Biography of Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold Beck born in the suburbs of Wallington on 24 Jun 1994 turned out to be a revolutionary guitarist of the century and most commonly known as Jeff Beck.
He had a great knack for guitar while his mom failed convincing him to play piano. His hidden talents started popping out as he sang for the church choir at a mere age of 10 years. He has been quoted to have been inspired by Les Paul.
Beck started his career as a guitarist in 1963 by playing as lead guitarist for local band The Rumbles and later he replaced Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds in Mar 1965. Beck stayed in The Yardbirds for almost 20 months and during this period the band produced its top 40 songs. Beck’s picture made the cover of Yardbird’s album For Your Love in June 1965.After parting ways from The Yardbids, Jeff did two solo songs Hi Ho Silver Lining and Tallyman in UK and then took a step forward by making his own group with the name of The Jeff Beck Group. The group produced two albums for Columbia records. First album Truth was released in August 1968 and second one Beck-Ola in July 1969. The group got dissolved with the replacement of lead drummer Micky Waller by Tony Newman.
Beck got his skull fractured in December 1969 in a road accident and after gaining health in few months, Beck flew to U.S with Cozy Powell. The duo recorded few unreleased songs at Motown Studios. Finally, in April 1971, The Jeff Beck Group was reformed with new faces and produced three hit albums in 1970s. Most of the songs remained at Bollywood top charts.
At the start of 80s Beck appeared at The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball show along with Yardbirds. In 1985, Beck released album Flash after a long period but during this period he appeared in other hit songs like I shall be Released, Tulsa Time and Layla. Jeff released his album Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop in 1989. This album was an instrumental one which showed the true talent of Jeff. Beck came up with a tribute to Gene Vincent and Cliff Gallup in 1993 with Crazy Legs. Beck started turned the music and guitars by his own standards in 1999 by release of Who Else. The end of century was marked with a trend change in music by Jeff and he came up 2001 You Had it Coming. Jeff was awarded Grammy for his song Dirty Mind.
Jeff appeared in lot of performances in 2002 and 2003 and travelled to U.K in 2005 after a long period. Jeff toured New Zealand and Australia in 2009 followed by a tour to Japan. This really had been the golden period for Jeff with his songs rising to fame and he was awarded 4 Grammys at different occasions. Beck married to Sandra Crash in 2005.
In 2011, Jeff was awarded fellowship for University of Art London and at a current age of 67, Jeff still rules the hearts and minds of music lovers.
Listen to Jeff Beck :-
"Cause We've Ended as Lovers" was selected as the best 100 Rock Guitar Solos Ever countdown, and is still one of the most praised solos work produced by Jeff Beck.