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.
Short Business
Jeff Beck Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Oh
Monday morning rain
Be sports and feed the flame
It's got to be evil
When I hold you there
She's gone away to stay
It's time I get you there
Oh man I've been fooled
No you weren't so cool
Your situations plain
Now that I got no one to blame
Hey yeah yeah
I ain't complaining yet
Now that I lost control
But riding signs where there
You left your mark on me
For all the world to see
The dream of my blah
Oh baby I've been fooled
No you weren't so cool
Situations plain
Now that I got no one to blame yeah
Whoa whoa
Oh baby I've been fooled
You know you weren't so cool
Situations plain
Now that I got no one to blame yeah
Whoa babe
The Jeff Beck Group's song Short Business is a blues-rock song that captures the lost and betrayed feeling one experiences after a failed love affair. The song opens with the lyrics "Monday morning rain, be sports and feed the flame" and emphasizes the impact that bad weather and poor situations can have on a broken relationship. The lyrics "It's got to be evil when I hold you there, she's gone away to stay, it's time I get you there" paint the picture of the singer, still holding on to his love, but with no chance of reconciliation.
In the second verse, the singer reflects on how he has been deceived, as he sings "Oh man I've been fooled, no you weren't so cool, your situation's plain, now that I've got no one to blame." The song concludes on a bitter note as the chorus repeats the lyrics "Oh baby I've been fooled, you know you weren't so cool, situations plain, now that I've got no one to blame."
Interestingly, the song was initially an instrumental track and was renamed "Jeff's Boogie" on the album "Truth." Later, the band added lyrics and renamed the song "Short Business" for their album "Beck-Ola." The song's powerful guitar solo, which maintains its bluesy origins, was performed by the band's founder Jeff Beck himself. "Short Business" is a classic example of Beck's guitar mastery and the impressive musical talent of the Jeff Beck Group.
Line by Line Meaning
Hey
Introducing the start of the song.
Oh
An exclamation of emotion, possibly indicating sadness or hurt.
Monday morning rain
Setting the scene for a gloomy and unhappy time.
Be sports and feed the flame
Encouraging oneself to stay strong despite difficulties and to fuel the fire within.
It's got to be evil
Acknowledging that the situation is full of negativity and darkness.
When I hold you there
Reflecting on a lost love or connection with someone.
She's gone away to stay
Realizing that the person is not coming back and accepting it.
It's time I get you there
Feeling a sense of urgency to find or reconnect with the lost love.
Oh man I've been fooled
Admitting being tricked or deceived.
No you weren't so cool
Realizing that the person who deceived was not as good as initially thought.
Your situations plain
Understanding that the situation is clear and straightforward.
Now that I got no one to blame
Accepting responsibility for one's own choices and mistakes.
Hey yeah yeah
Reiterating the start of the song, perhaps with more emotion or energy.
I ain't complaining yet
Acknowledging challenges without complaining about them.
Now that I lost control
Feeling the loss of control, perhaps in a situation or relationship.
But riding signs where there
Finding direction or guidance in difficult times.
You left your mark on me
Acknowledging the impact of a person on oneself.
For all the world to see
Understanding that the impact is visible to others and may be significant.
The dream of my blah
Possibly a reflection on a lost or unfulfilled dream, or an expression of dissatisfaction.
Oh baby I've been fooled
Reiterating being tricked or deceived, possibly with more emotion or frustration.
No you weren't so cool
Continuing to realize that the person who deceived was not as good as initially thought.
Situations plain
Reiterating the understanding that the situation is clear and straightforward.
Now that I got no one to blame yeah
Emphasizing the acceptance of responsibility for one's own choices and mistakes.
Whoa whoa
An exclamation of emotion, possibly indicating frustration or anger.
Oh baby I've been fooled
Reiterating being tricked or deceived, possibly with even more emotion or frustration.
You know you weren't so cool
Continuing to realize that the person who deceived was not as good as initially thought.
Situations plain
Reiterating the understanding that the situation is clear and straightforward.
Now that I got no one to blame yeah
Emphasizing the acceptance of responsibility for one's own choices and mistakes.
Whoa babe
An exclamation of emotion, possibly indicating sadness or resignation.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: JEFF BECK
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind