middleton. 17), “Shapes of Things” (No.

NEW YORK (AP) — Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock 'n' roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way ...

He teamed up with Seal on the Hendrix tribute “Stone Free,” created a jazz-fusion group led by synthesizer player Jan Hammer and honored rockabilly guitarist Cliff Gallup with the album “Crazy Legs.” He put out “Loud Hailer” in 2016. “Because we were all trying to be big bananas,” Beck told Rolling Stone in 2010. He was in a few bands — including Nightshift and The Tridents — before joining the Yardbirds in 1965, replacing Clapton but only a year later giving way to Page. He was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.” He and Clapton had a tense relationship early on but became friends in later life and toured together. The Jeff Beck Group — with Stewart singing — was later booked to play the 1969 Woodstock music festival but their appearance was canceled. “He is head, hands and feet above all the rest of us, with the kind of talent that appears only once every generation or two.” Beck first came to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds and then went out on his own in a solo career that incorporated hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera. Beck later said there was unrest in the band. Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born in Surrey, England, and attended Wimbledon Art College. Beck won eight Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again as a solo artist in 2009. Beck’s album credits include “Talking Book,” Stevie Wonder’s landmark 1972 album.

A black and white photo of a long-haired young man holding an electric guitar. Jeff Beck performing in 1969. He was one of the most influential guitarists in ...

Mr. Starting in the 1990s, Mr. In 1985, Mr. Bogert and Mr. “It was a lack of material,” he said, plus, he surmised, Mr. Again, however, the mercurial Mr. But Mr. Wood, and Mr. “I’ve never made the big time, mercifully,” Mr. Stewart and Mr. Along the way, Mr. “Even in the Yardbirds, he had a tone that was melodic, but in your face — bright, urgent and edgy,” wrote Mike Campbell, of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, for an article in Rolling Stone magazine to accompany a poll that named Mr.

His representatives said in a statement Wednesday that Beck died Tuesday after "suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis. Beck influenced generations of ...

He teamed up with Seal on the Hendrix tribute “Stone Free,” created a jazz-fusion group led by synthesizer player Jan Hammer and honored rockabilly guitarist Cliff Gallup with the album “Crazy Legs.” He put out “Loud Hailer” in 2016. “Because we were all trying to be big bananas,” Beck told Rolling Stone in 2010. He was in a few bands — including Nightshift and The Tridents — before joining the Yardbirds in 1965, replacing Clapton but only a year later giving way to Page. He was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.” He and Clapton had a tense relationship early on but became friends in later life and toured together. He made two records with Rod Stewart — 1968’s “Truth” and 1969’s “Beck-Ola” — and one with a 64-piece orchestra, “Emotion & Commotion.” The Jeff Beck Group — with Stewart singing — was later booked to play the 1969 Woodstock music festival but their appearance was canceled. “He is head, hands and feet above all the rest of us, with the kind of talent that appears only once every generation or two.” Beck later said there was unrest in the band. Beck first came to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds and then went out on his own in a solo career that incorporated hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera. Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born in Surrey, England, and attended Wimbledon Art College. Beck was among the rock-guitarist pantheon from the late ’60s that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix.

He rose to prominence in the 1960s as a member of the Yardbirds and went on to a prolific solo career that drew on hard rock, electronic music and jazz ...

His talent and personality were such that members of Pink Floyd considered asking Mr. “Everyone thinks of the 1960s as something they really weren’t,” he said. He lasted only 20 months with the band before moving on to work as a solo artist, while struggling to translate his ideas into music. At the Wimbledon School of Art, now part of the University of the Arts London, he played in R&B and rock bands, refining his technique while experimenting with genres. Beck learned on a borrowed guitar and made crude attempts as a teenager to create his own, once trying to bolt together cigar boxes for a body. “That’s for me,” he said in response. Beck continued to make music, partnering with actor and musician Johnny Depp last year to record the studio album “18.” But he also fell out of the limelight while avoiding interviews and turning down corporate sponsorships, cherishing his privacy and seeking to avoid distractions. 4 on the Billboard chart, and joined supergroups including Beck, Bogert & Appice, a power trio that featured bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice. “I get bored very quickly, then I get irritable.” Beck seemed to agree with that assessment, once telling the magazine: “That’s my whole thing, trying to explore the blues to the maximum, really. Beck helped pioneer the use of feedback and distortion, developing a hard-edged new sound that informed hits such as “Heart Full of Soul,” “Shapes of Things” and “Over Under Sideways Down.” He later formed the Jeff Beck Group, a rotating group of musicians that initially included singer Rod Stewart and bassist-guitarist Ronnie Wood. “I don't care about the rules,” he once said.

Ten of the best music moments from Jeff Beck's career, including guitar solos, songs with the Yeardbirds, Stevie Wonder, Kate Bush and more.

From the “There & Back” album, featuring his then-constant companion, keyboardist, sequencer and synth player Jan Hammer (along with drummer Simon Phillips and Bowie producer Ken Scott), “Star Cycle” is pop-prog at its slickest. Every lush track on “Blow by Blow” — Beck’s 1975 Top 10 smash — is a winner. Beck moves from echo-heavy rockabilly licks (the sounds of his youth) to fluid, clarion squalls of sound. While its stammering drums and hammering piano provide a stark rhythmic base, Beck’s majestic guitar line slowly slithers through his “Bolero” like a snake. This is where the Jeff Beck revolution begins. Along with these fellow legends, Beck famously played with David Bowie during his 1973 Ziggy Stardust at London’s Hammersmith Odeon and on Ozzy Osbourne’s latest album, 2022’s “Patient Number 9.”

Guitarist Jeff Beck was among a wave of influential English guitar players in love with American blues. He died on Tuesday, January 10 after contracting ...

He explained to [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/arts/music/14beck.html) in 2010 how he felt about the music industry as a whole: He became enamored with the guitar as a child and first came to prominence playing in The Yardbirds – where he replaced Eric Clapton and joined Jimmy Page. Despite his best efforts to stay out of the spotlight, Beck was still recognized and acclaimed. "I think the Stratocaster, the particular guitar Stratocaster, lends itself to endless possibilities because of the spring-loaded bridge that it's got. "I just tried to become a singer," he told NPR Beck, one the most acclaimed guitarists in rock and roll history, died Tuesday after contracting bacterial meningitis, according to a statement released by a publicist on behalf of his family.

The influential rock guitarist "peacefully passed away" on Tuesday (10.01.23), at the age of 78, after contracting bacterial meningitis. And tributes continue ...

Jeff Beck, one the most acclaimed guitarists in rock and roll history, died Tuesday after contracting bacterial meningitis, according to his family.

CONTRERAS: Jeff Beck was a notorious loner, and that is - he largely avoided the spotlight that other rock stars were used to, preferring instead to spend time with his collection of vintage hotrod cars at his home in England. In his hands, it was as expressive as the human voice. CONTRERAS: His name pops up throughout that early 1960s history, first as a replacement for Eric Clapton in the legendary British rock group The Yardbirds, then as the leader of the Jeff Beck Group with a very young Rod Stewart. Unlike his British contemporaries who made their names playing with one band back then - musicians like Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin and Pete Townsend in The Who - Jeff Beck was associated with a variety of bands and configurations throughout his career, often invited to perform as a guest musician for artists like Stevie Wonder and jazz fusion musician Jan Hammer. Beck was part of the so-called British Invasion of the 1960s and was widely respected well into his 70s. Guitarist Jeff Beck has died.

The maverick virtuoso rock guitarist has died aged 78. We take a look back at his career in pictures.

The guitarist, who died on Tuesday, could make his instrument slash, burn and sigh. Listen to tracks released from 1966 to 2010 that reveal his range and ...

