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.
The Hangman's Knee
Jeff Beck Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Hangman, hangman, slack your noose
Slack it, oh slack it
Slack it for a while
There ain't no use in your hurrying me
Ain't nothing gonna change things now
Now I ain't trying to prove your judge is wrong
I guess I'll know the way out
And if you kill me with my canvas shirt
Good God, you could put my lawyer in jail
Listen
It's just this twenty two minutes to prepare yourself
I haven't been in this position before
Wash your hands, get your ?
Find the waistcoat, lock the door.
And oh!
Get your ?
Oh yeah, get your ? lock the door
Come on
Listen to this one
Oh hangman, hangman, slack your noose
Oh slack it, please slack it
Oh just slack it awhile, give me one more chance
There ain't no use in you hurryin' me
Good God, nothing's gonna stop me now
Oh
Don't you worry
Cause you never get your ?
Well, might get your waistcoat on
Ha-ha
Heh-heh
The lyrics of "The Hangman's Knee" by Jeff Beck are complex and haunting. The song is based on the perspective of a person who has been sentenced to death and is awaiting execution by hanging. The opening lines "Hangman, hangman, slack your noose, slack it, oh slack it, slack it for a while" are a desperate and futile plea to the hangman to spare their life or at least delay their execution. The singer tries to reason with the hangman, telling him that there is no use hurrying them since nothing can change their fate now. The line "I guess I'll know the way out" suggests an acceptance of the situation and the inevitability of death.
The lyrics also touch on the flaws in the justice system, as the singer mentions that they are not trying to prove the judge and the jury wrong. The line "And if you kill me with my canvas shirt, Good God, you could put my lawyer in jail" is a reference to the fact that the legal system can sometimes be biased and unjust. The song ends with the singer preparing for their execution, with lines like "Wash your hands, get your ?, find the waistcoat, lock the door." The final verse repeats the opening lines, as the singer makes a final plea to the hangman to spare their life.
Line by Line Meaning
Hangman, hangman, slack your noose
The singer requests the hangman to loosen the noose on his neck.
Slack it, oh slack it
The singer implores the hangman to loosen the noose further.
Slack it for a while
The singer begs the hangman to allow him to live a little longer, even if it's only for a short while.
There ain't no use in your hurrying me
The artist tells the hangman that rushing the execution won't make a difference at this point.
Ain't nothing gonna change things now
The artist acknowledges that there's no way to change what's about to happen.
Now I ain't trying to prove your judge is wrong
The singer claims that he's not trying to argue that the judge was incorrect in his decision.
And your jury, oh your jury
The singer acknowledges the role of the jury in his conviction.
I guess I'll know the way out
The artist resigns himself to the fact that he'll soon be dead and leave this world.
And if you kill me with my canvas shirt
The artist jests about being killed while wearing a canvas shirt.
Good God, you could put my lawyer in jail
The artist expresses frustration at how the legal system punishes lawyers who are unable to save their clients from execution.
It's just this twenty-two minutes to prepare yourself
The singer reveals the limited time he has left before the execution and this is the only chance to do anything he regrets not doing before his death.
I haven't been in this position before
The artist admits that he has never faced execution before.
Wash your hands, get your?
The singer instructs the hangman to clean his hands and impliedly to prepare for the hanging execution.
Find the waistcoat, lock the door
The singer asks the hangman to locate the waistcoat and lock the door during preparation for the execution.
And oh!
The singer exclaims with surprise or excitement.
Get your?
The artist instructs the hangman to get something (which is not specified).
Oh yeah, get your? lock the door
The artist repeats his instruction for the hangman to get an unspecified item and lock the door.
Come on
The singer urges the hangman to move quickly and efficiently during his preparation.
Listen to this one
The singer advises the audience to pay attention to the following lyrics.
Oh hangman, hangman, slack your noose
The artist repeats his request to the hangman to loosen the noose.
Oh slack it, please slack it
The artist pleads with the hangman to reduce the tension on the noose.
Oh just slack it awhile, give me one more chance
The artist asks for one last opportunity to live and begs the hangman to prolong his hanging execution for a moment.
There ain't no use in you hurryin' me
The singer reiterates that hurrying his execution will not hasten his death any further.
Good God, nothing's gonna stop me now
The artist acknowledges that his fate is sealed, so nothing can prevent the hangman from killing him.
Oh
The singer exclaims with awe or surprise.
Don't you worry
The singer tries to comfort someone by telling them not to stress.
Cause you never get your?
The singer raises a question without finishing the sentence, leaving the meaning open to interpretation.
Well, might get your waistcoat on
The artist suggests the hangman should wear his waistcoat before the execution.
Ha-ha
The artist laughs.
Heh-heh
The singer chuckles.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JEFF BECK, NICKY HOPKINS, TONY NEWMAN, ROD STEWART, RONALD DAVID WOOD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind