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.
Lilac Wine
Jeff Beck Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Gave myself in that misty light
Was hypnotized by a strange delight
Under a lilac tree
I made wine from the lilac tree
Put my heart in its recipe
It makes me see what I want to see
When I think more than I want to think
Do things I never should do
I drink much more than I ought to drink
Because It brings me back you
Lilac wine is sweet and heady, like my love
Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, like my love
Listen to me, I cannot see clearly
Isn't that he coming to me nearly here?
Lilac wine is sweet and heady where's my love?
Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, where's my love?
Listen to me, why is everything so hazy?
Isn't that he, or am I just going crazy, dear?
Lilac Wine, I feel unready for my love
The lyrics to Jeff Beck and Imelda May's "Lilac Wine" are a poetic and introspective meditation on the power of intoxication and its ability to transport one's mind and emotions to new places. The verses describe a narrator who has lost himself in the cool, damp night, and who, under the hypnotic spell of a lilac tree, has made wine infused with his own heart and desires. This wine is not just a beverage, but a vehicle to escape the singer's thoughts and actions, which he acknowledges are not always wise or intentional. He drinks the wine to bring himself back to the love that he misses, but he is still unsteady, and the world remains hazy and unclear.
The chorus repeats the sentiments of the verses, but adds a layer of sensuality and longing to the mix. The lilac wine is described as being "sweet and heady, like my love," and the singer feels unready and unsteady around this love, as though it is too much for him to handle. The final lines of the song add a touch of uncertainty and desperation, as the lyrics become more fragmented and confused. The singer wonders if his lover is really there, or if he is just going crazy, and expresses a sense of powerlessness and confusion in the face of his emotions.
Overall, "Lilac Wine" is a beautifully crafted piece of music that draws on the sensory and emotional power of carefully chosen words and phrases. The song captures the complex interplay between love and intoxication, and offers a poignant exploration of the ways in which we use such substances to cope with the difficulties of life and relationships.
Line by Line Meaning
I lost myself on a cool damp night
I was completely lost in my thoughts one night when the weather was cool and damp
Gave myself in that misty light
I let myself be enveloped by the mysterious, misty atmosphere
Was hypnotized by a strange delight
I was captivated by a peculiar joy that was difficult to fully understand
Under a lilac tree
I was beneath the soothing presence of a lilac tree
I made wine from the lilac tree
I turned the flowers of the lilac tree into wine
Put my heart in its recipe
I poured my heart and soul into making this wine
It makes me see what I want to see
Drinking this wine allows me to see what I desire to see
And be what I want to be
Drinking this wine enables me to become who I want to be
When I think more than I want to think
When my thoughts become overwhelming
Do things I never should do
And when I act impulsively
I drink much more than I ought to drink
I turn to drinking this wine more than I should
Because It brings me back you
Because it brings me back to the person I miss
Lilac wine is sweet and heady, like my love
The taste of this wine is both sweet and potent, just like my love for someone
Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, like my love
This wine makes me feel unstable and unsettled, as does my love
Listen to me, I cannot see clearly
I am struggling to think and see things clearly
Isn't that he coming to me nearly here?
I am hearing his voice and am hopeful he is coming to me
Lilac wine is sweet and heady where's my love?
This wine is strong and sweet, but where is my loved one?
Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, where's my love?
Drinking this wine makes me feel off balance and without my love, where are they?
Listen to me, why is everything so hazy?
I cannot seem to think clearly and everything around me is unclear
Isn't that he, or am I just going crazy, dear?
Is the person I miss truly here with me, or am I losing my mind?
Lilac Wine, I feel unready for my love
This wine makes me feel hesitant and ill-prepared for my love
Lyrics © Kanjian Music, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: James H. Shelton
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Ted Cabana
Jeff and Imelda are such an awesome duo. I don't know why they don't do more together. I Absolutely loved their Les Paul special.
Toni suss
One of Jeffs loveliest solos ever IMO
Amanda Sawyer
such an ethereal and beautiful bit of guitar playing. Just sublime. And her voice isn't bad either!
Obvious Bambi
Breathtaking. Everything a blues rock song should be.
Esports Women
There for my entire life. He brought joy. Vale Jeff.
#JeffBeck
Glenn Hecker
It doesn't get much more sultry and sumptuous than this! Gorgeous.
Mama Bear
😭😭😭😭
I love you, Jeff.
Thank you for all the music you gave us.
Bobby Bernhardt
One of the best blues songs I have heard in a while. Imelda's voice and Beck's soulful guitar..BRILLIANT!!
Jake1995
Elkie Brooks owns this. She's the British Queen of Blues.
magnus zetterqvist
Magic. Imelda's voice is wonderful! Jeff's the reason I started playing guitar.....and now considering selling them all...🎸🤘🏻😘