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.
Evil Hearted You
Jeff Beck Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You always try to put me down,
With the things you do,
And words,
You spread around against me.
Evil hearted you.
You kept,
With your phoney smile,
And with,
Your siren song smiling, beguiling,
You lead me on 'til all hope's gone,
Persuading, degrading,
On my knees I try to please.
But I love you,
Just the same,
And I want you,
To remain,
By my side,
And you'll see,
Just how much you,
Mean to me.
Evil hearted you.
You always try to put me down,
With the things you do,
And words,
You spread around against me,
About me.
What would you,
Do without me?
Smiling, beguiling,
You lead me on 'til all hope has gone.
The song Evil Hearted You by Jeff Beck is discussing a toxic relationship where one person is constantly trying to bring the other down with their actions and words. The lyrics portray the feeling of being manipulated by someone who is pretending to care, but in reality only wants to control and degrade. The singer is pleading for the other person to recognize the effect their behavior has on them and to stay by their side, despite the hurt they have caused. The song conveys the idea of love being able to overcome the negativity in a relationship, but also highlights the struggle of trying to keep the love alive in the midst of hurtful actions.
The repeated line "Evil hearted you" emphasizes the negative nature of the other person and their actions towards the singer. The phrase "siren song" refers to a mythical temptation that lures in sailors towards danger, emphasizing the deceptive nature of the other person's behavior. The lines "But I love you, Just the same, And I want you, To remain" show the singer holding on to hope that the other person will recognize the effect their actions are having and will change their behavior. The last line "What would you, Do without me?" portrays the singer's fear of being alone and the other person's fear of losing control over them.
Overall, the song highlights the pain and struggle of being in a toxic relationship and the hope of love being able to overcome it, but also the fear of being alone and the difficulty of leaving a toxic situation.
Line by Line Meaning
Evil hearted you.
This is a phrase being used as a refrain throughout the song to describe the cruel nature of the person the singer is addressing.
You always try to put me down,
You constantly attempt to belittle me and make me feel inferior.
With the things you do,
Your actions are intended to cause harm or distress to me.
And words,
Your speech is carefully calculated to hurt me and cause offense.
You spread around against me.
You engage in gossip or slander about me, spreading lies or negative opinions to others.
You kept,
You persistently maintained.
Kidding me along,
You were misleading me and playing with my emotions.
With your phoney smile,
Your smile is inauthentic and masks your true feelings.
And with,
Additionally, in conjunction with.
Your siren song smiling, beguiling,
You are using your charming and seductive demeanor to lure me in and deceive me.
You lead me on 'til all hope's gone,
You give me false hope and string me along until it is too late and all possibility of a positive outcome has vanished.
Persuading, degrading,
You are using manipulative tactics that cause me to lose my self-respect and dignity.
On my knees I try to please.
You have reduced me to a subservient and desperate position, where I am constantly striving to gain your approval and acceptance.
But I love you,
Despite everything, I still have feelings of affection for you.
Just the same,
These feelings remain consistent despite your behavior.
And I want you,
I have a desire to maintain a relationship with you.
To remain,
I want you to stay with me.
By my side,
I want you to be close to me and supportive of me.
And you'll see,
I am confident that if you stay, you will eventually come to understand and appreciate me.
Just how much you,
The extent of the love and devotion I feel for you.
Mean to me.
You have great significance and value in my life.
About me.
You spread lies and negative opinions about me to others.
What would you,
You would be lost and alone without me.
Do without me?
You depend on me for emotional support and stability.
Smiling, beguiling,
You are still using your deceptive charm to trick and manipulate me.
You lead me on 'til all hope has gone.
You are still stringing me along with false hope despite the damage you have already caused.
Lyrics © MUSIC SALES CORPORATION
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Juan Camacho
Evil hearted you.
You always try to put me down,
With the things you do,
And words,
You spread around against me.
Evil hearted you.
You kept,
Kidding me along,
With your phoney smile,
And with,
Your siren song smiling, beguiling,
You lead me on 'til all hope's gone,
Persuading, degrading,
On my knees I try to please.
But I love you,
Just the same,
And I want you,
To remain,
By my side,
And you'll see,
Just how much you,
Mean to me.
Evil hearted you.
🎸🎸🎸
You always try to put me down,
With the things you do,
And words,
You spread around against me,
About me.
What would you,
Do without me?
Smiling, beguiling,
You lead me on 'til all hope has gone.
Sonja R
The back up vocals were a big reason why I fell in love with this masterpiece. They are are hauntingly beautiful.
Brenda Drumm
I was about 16 when this song came out I'm now 73 still remember the song
Krzyszczynski
If back-up vocals are your thing, can I recommend Useless Information by The Move, a track from their 1968 debut album.
SPARTA_JKD
Jeff Beck killing it on guitar 1year before I was even born. What a legend, to think he was only about 20 here playing shit this good.
For those about to rock, Sir Jeff Beck, we salute you. R. I. P. 🎸🙏🏼
Gerardo Rosales
😢😢😢😢
Lisbeth Harrell
I was a 15-year-old girl the first time I heard this song. I loved it the instant I heard it. This has always been my favorite Yardbirds song and it always will be. Brilliant.
Marc Fedak
Wow, that was an incredibly fast descending scale by Jeff Beck around 1:13 - 15.
patrick hurley
A brilliant song by an excellent band.
Julio Cesar 🇧🇷
And an excellent composer: Graham Goldman.
shelley Ganz
THEIR BEST...(GRAHAM GOULDMAN...) Killer lead guitar/vocals/melody/lyrics=Amazing Tune!! LUV THIS!!