Jeff Beck (born Geoffrey Arnold Beck in Wallington, Surrey, on 24 June 1944… Read Full Bio ↴Jeff Beck (born Geoffrey Arnold Beck in Wallington, Surrey, on 24 June 1944; died 10 January 2023) was an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with The Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a focus on innovative sound, and his releases have spanned genres ranging from blues rock, hard rock, jazz fusion and a blend of guitar-rock and electronica. In 2015, Beck was ranked No. 5 in Rolling Stone' magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists".
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.
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.
Shapes Of Things
Jeff Beck Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Shapes of things before my eyes
Just teach me to despise
Will time make men more wise?
Here within my lonely frame
My eyes just heard my brain
But will it seem the same?
Come tomorrow, will I be older?
Come tomorrow, may be a soldier
Come tomorrow, may I be bolder than today?
Now the trees are almost green
But will they still be seen
When time and tide have been?
Fallin' into your passing hands
Please don't destroy these lands
Don't make them desert sands
Come tomorrow, will I be older?
Come tomorrow, may be a soldier
Come tomorrow, may I be bolder than today?
Soon I hope that I will find
Thoughts deep within my mind
That won't displace my kind
Just teach me to despise
Will time make men more wise?
Here within my lonely frame
My eyes just heard my brain
But will it seem the same?
Come tomorrow, may be a soldier
Come tomorrow, may I be bolder than today?
Now the trees are almost green
But will they still be seen
When time and tide have been?
Fallin' into your passing hands
Please don't destroy these lands
Don't make them desert sands
Come tomorrow, will I be older?
Come tomorrow, may be a soldier
Come tomorrow, may I be bolder than today?
Soon I hope that I will find
Thoughts deep within my mind
That won't displace my kind
Jeff Beck's song Shapes of Things is a reflection on the changes happening in the world and the uncertainty that comes along with them. The lyrics speak to the idea that as things change, we may begin to despise what we see around us. However, the question is raised whether time and experience will make us wiser, and if that wisdom can help us to appreciate the shapes of things we see more fully. The song seems to suggest that as we age, we may be able to see the world in a different light and that we may become bolder and more confident in our convictions.
Line by Line Meaning
Shapes of things before my eyes,
I witness the different realities that my eyes see.
Just teach me to despise.
These visuals teach me to hate things.
Will time make men more wise?
With time, will people become more knowledgeable?
Here within my lonely frame,
I am confined inside my solitude.
my eyes just heard my brain.
My eyes feed my brain with visual information.
But will it seem the same?
Will it look identical in the future?
(Come Tomorrow) Will I be older?
As time passes, will I become a mature person?
(Come Tomorrow) May be a soldier.
In the future, could I become a warrior?
(Come Tomorrow) May I be bolder than today?
Will I be more confident in the days ahead?
Now the trees are almost green.
These trees are just about starting to flourish.
But will they still be seen?
Will these trees continue to be visible as they grow older?
When time and tide have been.
In the future, after some years have passed by.
Fall into your passing hands.
The land drifts slowly into someone's custody.
Please don't destroy these lands.
Kindly do not ruin or devastate this land.
Don't make them desert sands.
Don't let them turn into deserts, please.
Soon I hope that I will find,
In the coming days, I aspire to locate,
Thoughts deep within my mind.
Ideas that are held deep inside my brain.
That won't displace my kind.
That I won't lose my humanity in search of these ideas.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Paul Samwell-Smith, Jim McCarty, Keith Relf
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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@howardbianchi9371
That don't even begin to tell the tale! I'd tellya but my phone can't hold THE ILIAD. THE ODYSSEY AND THE AENEID!!!!!! I'll
Skip middle Ages ot gonna go Medieval on ya tonite. QQTTTino might object ...just sayin'
Now they a Copppla (few) good books in eliza. the first (named state in 13 orig. Colonies) .......
Hate to digress but Spellcheck will not let proceed unless I use sit SIT standard internet Typing or might come down w/ Spanish flu or pox.
OF COURSE YOURE 10000% RIGHT.
READ IN some erudite jAZZ mag. Jb and the nonpareil Larry Coryell say " never compare them to Jihn McLaughlin.
...he's.too good. JM better composer THAN PLAYER........
However....
Saw Beck open for mahavisnu (raggedy by then; do we really need 5 solos on every number?) Of we do we do. We must hear Ralph Armstrong 6 min long wawa bass solo fool.
