Jeff Beck: British guitar legend dies aged 78

[dutchman]

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.

His tone, presence and, above all, volume redefined guitar music in the 1960s, and influenced movements like heavy metal, jazz-rock and even punk.

Beck's death was confirmed on his official Twitter page.

"On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck's passing," the statement said.

"After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss."

Born Geoffrey Arnold Beck in Wallington, Surrey, the musician fell in love with Rock and Roll as a child, and built his first guitar as a teenager.

"The guy next door said, 'I'll build you a solid body guitar for five pounds'," he later told Rock Cellar Magazine. "Five pounds, which to me was 500 back then [so] I went ahead and did it [myself].

"The first one I built was in 1956, because Elvis was out, and everything that you heard about pop music was guitar. And then I got fascinated. I'm sure the same goes for lots of people."

After a short stint at Wimbledon Art College, he left to play with shock-rocker Screaming Lord Sutch and the Tridents.

When Eric Clapton left the Yardbirds in 1965, Jimmy Page suggested hiring Beck - and he went on to play on hits like I'm A Man and Shapes Of Things, where his pioneering use of feedback influenced musicians like Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix.

The guitarist stayed with the Yardbirds for nearly two years, before declaring he was quitting music altogether and releasing his first solo single Hi Ho Silver Lining.

However, he quickly returned with the Jeff Beck Band, whose first two albums Truth (1968) and Beck-Ola (1969), took a ferocious approach to the blues that laid the groundwork for heavy metal.

But the band were unhappy - with a US tour regularly descending into arguments and physical fights.

Singer Rod Stewart and bassist Ronnie Wood quit in 1970 to join the Small Faces (later The Faces), and when Beck was injured in a car accident, he had to put his career on hold.

When he recovered, Beck assembled a second line-up of his band but their albums were commercially unsuccessful and Beck went solo in 1975.

That year, he recorded an album, Blow By Blow, with Beatles producer George Martin. Entirely instrumental, Beck's lyrical, mellifluous guitar playing essentially replaced the parts of a lead vocalist, an approach he would take for most of the rest of his career.

Blow By Blow made the US top 10 and was awarded a platinum disc, and Beck quickly followed it up with 1976's Wired (also produced by George Martin) and the 1997 concert album Jeff Beck With The Jan Hammer Group Live.

After the tour documented on the album, the musician retired to his estate outside of London and remained quiet for three years.

The 1980s saw him collaborate with Nile Rodgers on an album called Flash, which contained his first hit single - a cover of Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready with Rod Stewart on lead vocals - and earned him a Grammy Award.

In 1987, he played on Mick Jagger's solo album Primitive Cool, and continued to work with artists like Roger Waters and Jon Bon Jovi in the 1990s, as well as contributing to Hans Zimmer's score for the Tom Cruise movie Days Of Thunder.

But his solo output slowed down, until the release of 1999's You Had It Coming, featuring Imogen Heap on vocals, followed in 2003 by an album he simply called Jeff.

Around this time, he started incorporating more electronic and hip-hop elements to his music; culminating in his fourth Grammy victory for the tempestuous, shape-shifting instrumental Plan B.

He toured extensively in the 2010s, including a joint-headline venture with Beach Boy Brian Wilson.

The duo had hoped to record together but those plans fell apart. Instead, Beck ended up befriending actor Johnny Depp, with whom he released a full-length album, 18, in 2022.

[rebbonk]

R.I.P.