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.
What Do You Want
Jeff Beck Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
There's always smoke up in the sky.
Please don't make me want to cry,
Detail has not been seen.
Summer trees should all be green,
Plain and green as they have been,
Sun don't ever change the scene,
Please never let them die.
What do you want? [Repeat: x4]
Sounds which soar above my ears,
Will naturally precede in years,
They only cause a flood of tears,
I want to turn and run.
Don't need someone to make my fun,
Only need to see the sun,
I will not go and cause harm,
I cannot think that way.
What do you want? [Repeat: x4]
Sit spellbound by a flickering screen,
Watch the ever changing scenes,
Listen to the rising screams,
Of children of today.
Lock your doors and stay within,
Upon your face the stupid grins,
Penalty for unrealized sins,
Committed on your way.
What do you want? [Repeat: x6]
The lyrics in Jeff Beck's "What Do You Want" present a series of deep, almost existential questions to the listener. The song starts with Beck expressing his confusion about the causes of the smoke in the sky, pondering why it's always there and why it makes him want to cry. He then points out how the beauty of summer trees should be preserved and how the sun fails to change the scene of environmental decay.
The enigmatic chorus "What do you want?" is repeated several times, seemingly directed to the listener, making them question their own motives and desires. Beck then brings up the theme of the passage of time and the sounds that bend in the air, signaling changing times that cause tears. He concludes his point by adding that he cannot, and will not, cause any harm to anyone.
The final verse deals with how we live our lives, how we spend most of our days safe and secure behind locked doors, glued to our screens, and blind to the suffering of those around us. Beck asks us to reflect on the unredeemable sins of apathy that we all commit along the way.
Line by Line Meaning
I want somebody here to tell me why,
I'm seeking an answer; I want someone to explain the reason behind something.
There's always smoke up in the sky.
I observe that there's seemingly always smoke in the sky.
Please don't make me want to cry,
I would prefer not to feel like crying.
Detail has not been seen.
I haven't witnessed any specifics or details about the situation.
Summer trees should all be green,
I believe that trees in the summer should be green in color.
Plain and green as they have been,
Trees in the past have been green and unremarkable.
Sun don't ever change the scene,
The sun alone is not enough to alter the surroundings.
Please never let them die.
It is my hope that trees will not die or be destroyed.
What do you want? [Repeat: x4]
This line appears numerous times, asking the listener what they desire.
Sounds which soar above my ears,
I can hear noises or sounds emanating from above me.
Will naturally precede in years,
These same sounds will continue to persist in the future.
They only cause a flood of tears,
This noise causes me to become emotional, possibly causing me to cry.
I want to turn and run.
I wish to escape or avoid the situation entirely.
Don't need someone to make my fun,
I don't require anyone else to entertain me or create amusement in my life.
Only need to see the sun,
Simply observing the sun is enough to make me content and happy.
I will not go and cause harm,
I affirm that I will not purposefully inflict injury or damage to anyone or anything.
I cannot think that way.
It is not within my nature to have aggressive, harmful thoughts.
Sit spellbound by a flickering screen,
I'm engaged or captivated by watching something on a TV or computer screen that flickers with changing images.
Watch the ever-changing scenes,
I closely observe the dynamic or rapidly moving images and videos displayed on the screen.
Listen to the rising screams,
I am able to hear screams or loud noises that are increasing in volume.
Of children of today.
These sounds are coming from children in the present.
Lock your doors and stay within,
It would be wise to lock your doors and stay inside for safety purposes.
Upon your face the stupid grins,
You will have a silly or foolish smile on your face.
Penalty for unrealized sins,
You will face some sort of punishment or consequence for sins or wrongdoings that you didn't realize you committed.
Committed on your way.
These sins or wrongdoings were committed while you were on your journey, wherever that may be.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JEFF BECK, JIM MCCARTY, JIMMY PAGE, KEITH RELF
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind