Beck ranked in the top five of Rolling Stone and other magazine's list of 100 greatest guitarists. He was often called a "guitarist's guitarist". Rolling Stone describes him as "one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock". Although he recorded two hit albums (in 1975 and 1976) as a solo act, Beck did not establish or maintain the sustained commercial success of many of his contemporaries and bandmates.
Beck earned wide critical praise and received the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance six times and Best Pop Instrumental Performance once. In 2014 he received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. Beck was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a member of the Yardbirds (1992) and as a solo artist (2009).
Beck was born on 24 June 1944 to Arnold and Ethel Beck at 206 Demesne Road, Wallington, England. As a 10-year-old, Beck sang in a church choir. He attended Sutton Manor Schoo and Sutton East County Secondary Modern School.
Beck cited Les Paul as the first electric guitar player who impressed him. Beck said that he first heard an electric guitar when he was 6 years old and heard Paul playing "How High the Moon" on the radio. He asked his mother what it was. After she replied it was an electric guitar and was all tricks, he said, "That's for me". Cliff Gallup, lead guitarist with Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, was also an early musical influence, followed by B.B. King and Steve Cropper. Beck considers Lonnie Mack "a rock guitarist [who] was unjustly overlooked [and] a major influence on him and many others."
As a teenager he learned to play on a borrowed guitar and made several attempts to build his own instrument, first by gluing and bolting together cigar boxes for the body and an unsanded fence-post for the neck with model aircraft control-lines and frets simply painted on.
Upon leaving school, he attended Wimbledon College of Art, after which he was briefly employed as a painter and decorator, a groundsman on a golf course and a car paint-sprayer. Beck's sister Annetta introduced him to Jimmy Page when both were teenagers.
Beck stopped regular use of a pick in the 1980s. He produces a wide variety of sounds by using his thumb to pluck the strings, his ring finger on the volume knob and his little finger on the vibrato bar on his signature Fender Stratocaster. By plucking a string and then 'fading in' the sound with the volume knob he creates a unique sound that can resemble a human voice, among other effects. He frequently uses a wah-wah pedal both live and in the studio. Eric Clapton once said, "With Jeff, it's all in his hands".
Along with Stratocasters, Beck occasionally played Fender Telecaster and Gibson Les Paul models as well. His amplifiers were primarily Fender and Marshall. In his earlier days with the Yardbirds, Beck also used a 1954 Fender Esquire guitar (now owned by Seymour W. Duncan, and housed in the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) through Vox AC30s. He also played through a variety of fuzz pedals and echo units along with this set-up and has used the Pro Co RAT distortion pedal. The pickup was based on a Gibson pickup rewound by Duncan and used in a salvaged Telecaster dubbed the "Tele-Gib" which he had constructed as a gift to Beck. Scott Morgan of the Rationals, who at one point shared a dressing room with the Yardbirds, recalls how Beck amplified his lead guitar through a Vox Superbeetle while using banjo strings for the unwound G string on his guitar because "they didn't make sets with an unwound G at that point."
During the ARMS Charity Concerts in 1983 Beck used his battered Fender Esquire along with a 1954 Stratocaster and a Jackson Soloist. On Crazy Legs (1993) he played a Gretsch Duo Jet, his signature Stratocaster and various other guitars. In 2007, Fender created a Custom Shop Tribute series version of his beat-up Fender Esquire as well as his Artist Signature series Stratocaster.
Described by Rolling Stone as "one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock", Beck cited his major influences as Les Paul, the Shadows, Cliff Gallup, Ravi Shankar, Roy Buchanan, Chet Atkins, Django Reinhardt, Steve Cropper and Lonnie Mack. Of John McLaughlin, Beck said: "[he] has given us so many different facets of the guitar and introduced thousands of us to world music, by blending Indian music with jazz and classical. I'd say he was the best guitarist alive."
According to musicologist and historian Bob Gulla, Beck is credited for popularising the use of audio feedback and distortion in rock guitar. Prior to Beck's arrival, guitar playing generally conformed to the "clean, bright, and jangly" sounds of early-1960s British Invasion bands or the bluesy aesthetic of 1950s African-American performers like Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley. During his short time with the Yardbirds, Beck's experimentation with feedback, distortion, and "fuzz" tone "pushed the band into directions that would open the door for psychedelic rock" while "jolt[ing] British rock forward", according to Gulla. While Beck was not the first rock guitarist to experiment with electronic distortion, he nonetheless helped to redefine the sound and role of the electric guitar in rock music. Beck's work with the Yardbirds and the Jeff Beck Group's 1968 album Truth were seminal influences on heavy metal music, which emerged in full force in the early 1970s. Gulla identifies one of Beck's characteristic traits to be his sense of pitch, particularly in exercising the whammy bar to create sounds ranging from "nose-diving bombs to subtle, perfectly pitched harmonic melodies".