. JB sans Cozy d and Clive b on US of A outside NYC. The center of the Universe then as now. Really !!! How did I miss that!!!..p
BERNARD 'Pretty' Purdie D + wwwillie Wwweeks B blew maha... away in nj across Hudson River. Before
.*John Scher's Capital theater, jersey city~
~ isle of jersey must be quite bucoclic (cow latin).however..
All English students know house of York lost reoeat LOST the WAR of the ROSES TO house of Burt Lancaster. Don't correct any mistakes
I got ta defen' my PhD theseayroral wed. Moaning And If I Flunk.
YOU GUESSED IT .........
........
......... I'LLL HAFTA SPEND MY DAYS PLATIN' IN a rock and roll band and typing
W/ arthritic pinkies til breaka dawn .
Zzzzz,z,
Zzzz,z.
Zzzzzzz....... (tbc)
p.s.
Pinkies is on Fiiiyyuahh ( Fire)
....
@TheFoolintherainn
Isn't it great being the younger sibling of the baby boomers? We got the best of their music but not their narcissism!
Nor funky diseases!
And we've got better hair cuts these days!
What did we expect from a generation that was rolling around in its own feces at Woodstock?
The reason the music lived on was because of us- they were so numb they turned into Grateful Dead heads!
My older sibling baby boomers are now seriously fried people. They're not even in there...
They can't remember this music!
They can't even remember what they had for breakfast!
One of them's a lawyer and the others is social worker lol!
Both still smoke pot & drink a bottle of wine each night!
Why this country is going to hell- baby boomers are in charge!
And it's not as fun as rolling around in their own feces at Woodstock!
I wonder what Janis would say to these micromanaging narcissistic old farts that claimed to have been her fans?
Rock on!
@g.defraga4795
RIP Jeff. Inesquecível!!!
@juliancee2317
One for the ages now. What an incredible legacy!
RIP Jeff Beck 1944 - 2023
@MsStevewinston
Truth & Beckola are two of the greatest rock albums of all time . Stunning, amazing & still influential today! Ground breaking rock & roll genius.
@olcheekybastards
Agree!
@PhukIT1865
except for Stewart. His voice still annoys me. I am only here to hear Jeff Beck
@kenm3102
I agree and have THEM...
@kenm3102
Stewart is also good !!!
@howardbianchi9371
That don't even begin to tell the tale! I'd tellya but my phone can't hold THE ILIAD. THE ODYSSEY AND THE AENEID!!!!!! I'll
Skip middle Ages ot gonna go Medieval on ya tonite. QQTTTino might object ...just sayin'
Now they a Copppla (few) good books in eliza. the first (named state in 13 orig. Colonies) .......
Hate to digress but Spellcheck will not let proceed unless I use sit SIT standard internet Typing or might come down w/ Spanish flu or pox.
OF COURSE YOURE 10000% RIGHT.
READ IN some erudite jAZZ mag. Jb and the nonpareil Larry Coryell say " never compare them to Jihn McLaughlin.
...he's.too good. JM better composer THAN PLAYER........
However....
Saw Beck open for mahavisnu (raggedy by then; do we really need 5 solos on every number?) Of we do we do. We must hear Ralph Armstrong 6 min long wawa bass solo fool.
. JB sans Cozy d and Clive b on US of A outside NYC. The center of the Universe then as now. Really !!! How did I miss that!!!..p
BERNARD 'Pretty' Purdie D + wwwillie Wwweeks B blew maha... away in nj across Hudson River. Before
.*John Scher's Capital theater, jersey city~
~ isle of jersey must be quite bucoclic (cow latin).however..
All English students know house of York lost reoeat LOST the WAR of the ROSES TO house of Burt Lancaster. Don't correct any mistakes
I got ta defen' my PhD theseayroral wed. Moaning And If I Flunk.
YOU GUESSED IT .........
........
......... I'LLL HAFTA SPEND MY DAYS PLATIN' IN a rock and roll band and typing
W/ arthritic pinkies til breaka dawn .
Zzzzz,z,
Zzzz,z.
Zzzzzzz....... (tbc)
p.s.
Pinkies is on Fiiiyyuahh ( Fire)
....
@kevinmuzerMetalMind64
My fave Rod Stewart vocals...This record, period. Such rock n roll perfection..🖤😎🖤
@thetruthchannel349
Embarrassed to admit I didnt know Stewart was even in this band.