For all his speed and dexterity, Beck never underestimated the beauty of a sustained melody. This gracious latter-day reunion for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is noisy, flashy, virtuosic and over the top in exactly the right proportions. Beck offers a stately, fanfare-like guitar hook after the first verse, then engages Stewart more and more: taking over the melody with note-bending variations, surging up from below, goading Stewart to shout and leap into falsetto. It gives Beck room to peal some clarion melodies and then attack them with trills, bent notes, blues licks and dissonances. His solo eases up to a high note and then casually trickles down, continuing through the track to garland Wonder’s vocals with little slides and curlicues, reveling in the song’s sophisticated chord progression. Beck’s electric guitar opens with twangy rockabilly syncopation, sets up the choppy piano groove and pointedly spurs things along. The song gallops from the get-go, as Beck answers his own power chords with countermelodies high and low. Beck’s lead guitar takes over for the entire last minute, melding rockabilly and something like raga, leaving the rest of the band to whoop along. Beck’s instrumentals moved to the forefront in the 1970s, as his material shifted toward jazz-rock. He could make his Stratocaster sound icy, searing, slashing and otherworldly in the course of a single track. It sparred with singers for the spotlight. The guitarist, who died on Tuesday, could make his instrument slash, burn and sigh.

Gene Simmons, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart and more rock musicians mourn the death of guitar maven Jeff Beck.

From rock to soul to jazz he was the greatest player in all genres.” [Music Radar](https://www.musicradar.com/news/gene-simmons-the-10-tracks-that-blew-my-mind) in 2017, Simmons was asked to list tracks that “blew his mind” and listed “Truth,” saying: “Even before Led Zeppelin and Cream, Beck took the blues and turned up the volume. Please get ahold of the first two Jeff Beck Group albums and behold greatness,” he said, referring to Beck’s 1968 debut “Truth,” and its successor, 1969’s “Beck-Ola.” “We have lost a wonderful man and one of the greatest guitar players in the world,” he wrote. [Wednesday’s announcement of the death of English rock guitarist Jeff Beck](https://variety.com/2023/music/news/jeff-beck-guitarist-dead-dies-1235486491/), musicians and celebrities took to social media to remember the artist and his storied career. In a Twitter post, Stewart thanked Beck for being “one of the few guitarists that when playing live would actually listen to me sing and respond.

As much as his technical skill, imagination was Jeff Beck's calling card; he always possessed the ability to surprise. The guitarist died Tuesday at 78.

“Flash” doesn’t conventionally succeed but Beck’s playing on the record is invigorating, cutting through the computerized murk and revealing the secret to his art: He benefited from creative tension. It’s unfortunate that his final project wound up as the torpid Depp collaboration “18,” but even that record felt true to Beck’s artistry. He managed to freshen this formula on both “Emotion & Commotion,” a proggy 2010 set where he was sometimes paired with an orchestra, and the leaner “Loud Hailer,” a 2016 affair that reconnected to the restlessness of the Jeff Beck Group. He found that with “Blow by Blow,” a record where he turned the exploratory fusion of John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra into something digestible to a broad audience — something smooth, melodic and funky. “Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop” won the guitarist his second Grammy for rock instrumental performance, a category he’d dominate in the 2000s. Beck consolidated his achievement with its swift sequel “Wired” where he was given a considerable lift by the contributions of drummer Narada Michael Walden and keyboardist Jan Hammer. It was the rare time that Beck managed to capitalize on positive momentum but it didn’t last long: He soon took an extended break, the first of many during the 1980s and 1990s. Beck lacked the commercial instincts of his old friend, a trait that painfully paired with his nasty habit of alienating his lead singers. Ultimately, his hunt for the right support led him to the slick jazz fusion of “Blow by Blow,” the 1975 album that finally established him as a star in his own right. Take his final album “18” and its accompanying tour, a collaboration with Johnny Depp launched during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. During his time with the Yardbirds, he discovered sounds lurking within that still possess the ability to startle. Like his childhood friend Jimmy Page, he was grounded in blues but not beholden to it, an aesthetic choice that separated him from Eric Clapton, the guitarist he replaced in the trail-blazing British Invasion group the Yardbirds.

Virtuoso musician who took the guitar in new directions with a firework display of contrasting techniques and textures.

