Some chaos, some beauty and Jeff Beck’s genius

Jeff Beck came to prominence as a member of The Yardbirds, an English rock band, and then went out on his own in a solo career that incorporated hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera. He was known for his improvising, love of harmonics, and the whammy bar on his preferred guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.

Beck was among the rock-guitarist pantheon from the late ‘60s that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. Beck won eight Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again as a solo artist in 2009.

“I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don’t have too much of it. It’s got to be in balance. I just saw Cirque du Soleil, and it struck me as complete organised chaos,” he told music magazine Guitar World in 2014. “If I could turn that into music, it’s not far away from what my ultimate goal would be, which is to delight people with chaos and beauty at the same time.”

Beck career highlights include joining with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice to create the power trio that released ‘Beck, Bogert and Appice’ in 1973, tours with Brian Wilson and Buddy Guy and a tribute album to the late guitarist Les Paul, ‘Rock n’ Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul)’.

He was in a few bands — including Nightshift and The Tridents — before joining the Yardbirds in 1965, replacing Clapton. During his tenure, the band created the memorable singles ‘Heart Full of Soul’, ‘I’m a Man’ and ‘Shapes of Things’. Beck’s first hit single was 1967’s instrumental ‘Beck’s Bolero’, which featured future Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, and future Who drummer Keith Moon.

Beck teamed up with legendary producer George Martin — aka ‘the fifth Beatle’ — to help him fashion the genre-melding, jazz-fusion classic ‘Blow by Blow’ (1975) and ‘Wired’ (1976). He teamed up with Seal on the Hendrix tribute ‘Stone Free’, created a jazz-fusion group led by synthesiser player Jan Hammer and honoured rockabilly guitarist Cliff Gallup with the album ‘Crazy Legs’.

Beck’s guitar work can be heard on the soundtracks of films such as ‘Stomp the Yard’, ‘Shallow Hal’, ‘Casino’, ‘Honeymoon in Vegas’, ‘Twins’, ‘Observe and Report’ and ‘Little Big League’. Beck’s career never hit the commercial highs of Clapton. A perfectionist, he rather preferred to make critically well-received instrumental records and left the limelight for long stretches, enjoying his time restoring vintage automobiles.

He was a tinkerer. As a boy, he built his first music instrument, using a cigar box, a picture frame for the neck and string from a radio-controlled toy airplane.