Jeff Beck Style File

Why I Suck... Series 2, Episode 7 - Jeff Beck

 “Jeff's great, man. He's God's own guitar player”.

Thus spake Toto guitar legend Steve Lukather in an interview for Guitarist magaine way back when. And frankly, he's got a point – I remember getting the goosebumps when I first heard “Cause We've Ended As Lovers”, and being completely obsessed with the track, performing my own – probably hamfisted – version as my first performance piece at music college. Those eerie, poignant intro bends, the languid melody, the sheer disregard for anything resembling scale shapes, just chasing the melody down wherever it might lead you on the fretboard... I was hooked.

Of the Big Three of 60's British blues greats – Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton – it's Jeff Beck that has had arguably the most checkered of careers.Whilst EC is still going strong, if somewhat erratically, and Page has had his years of world domination with Led Zeppelin and it's various offshoots and descendants, Beck has always been something of an outsider, never quite reaching the levels of the other two. To be fair, he's not exactly languishing in obscurity, having twice been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, earned eight Grammy awards and sessioned with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner and Bon Jovi – but while everyone has heard of Clapton, and everyone knows about Zeppelin, Beck has never made it to the mainstream in quite the same way, remaining the guitarist's guitar hero.

My initial exposure to him was actually through this:

Yep, Lenny Henry, singing the blues! Check out the intro solo though – THAT got my attention.

So, before we dive in to some licks from this quirkiest and most distinctive guitarist, a little history. Born June 24 1944 in Surrey – the same “Surrey Delta” which produced Clapton and Page at around the same time – Beck's career followed a similar path, falling in love with the sound of an electric guitar after hearing Les Paul playing How High The Moon on the radio aged 6 and building various instruments of his own to try and replicate what he saw and heard. It's important to note that during his childhood and much of the 1950s, the UK was in tatters with wide ranging poverty and rationing still continuing for several years post-war. These were emphatically NOT the “boom times” that the USA was enjoying during the same period, the UK was a grey, miserable, poverty stricken place trying to recover from the enormous damage and cost of fighting WW2. An electric guitar, in these times, was as far out of the reach of most regular families as a Ferrari is now. So it's worth remembering that while we might scoff at the idea of white kids from Surrey having anything in common with the black musicians of the Mississippi Delta or Chicago, at that time both were coming from a place of deprivation, poverty and desperation.

As with many musicians, Beck went on to art college – specifically, Wimbledon Art College where he met Jimmy Page. During this time he was playing with many local covers bands and got a first taste of session work in 1964. In 1965 he went on to replace Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds – the group had turned away from the traditional blues that Clapton was interested in and started to become more pop-orientated with the release of “For Your Love”. The group had originally wanted Jimmy Page but at that time he was busy with session work so suggested his old mate from Wimbledon Art College, Jeff Beck.

His time with the Yardbirds was short – 20 months – but intense, including the recording of the instrumental “Beck's Bolero” which featured Jimmy Page on rhythm guitar and John Paul Jones on bass as well as The Who's Keith Moon on drums, and Page would join the Yardbirds initially on bass but subsequently as second lead guitarist, and the two featured in the 1966 film “Blow Up”. However, Jeff Beck at this point proved himself no easy person to work with – tales abound of relentless perfectionism, explosive outbursts and flat out not showing up to gigs which unsurprisingly led to him being fired from the band in 1967.

From here began the first tentative steps at a solo career – first as a session guitarist for the infamous pop producer Mickie Most, ironically producing probably his most successful foray into mainstream pop music – Hi Ho Silver Lining. Yes, that's Jeff Beck playing the solo. And no, I won't be tabbing it out here.

The next big step in his career was the formation of the Jeff Beck Group, featuring Rod Stewart on vocals, Ronnie Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins (who had taken part in the Beck's Bolero recording) on piano and Aynsley Dunbar on drums. Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood would later go on to form The Faces before going their separate ways, Ronnie joining The Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart... well, you all know who Rod Stewart is. 

They released two albums “Truth” (1968) and “Beck-O-La” (1969), the former containing a cover of Willie Dixon's “You Shook Me” strikingly similar in arrangement to the version that would appear later on Led Zeppelin I. However, everything came to a halt in December of 1969 near Maidstone when Beck was involved in a terrible car accident and fractured his skull.

Moving into 1970, having rehabilitated and returned to health, with the help of Mickie Most, Beck set about forming a new Jeff Beck Group. He flew to the US and recorded several tracks at Motown Studio A with the help of various US session musicians and they toured briefly as “The Jeff Beck Group” but this new incarnation had a very different sound from it's previous one, much more towards a funk vibe. Beck recruited bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice and the band morphed into “Beck, Bogert & Appice” as a power trio – this lineup recorded a proto-heavy metal cover of Stevie Wonder's “Superstition”. However, they never really broke through commercially and dissolved in 1974, which is where we get to his first true solo album, “Blow By Blow” in 1975 which is where I took most of my examples from. This had much more of an exploratitive jaz-rock feel, as did it's follow up, “Wired”, released in 1976.

We'll leave the history there and start an exploration of Jeff's style from around this period.

This first example is from Freeway Jam in G (G Mixolydian to be exact) and illustrates his quirky and explorative approach to the minor pentatonic. Note the howling and aggressive harmony bend that starts it, the heavy use of quarter tone bends going between minor and major third, the chromatic passing tones (6, b6 and b2) finishing with an unusual bend on the b7 (F) into the root on the low E string.

The next examples are taken from “You Know What I Mean” on Blow By Blow, which at least starts in B minor but is pretty wide open harmonically. Beck uses a series of major and minor 6^th intervals, relatively common in blues and country music before morphing into what is more or less an F dominant 7 arpeggio, with the 6^th and minor 3^rd involved as passing notes.

The next example is broadly based in G minor pentatonic and with a variety of chromatic notes used to spice it up. 2^nd, major 3^rd, 6^th. There's some seriously complex stuff going on here so take it slow, watch for repetitive patterns. Jeff had his foot well and truly to the floor for this one.

This last is the conclusion to the previous line , and notice anything? Amidst all the blazing repetition and howling harmony bends, can you spot our old friends, the Magic Three Notes? That's right, even the big boys use them too! One final touch, Beck resolves to the root note, but an octave lower than where the rest of the lick takes place – those wider intervals represent another quirk of his playing that marks him out.

It's been a thoroughly enjoyable journey investigating this leftfield take on the conventional blues rock licks, and I've no doubt I'll be revisiting this iconic guitarist again sooner or later... there'll be a YouTube video demonstrating these licks along shortly so make sure you're subscribed! Meantime , stay safe out there and tune in next month for Led Zeppelin's own riffmaster, Jimmy Page!