After the Jeff Beck Band ended, he formed the “power trio” Beck, Bogert and Appice in 1973 (his bandmates being ex-members of Vanilla Fudge), but the project failed to match expectations and they split in 1974. [Curtis Mayfield](https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/dec/28/guardianobituaries)’s People Get Ready, and the track Escape won Beck the first of his eight Grammy awards. [George Martin](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/09/george-martin-obituary). [Evil Hearted You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y2ayUzXcec) (UK No 3), Shapes of Things (UK No 3) and [Over Under Sideways Down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4DdAs0PddQ) (UK No 10). It featured Page, the Who’s drummer Keith Moon and the future Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones (indeed, the musicians on the track almost became Led Zeppelin), but was not released until it became the B side of Beck’s single Hi Ho Silver Lining the following year. Page would go on to bend the boundaries of rock music with Led Zeppelin, while Beck was experimenting with different tunings and feedback effects. Beck was born at his family’s home in Wallington (then in Surrey, but now in south London). His 2010 album Emotion & Commotion included versions of Benjamin Britten’s [Corpus Christi Carol](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itJSLf_8yJ0) and Puccini’s [Nessun Dorma](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTBCqmBjNxk), interpreted through Beck’s uniquely sensitive touch. A rebuilt Jeff Beck Group released the albums Rough and Ready (1971) and Jeff Beck Group (1972), but the magic moment had passed. [Heart Full of Soul ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM1qZBFiOLU)and [Shapes of Things](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc17DqcA6Qc), while expanding the band’s musical palette hugely. As a member of the Yardbirds in 1965-66, he featured on some of their best-known hits, including When Clapton and Page appeared at Live Aid in 1985, Beck preferred to stay at home and tinker with his beloved collection of classic hot rod cars.

Jeff Beck, guitar god, blues-rock innovator and two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, has died at the age of 78.

He was a superb technician and could strip down his guitar and put it back together again in time for the show,” Paul McCartney wrote on social media. “His unique style of playing was something that no one could match, and I will always remember the great times we had together. [wrote](https://www.instagram.com/p/CnS0CFfPM9K/?hl=en) on social media with a photo of Beck performing. “I was glad on the one hand that guitar was still king,” Beck once said of the Eighties. The Yardbirds soon recorded the hits [“Heart Full of Soul”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM1qZBFiOLU&ab_channel=Aerio12345678) and [“Evil Hearted You,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y2ayUzXcec&ab_channel=Aerio12345678) both of which charted in the U.K., which they followed up with [“Shapes of Things”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOc-_GpfF1w&ab_channel=JimMcCartyandCo) and [“Over Under Sideways Down,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4DdAs0PddQ&ab_channel=zedlep1968) their first U.S. He took me and Ronnie Wood to the USA in the late 60s in his band the Jeff Beck Group and we haven’t looked back since,” Stewart tweeted Wednesday. As long as it doesn’t encroach on my style — and it didn’t — I was happy.” [Stroll On](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zeza1xeWKM&ab_channel=PoseidaDelAlba)” (a version of Jimmy Burnette’s “ [Train Kept a-Rollin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkZhJJ8sPmw)‘”) for a sequence in Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow-Up, in which Beck smashed a guitar a la Pete Townshend. [Hi Ho Silver Lining](https://youtu.be/rb-bKKRl_hw),” a track on which he sang lead vocals, that became a hit, while its B-side, “ [Beck’s Bolero](https://youtu.be/LLkLcnu_e_g),” foreshadowed Led Zeppelin as it featured Page and bassist John Paul Jones accompanying Beck alongside the Who’s Keith Moon and pianist Nicky Hopkins. And you can’t ignore me.’ Even in the [Yardbirds](https://www.rollingstone.com/artist/the-yardbirds), he had a tone that was melodic but in-your-face — bright, urgent, and edgy, but sweet at the same time. The two musicians shared a passion for rockabilly music (Beck credited his older sister with buying the records that shaped his taste) and would try to impress each other with their skills. “On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing,” Beck’s family said in a statement.