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.
Going Down
Jeff Beck Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Down, down, down, down, down
I'm going down
Down, down, down, down, down
I've got my head out the window
And my big feet on the ground
She's gone
She's gone
Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
I've got my head out the window
And my big feet on the ground
So I'm going down
Down, down, down, down
I'm going down, down, down, down, down
Down, down, down, down, yes I am
I've got my head out the window
And my big feet on the
Well I'm goin
Down, down, down, down, down
I'm going down
Down, down, down, down, down
I've got my head out the window
And my big feet on the ground
Gone
Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
She's gone
Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
I've got my head out the window
And my big feet on the
Well I'm Down
Down, down, down, down, down
I'm going down
Down, down, down, down, down
I've got my head out the window
And my big feet on the ground, yes I have
Well she walked out the door
And I crawled right out there
The lyrics of the Jeff Beck Group's "Going Down" song convey a deep sense of loss and despair. The repetition of the phrase, "I'm going down" reinforces the inevitability of what is happening and the finality of the situation. The singer also repeats the phrase, "She's gone," which is a clear indication that a relationship has come to an end.
The image of the singer with his head out the window and big feet on the ground suggests a feeling of resignation and acceptance. He is fully aware that things have come to a sad end and there is nothing he can do about it. The metaphor of going down can also be interpreted as sinking into a depressive state, which is a common emotional response to a relationship ending.
Overall, the emotional tone of the lyrics is one of sadness, regret, and loss. The singer is acknowledging the reality of a situation that he cannot change and is trying to process his emotions. Although the lyrics are simple, they convey a powerful message that many people can relate to when experiencing the end of a relationship.
Line by Line Meaning
Well I'm going down
The singer is experiencing a decline in his life and is headed towards the bottom.
Down, down, down, down, down
Repetition emphasizes the magnitude of this particular downfall.
I'm going down
The singer is repeating his situation in order to fully comprehend the severity of it.
I've got my head out the window
The artist is looking for a way out of this decline, but has not yet found one.
And my big feet on the ground
The artist is firmly planted in this state of decline and struggling to move forward.
She's gone
The cause of the singer's downfall is the absence or departure of a significant other.
Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
Repetition emphasizes the permanence of the absence.
So I'm going down
The artist is acknowledging that the departure of the significant other has caused his decline.
Down, down, down, down
Repetition emphasizes the depth of the artist's decline.
Yes I am
The repetition of this affirmation confirms the artist's situation and offers no hope of escape.
Well she walked out the door
The specific situation that led to the singer's decline was the departure of the significant other through a physical door.
And I crawled right out there
The artist has taken a desperate and ungraceful step in response to the significant other's departure, further cementing his decline.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Don Nix, Gabriell Lewis
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Billy Donnelly
R.I.P Jeff Beck. One of the greats of all time. Thank you for all your years of great music. You will be missed🙏🙏
Simple Man Guitars
I came to say the same. There is actually a live performance of this that apparently can't be found anymore but it is absolutely mind blowing. Beck is one of those guys that influenced tons of people but still very few ever managed to sound even remotely like him. Such a unique approach and made brutally difficult things look completely effortless. Also he just straight up looked cool with a guitar to the very last time he ever held one.
carl hassell
@Simple Man Guitars The live version with "Ice Cream Cakes?" I never could find the performance of it that I definitely remember. F.M. radio played it all the time in early & mid 70s.
Rick Hermann
Amen Billy
Andrew Cutts
Still can’t get over it. Jeff was my hero since joining The Yardbirds, truly a guitarist’s guitarist. 💔🎸🙏
Kyle Kleindienst
Isn’t this a cover of Freddie king?
M C
I graduated High School when this album came out, I loved it. Rest in Peace, Jeff. I still can't get over your phenomenal guitar playing along with the lyrics: "I got my head out the window, & my brain is on the ground" It will live in Rock & Roll history.
Anita Melon
Me too. What a sad day
Larry A
Really?
Ler0x Borkinf00n
"I've got my head out the window
And my big feet on the ground"