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.
You're a Better Man Than I
Jeff Beck Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Can you judge a man,
By the way he wears his hair?
Can you read his mind,
By the clothes that he wears?
Can you see a bad man,
By the pattern on his tie?
Yeah, Mr, you're a better man than I,
Oh, Mr, you're a better man than I,
Yeah, Mr, you're a better man than I.
Could you tell a wise man,
By the way he speaks or spells?
Is this more important,
Than the stories that he tells?
And call a man a fool,
If for wealth he doesn't strive?
Well then, Mr, you're a better man than I,
Yeah, Mr, you're a better man than I,
Oh, Mr, you're a better man than I,
Yeah, Mr, you're a better man than I.
Can you condemn a man,
If you're faith he doesn't hold?
Say the colour of his skin,
Is the colour of his soul?
Could you say that men,
For king and country all must die?
Well, Mr, you're a better man than I,
Yeah, Mr, you're a better man than I,
Oh, Mr, you're a better man than I,
Yeah, Mr, you're a better man than I.
The song "You're a Better Man Than I" by Jeff Beck is a commentary on the tendency of people to judge others based on superficial factors rather than getting to know them as individuals. The lyrics ask whether one can truly understand the character of a person based on things like their appearance, choice of clothing or economic status. The chorus repeats the phrase "Mr, you're a better man than I" four times in each verse, as if acknowledging the futility of these types of judgments and the humbling realization that we all fall short in our understanding of others.
The first verse asks whether we can make assumptions about a person based on their hairstyle or clothing. The second verse asks whether we can make judgments about a person's intelligence or wisdom based on the way they talk or spell. The final verse raises the question of whether we can condemn someone for their religious beliefs or the color of their skin, or if we should blindly follow authority and nationalism without questioning the morality of war.
Overall, the song challenges listeners to look beyond surface-level judgments and seek to understand others on a deeper level, recognizing our shared humanity and inherent fallibility in judging others.
Line by Line Meaning
Can you judge a man,
Is it possible to fully understand a man's character at first glance?
By the way he wears his hair?
By just observing the style of his hairdo, can you make accurate assumptions about his personality or character?
Can you read his mind,
Can you predict the thoughts of a person just by their outward appearance and behavior?
By the clothes that he wears?
Can a person's attire tell you everything you need to know about him?
Can you see a bad man,
Is it possible to accurately identify an evil man based on exterior, superficial characteristics?
By the pattern on his tie?
Is it feasible to predict the morality or intentions of a man based on the design of his tie?
Well then, Mr, you're a better man than I,
If you can do any of those things, then you have an intuition that I cannot hope to match.
Could you tell a wise man,
Can you identify a genuinely intelligent person solely by the choice of words he uses or his spelling abilities?
By the way he speaks or spells?
Can you get a full picture of his character and understanding of the world by the manner in which he talks or writes?
Is this more important,
Is the act of talking eloquently or correctly spelling words more significant than what the words actually mean?
Than the stories that he tells?
Should the content of his thoughts and stories take precedence over his presentation of them?
And call a man a fool,
Is it appropriate to judge a man harshly if he doesn't aspire to accumulate material riches?
If for wealth he doesn't strive?
Is it fair to label someone as foolish and inferior if they are not primarily motivated by the pursuit of monetary gain?
Can you condemn a man,
Can you judge a person unfavorably solely because he does not possess the same religious beliefs as you?
If your faith he doesn't hold?
Is it ethical to find fault and cast condemnation on someone whose spiritual beliefs do not align with your own?
Say the colour of his skin,
Should the color of a man's skin cause you to pre-judge him or view him differently?
Is the colour of his soul?
Does the shade of someone's skin somehow correlate to the quality or virtue of their character?
Could you say that men,
Would you argue that it is necessary for men to sacrifice their lives for the purposes of the government?
For king and country all must die?
Should a nation's leaders be permitted to send its people to die in battle in order to secure their own political gains?
Well, Mr, you're a better man than I,
If you believe any of those things, then you possess a level of insight and understanding that I cannot claim to possess.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Brian Hugg, Mike Hugg
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Oliver Nilsson
Jack White is a rare talent of todays messed up music world. he's filled with respect and honour to the older music. It is my interpretation that he is one of the major historic greats of today.
Michael McGiffin
I just want to thank The White Stripes for introducing me to great music I wasn't aware of like Captain Beefheart and The Yardbirds.
chuckdee121
I really love all these clips with the never less than fantastic Jeff Beck. Jack White brought style back to rock, and hello Margaret, get the ear wax cleaned out of those ears, cos that Jackie boy can sing his lil heart out. Listen, it's obvious this was just a one shot,so of course it ain't gonna be perfect, but all can agree, these are awesome clips to enjoy!!!
wisesatyr72
This gives me chills just listening to it..
Bill Kropp
Seen that "It Might Get Loud" flick on VH1 recently - Really Surprised and Impressed at how GOOD Jack White is on guitar. AMAZING! And I'm not just saying that because he is from Detroit. The guy played some amazing licks. If anyone hasn't seen the flick I because they think it's a joke - I thought that - BOY was I WRONG! Very Interesting listening to Jimmy Page, Edge(U2), and Jack White talk about guitar.
yardbirdmackay
I was there at this gig,at least it looked ok,when the Stripes came on,BUT WHY NO YARDBIRDS,they were ready to get on the stage with Jeff again,another lost golden opportunaty
megstubetops
jack is lucky to be playin with his idols.
foxfive
Nice to see Beck wailing away on this . Ah just like the old days but the Yardbirds would blow jack and Meg back to their basement.
Aurongroove
Yes Lagomort, you caught him out. Jack White though, is still a very good musician, and practical dexterity is really only one element of music.
There Was Lightning
this is great