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.
I've Been Drinking
Jeff Beck Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Thinkin' of when
You left me
That happened once so long ago
I've been havin' a few
And wishin' that you
Were right here by my side
Well, I'm makin' the rounds
And settin' them up
A total stranger to myself
I'm just makin' a fool of myself
I'm just hopin'
That you'll come right back once, someday
But I know, I know, I know
That there's no second time around
Now, listen
I know, I know, I know, I know
Sure I know I can borrow a smoke
Or sit here all night long and tell a joke
But after all is said and done, who's gonna laugh
Who's gonna laugh at a broken, a broken heart?
I've been drinkin' again
And thinkin' of when
Of when you left me
And that weren't so long ago
I've been havin' a few
You know that you know
And wishin' that you
Were here right by my side
Now listen one time
I've been drinkin' again
I've been drinkin' again
Sometimes I can't help myself
The lyrics of "I've Been Drinking Again" by Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart depict the aftermath of a heartbreak, where the singer drinks to forget about his past love. The song opens with the line "I'm drinking again, thinking of when you left me," indicating the theme of longing for the past. The repetition of the line "I've been having a few" suggests that the singer is indulging in alcohol to cope with his loneliness. The singer expresses his regret at the mistakes he made and his wish to bring back his lost love. However, he believes that there is no possibility of a second chance.
The line "But after all is said and done, who's gonna laugh, who's gonna laugh at a broken heart" highlights the bitterness of heartbreak and the feeling of being alone in one's pain. The line "A total stranger to myself, I'm just making a fool of myself" encapsulates the self-destructive behavior that comes with heartbreak. The repetition of the line "I've been drinking again" reinforces the idea that the singer is trapped in his own pain and is unable to overcome it.
Overall, the song depicts the aftermath of heartbreak and the coping mechanisms that people use to deal with their pain. The lyrics capture the feeling of longing for the past and the bitterness of regret, while also highlighting the self-destructive behavior that can result from heartbreak.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm drinkin' again
I am currently drinking alcohol
Thinkin' of when
You left me
That happened once so long ago
I am reminiscing about a past event when you left me, which happened a long time ago.
I've been havin' a few
And wishin' that you
Were right here by my side
I am currently drinking and wishing that you were present with me.
Well, I'm makin' the rounds
And settin' them up
A total stranger to myself
I'm just makin' a fool of myself
I am going from place to place and setting up drinks, but I feel like a stranger to myself and am behaving foolishly.
I'm just hopin'
That you'll come right back once, someday
But I know, I know, I know
That there's no second time around
I hope that you might return to me someday, but deep down, I understand that there won't be a second chance.
Now, listen
I know, I know, I know, I know
Sure I know I can borrow a smoke
Or sit here all night long and tell a joke
Listen, I know that I could try to distract myself by borrowing a cigarette or telling jokes all night long.
But after all is said and done, who's gonna laugh
Who's gonna laugh at a broken, a broken heart?
However, after everything has been said and done, who will laugh at a broken heart?
I've been drinkin' again
And thinkin' of when
Of when you left me
And that weren't so long ago
I am still drinking alcohol and thinking about when you left, which wasn't too long ago.
You know that you know
And wishin' that you
Were here right by my side
You know that I've been drinking and wishing that you were with me.
Now listen one time
I've been drinkin' again
I've been drinkin' again
Sometimes I can't help myself
Listen, I have been drinking again, and sometimes I do it uncontrollably.
Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Songtrust Ave, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Doris Tauber, Johnny Mercer
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@keithbarnes3868
Heard for the first time today. Amazing.
@bobfairclough4369
Rod Stewart at his very best
@tracywells2833
I don't know any other song he's sung as good got this on replay......
@jblacktree
Great song perfectly played--deeply moving with a searing guitar and Sam Cook-Rod, the best singer of his day.
@Ravenz51
WOW! - How could I have forgotten that one for so long? I watched Rod perform at an open air concert a few years back, and he was the ultimate showman, interacting with the crowd, leaving us to sing the chorus of some of the great hits.
@philipgroves7309
Such amazing talent. Beck is slyly smoldering on guitar, the song is tailor made for Rod's voice, Nicky Hopkins makes every recording better.
@Pruperduper
God damn I love Rod Stewart's music
@WetLettuce-kc2qm
Who hasn't got pissed while playing this on repeat?
@dj_grim
This was recorded in 1968 and was the B-side of "Love Is Blue". Later it was re-issued as a single in its own right in 1973 when it reached the top 30 (#27 peak).
@bruceedwards3156
No one sang like or sounded like rod in the early 70s