According to guitarist and author Jack Wilkins, Beck is regarded alongside Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton as one of his generation's greatest guitarists, receiving praise for his technical skill and versatile playing. Stephen Thomas Erlewine finds him to be "as innovative as Jimmy Page, as tasteful as Eric Clapton, and nearly as visionary as Jimi Hendrix", although unable to achieve their mainstream success, "primarily because of the haphazard way he approached his career" while often lacking a star singer to help make his music more accessible. On his recorded output by 1991, Erlewine remarked that "never has such a gifted musician had such a spotty discography", believing Beck had largely released "remarkably uneven" solo records and only "a few terrific albums". In Christgau's Record Guide (1981), Robert Christgau essentialised Beck as "a technician" and questioned his ability to "improvise long lines, or jazz it up with a modicum of delicacy, or for that matter get funky", although he later observed a "customary focus, loyalty, and consistency of taste".
In 2015, Beck was ranked No. 5 in Rolling Stone' magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists". In an accompanying essay, guitarist Mike Campbell applauded Beck for his "brilliant technique" and "personality" in his playing, including a sense of humor expressed through the growl of his wah-wah effects. Campbell also credited Beck with expanding the boundaries of the blues, particularly on his two collaborations with Stewart.
Cause We've Ended as Lovers
Jeff Beck Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Parting love notes are on the wall
Been each other's all and all each day
Lovers walking in the rain
So close we felt each other's pain
But now you say that love has died away
'Cause we've ended now as lovers
Doesn't mean that we each other can't be friends
'Cause we've ended now as lovers
Does our love for one another have to end
I remember teaching you
On piano 'Tea for Two'
And how playing it wrong I kissed your hand
But when our love has gone and passed
Why does the good exceed the bad
Well that's one thing I'll never understand
'Cause I remember us at class
You were always the one to pass
And gave me answers right to see me through
But that was more than years ago
And who will love me I don't know
It's sad for sure but true it won't be you
Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers is a song by Jeff Beck that suggests a tale of a couple who have abandoned their love for each other. The first verse illustrates their initial romance phase - sneaking kisses in the hallway and leaving love notes for each other. They were each other's everything and would always be together every day. They walked in the rain as lovers, so close that they felt each other's pain. However, now that the spark in their relationship is gone, they have ended their love affair. The chorus reassures us that this doesn't necessarily mean that they cannot be friends or stop loving each other.
In the second verse, we see the love between the two partners fade away, and they end up moving on with their lives. The singer recalls an incident in which he taught his lover how to play the piano, and while playing 'Tea for Two', he kissed her hand when she played it wrong. These affectionate gestures may have been expressed more freely when their relationship was still strong. He is now puzzled and finds it difficult to understand why the satisfying moments of their love story far exceed the lousy times. The singer remembers his lover passing him answers in class, but now he is unsure of who will love him.
The song questions whether it's necessary to fall out of love completely once a romantic relationship has ended. They have ended their love as lovers, but why should their love for one another also come to a halt? Instead, they can go on by maintaining their friendship, but this is just a hypothesis. It's a song that describes the bittersweet experience of two people redefining their relationship as they move on with their lives.
Line by Line Meaning
Sneaking kisses in the hall
We used to show affection for each other in secret in public spaces.
Parting love notes are on the wall
We would leave expressions of our love for each other in visible places as a way of saying goodbye.
Been each other's all and all each day
Our relationship was everything to us and occupied our daily lives.
Lovers walking in the rain
We would physically display our love for each other by walking in the rain.
So close we felt each other's pain
We were emotionally connected and could feel each other's pain.
But now you say that love has died away
You have communicated to me that your feelings for me are no longer present.
'Cause we've ended now as lovers
We are no longer in a romantic relationship.
Doesn't mean that we each other can't be friends
Just because we're not together doesn't mean we can't maintain a friendly relationship.
'Cause we've ended now as lovers
Our romantic love has ended.
Does our love for one another have to end
Can't there be some residual love between us even though we're not together anymore?
I remember teaching you
I have fond memories of teaching you something.
On piano 'Tea for Two'
What I taught you was how to play the piano tune 'Tea for Two.'
And how playing it wrong I kissed your hand
When you hit the wrong key on the piano, I would give you a small token of love by kissing your hand.
But when our love has gone and passed
Now that our romantic love has ended and is in the past.
Why does the good exceed the bad
Why do we tend to remember and focus on the good times in a relationship instead of the bad?
Well that's one thing I'll never understand
I don't have an answer to that question.
'Cause I remember us at class
I have memories of us being in class together.
You were always the one to pass
You were always successful in passing the class.
And gave me answers right to see me through
You helped me by giving me the correct answers when I needed help in the class.
But that was more than years ago
That particular memory is from a long time ago.
And who will love me I don't know
I am unsure of who will love me now that we are no longer together.
It's sad for sure but true it won't be you
Although it's unfortunate, I know that you will not be the one to love me in the future.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Stevie Wonder
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind