{"id":3313,"date":"2025-11-04T18:55:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T18:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/?p=3313"},"modified":"2025-11-04T15:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T15:05:07","slug":"modest-famous-and-one-of-historys-greatest-guitarists-jeff-beck-by-those-that-knew-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/2025\/11\/04\/modest-famous-and-one-of-historys-greatest-guitarists-jeff-beck-by-those-that-knew-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Modest, famous and one of history’s greatest guitarists: Jeff Beck by those that knew him"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_code module_class=”custom-cat” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]
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\t\tMojo<\/pee>\t<\/div>\t
\t\tFEATURE<\/pee>\t<\/div><\/div>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text module_class=”article-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”||||||||” header_text_align=”center” header_text_color=”#111111″ header_font_size=”68px” custom_margin=”40px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

You better believe<\/h1>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”intro-text” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center” custom_padding=”||0px|||” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

Jeff Beck<\/strong> made the guitar do things no-one had imagined, let alone heard before. And while other axemen of his pioneer generation were more loudly lauded, he was the one who kept moving, kept growing, right until his sad passing in 2023. If that went under the radar, that was just too bad. \u201cJeff had a mystique about him,\u201d<\/strong> discovers Mat Snow. \u201cHe didn\u2019t give it all away.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Written by Mat Snow<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-85235236.jpg” alt=”Photo of Jeff BECK under a tree” title_text=”Photo of Jeff BECK” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

In any artist\u2019s life, there\u2019s often talk of a moment, an epiphany, which sparked the whole creative journey.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Jeff Beck revealed his epiphany on an American TV show devoted to his most fervent passion.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Not music, nor even guitars: cars.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

In 2009, when Car Crazy came to film on his East Sussex spread where he stabled the collection of hot rods and custom cars he\u2019d rebuilt himself, our host recalled his uncle taking little Geoffrey for a tear-up in his MG, getting up to all of 75mph, whereas in the family car his dad never pootled above 45. The MG also had that rare extra, a radio, which sat tantalisingly silent until Geoffrey, fiddling about as small boys do, switched it on and out burst music such as he\u2019d never heard before: the blues.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

His outraged uncle flicked it off, and the next time Geoffrey was taken for a spin the radio had gone.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

It\u2019s all there: speed, excitement, fun, music, America, the forbidden. Though rock\u2019n\u2019roll was yet to come, featuring his absolute favourite player, Cliff Gallup of Gene Vincent\u2019s Blue Caps, young Geoffrey was already besotted with the hits of electric guitar pioneer Les Paul, despite his Brahms-loving mum\u2019s disdain. \u201cShe\u2019d say, \u2018That\u2019s all tricks,\u2019\u201d he told writer Dave Thompson, \u201cbut it caught my ear straight away because of its astonishing speed and a slap echo \u2013 this great sound dimension that hit me for the first time in my life. After post-war austerity, this was all I needed.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Small wonder that Geoffrey Arnold Beck sold his soul to the devil on the A3 Kingston bypass to become the legendary Jeff, perhaps the only electric guitarist ever to inhale the same stratospherically rarefied empyrean of brilliance breathed by Jimi Hendrix.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-1455964841.jpg” alt=”Cal Danger and the Dangermen (L to R: Jeff Beck, Cal Danger, George Clarke, John Owen) outside the High Court in London where they are being sued by American musician Gene Vincent, on September 12th, 1961″ title_text=”Cal Danger And The Dangermen” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Cal Danger and the Dangermen (L to R: Jeff Beck, Cal Danger, George Clarke, John Owen) outside the High Court in London where they are being sued by Gene Vincent, on September 12th, 1961<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Serial winner of every guitarists\u2019 poll to name the best of the best, Jeff Beck became famed not just for his instrumental prowess but also for his habit of hitting the off-ramp on fortune\u2019s highway just as the seriously big time loomed. When he died on January 10 aged 78 of bacterial meningitis, he had not quite the instant brand recognition of the guitarist whose gig he took over in The Yardbirds in 1965, Eric Clapton, nor even of his old pal who succeeded him in that spot, Jimmy Page. Most of the time he seemed happy with that connoisseur status \u2013 but not always.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cI feel undervalued,\u201d Beck told the Live Aid impresario Harvey Goldsmith in 2008 when he phoned asking if he\u2019d take over his management. \u201cI said, You are undervalued because you don\u2019t do that much,\u201d Goldsmith recalls. \u201cHe was tinkering and enjoying life. He wasn\u2019t unhappy about things, but just felt musically he could be doing better. He felt it was his turn.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Beck didn\u2019t always feel the need for validation; indeed, rather than making, touring and promoting his music, he seemed happier to disappear under a custom \u201932 Ford Coupe. As Beach Boy Al Jardine joked back in 2013 when, to some surprise, the guitarist joined him and Brian Wilson on tour, \u201cHe probably has the biggest collection of little Deuce Coupes in the world.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cHe was very modest,\u201d says Goldsmith. \u201cHe never understood his fame at all. He never thought that he was a big rock star and could do whatever he wanted. He was terribly humble. And that was part of the problem.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

For so nimble-fingered a guitarist, Jeff Beck was an all-thumbs careerist, albeit one who escaped \u2018Net Curtain Land\u2019 \u2013 Wallington in Surrey, one of the ring of London satellite towns which birthed British blues-rock in the \u201960s \u2013 to Swinging London and, from 1976, a Tudor manor house sitting in 80 acres of land in Wadhurst, East Sussex.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Just as his fitful career (not helped by tinnitus since the \u201980s) lacked a shapely narrative arc, over the decades he\u2019d tinker with his story so you could never be sure of why he did what he did and when; you sense he wasn\u2019t even sure himself.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-74300647.jpg” alt=”%22The Yardbirds%22 pose for a portrait in 1965. (L-R) Jim McCarty, Jeff Beck, Paul Samwell-Smith, Chris Dreja, Keith Relf” title_text=”%22The Yardbirds%22 Portrait” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

“The Yardbirds” pose for a portrait in 1965. (L-R) Jim McCarty, Jeff Beck, Paul Samwell-Smith, Chris Dreja, Keith Relf<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

“He was very modest. He never understood his fame at all. And that was part of the problem.”<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Harvey Goldsmith<\/h3>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

It had all started so well. With the British R&B boom in full swing in early 1965, his band The Tridents were on the up when the far bigger Yardbirds came knocking. Lead guitarist Eric Clapton felt The Yardbirds\u2019 choice of material was deviating from the pure path of the blues and had quit; the gig had been offered to Jimmy Page but his studio session career was too lucrative to gamble away on the promise of pop stardom, so he recommended Beck.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

For 18 months Beck turned the band upside down with his guitar pyrotechnics, drawing on such eclectic inspirations as Dutch synth pioneer Tom Dissevelt and Indian and European classical music as well as the \u201950s rockers and pickers and Chicago\u2019s South Side blues men; from Heart Full Of Soul to Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, you hear Beck blossom into rock\u2019s most spectacular guitarist.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Then, in the throes of illness, nervous breakdown, true love or \u201csomething good on television\u201d \u2013 his explanation changed over the years \u2013 he blew out gigs and got the heave. At the same time, late 1966, Jimi Hendrix flew in from New York, saw what Beck was doing and took it higher, further and deeper. \u201cHe was doing things so upfront and unchained,\u201d Beck said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I wanted to do, but was British and a victim of the class system and poxy little schools.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/301541239317.jpg” alt=”The Yardbirds album ‘Happenings Ten Years Time Ago'” title_text=”301541239317″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

A little lost, Beck reluctantly fell in with pop svengali Mickie Most, who rebooted the guitarist into a solo star with March 1967 single Hi Ho Silver Lining \u2013 the singalong hit Beck would struggle to live down. A year later, The Jeff Beck Group \u2013 featuring Rod Stewart on vocals and Ronnie Wood on bass \u2013 blueprinted swaggering heavy blues-rock with a side order of pastoral prettiness on the album Truth and toured America with great success. Yet with 1969\u2019s Beck-Ola in the charts and wind in their sails the guitarist broke up the band just a fortnight before they were due to appear at Woodstock. Again, a host of reasons have been suggested, by Beck and others: ego clashes with Stewart and Wood, fears that Sly And The Family Stone would upstage them or that a poor performance would be preserved for posterity on film.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

After a car accident kept Beck off the road for 18 months, he resurfaced with The Jeff Beck Group Mark II, but, despite the excellent keyboardist Max Middleton and funkier spin in thrall to his beloved Motown, both material and musical chemistry fell short. Things only got worse when Beck realised his long-held ambition to team up with the Vanilla Fudge rhythm section in Beck, Bogert And Appice. Again, ego problems and dissolution followed, but also, perhaps, the belated realisation that he was really no bandleader.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cJeff didn\u2019t really care about me and Ronnie,\u201d Rod Stewart recalled of his Jeff Beck Group stint in 2013. \u201cSometimes Ronnie and me wouldn\u2019t get paid for weeks and we\u2019d have to go stealing eggs, poncing breakfast off Jimi Hendrix\u2019s girlfriend. But I cannot overstate how much I learned musically with the minimal line-up of that band, guitar and voice playing off each other.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Learning the same lesson in the wings at those 1968 JBG gigs was a more natural bandleader: Jimmy Page. Years later Beck told Tom Hibbert, \u201cWhen Led Zeppelin made it so big, I was absolutely jealous as hell. But,\u201d he added, \u201cI\u2019m glad I carried on as I was. I personally couldn\u2019t have put up with that mass adulation.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/R-2768038-1390130823-5597.jpg” alt=”Jeff Beck’s album ‘Beck-Ola'” title_text=”R-2768038-1390130823-5597″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

At which point, fate intervenes.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

In 1973 Beck had met keyboardist Jan Hammer, when the latter\u2019s band, fusion trailblazers The Mahavishnu Orchestra led by guitarist John McLaughlin, were playing in Zurich at the same time as Beck, Bogert And Appice. Beck and Hammer bonded over a shared love of Marvin Gaye, whose sensuality each felt was lacking in their own bands. \u201cI thought we could put more funk and feel into the music, and Jeff was right into it,\u201d Hammer recalls. \u201cHe was coming from the rock world and I was coming from the so-called jazz world, and our paths crossed exactly at the right time to influence each other.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

On Beck, the influence was colossal. He set out to make his own fusion album, balancing dazzle with sensuality. \u201cWith John [McLaughlin], the playing was cosmic, like mercury,\u201d says Hammer. \u201cJeff\u2019s playing and sound were much more like a voice, very human, a loving, caressing sound even though he could turn it on and crank it out with the best of them. John was like Coltrane and Jeff more Stan Getz.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Tal Wilkenfeld, the bass virtuoso who joined Beck\u2019s band in 2007 aged only 20, agrees that Beck was a singer manqu\u00e9. \u201cWe\u2019d be riding in the bus listening to music, and the first thing he\u2019d comment on was the lyric,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd if it was instrumental, it was about the meaning of the song, the purpose behind it, not just playing for the sake of playing.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-1319305469.jpg” alt=”Jan Hammer playing keyboards supported by guitarist and songwriter Jeff Beck playing at the Ronnie Lane ARMS Benefit Concert at Madison Square Garden in New York” title_text=”Ronnie Lane Arms Benefit Concert, 1983″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Jan Hammer playing keyboards supported by Jeff Beck at the Ronnie Lane ARMS Benefit Concert at Madison Square Garden, New York<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

With Beck singing through his guitar (literally so via a vocoder-like talk-box on a cover of The Beatles\u2019 She\u2019s A Woman), 1975\u2019s Blow By Blow was an instrumental album produced by George Martin, and an instant classic. Critical to its success was what was to become Beck\u2019s signature ballad. In 1972 Stevie Wonder had invited Beck to his sessions for Talking Book (that\u2019s Beck on Lookin\u2019 For Another Pure Love). Tinkering on the drums, the guitarist came up with the pattern on which the 22-year-old auteur would build Superstition. Whether Wonder intended the song for Beck is unclear \u2013 Beck would later say that Wonder\u2019s record label, Motown, were the ones to insist that Wonder release a version first \u2013 but recompense, if that\u2019s what it was, was sweet. Cause We\u2019ve Ended As Lovers \u2013 a song Wonder wrote for his ex-wife Syreeta Wright \u2013 took pride of place on Blow By Blow, and became the first of many reflective numbers that revealed Beck\u2019s exquisitely tender side.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Jan Hammer came aboard for Wired, the 1976 follow-up again produced by George Martin, and they collaborated on and off for the rest of Beck\u2019s career. \u201cI\u2019m walking through the house where we recorded a whole chunk of Wired and especially the tune Blue Wind which was really just the two of us,\u201d he sighs over the phone from New York. \u201cI\u2019m looking around and I\u2019m pretty emotional about it.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/jeffbeck-wired-non-label1-1.jpg” alt=”Jeff Beck’s album ‘Wired'” title_text=”jeffbeck-wired-non-label1-1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

All of Beck\u2019s musical collaborators whom MOJO spoke to have been hit hard. They all attest to his youthful energy, curiosity, mischievousness and hunger for exploring new musical worlds; this was not a musician nor man anywhere near the end of the line.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

That in itself is a testament to how his career refused to stay long in any given lane, even after he dialled down the fusion following a conversation with, of all people, Mot\u00f6rhead\u2019s Lemmy.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cHe said, \u2018Jeff Beck \u2013 best guitarist in the world. He goes diddly-iddly-iddly and everybody gets bored,\u2019\u201d laughed Beck, telling the story to David Sinclair. \u201cHe was probably speaking for a lot of people. You can\u2019t out-gas yourself to the point where all people can do is sit there with their jaws open. You\u2019ve got to deliver something they can grasp and enjoy.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Unlike the era in which he made his name, Jeff Beck\u2019s latter decades made little history but supplied a remarkable wealth of great music. For example: Who Else!, You Had It Coming and Jeff, made under the influence of The Prodigy and other dance music disruptors between 1999 and 2003.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cJeff\u2019s ability to keep on developing and improving as a guitar player decade after decade had a lot to do not only with his musical energy and curiosity but his humility,\u201d says Robert Plant and Radiohead drummer Clive Deamer, who came aboard for Crazy Legs, Beck\u2019s 1993 tribute to Gene Vincent And His Blue Caps. \u201cHe was always self-effacing and very doubtful of his own abilities. Before going on-stage he would sound no different to an unconfident 18-year-old \u2013 \u2018I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve rehearsed enough\u2026\u2019 \u2013 and then he\u2019d set the place on fire.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Another way Beck bucked a trend among his contemporaries is in the welcome he extended, from the \u201990s on, to female collaborators. Not only are the singers to whom he gravitated after locking horns with alpha dogs in his earlier years almost all women \u2013 Imelda May, Imogen Heap, Beth Hart, Olivia Safe, Joss Stone and Rosie Bones \u2013 but female instrumentalists abound, too, including guitarists Jennifer Batten and Carmen Vandenberg, bassists Rhonda Smith and Tal Wilkenfeld, and drummer Anika Nilles.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cI felt so comfortable around him,\u201d says cellist Vanessa Freebairn-Smith, who worked with him from 2006 to 2018. \u201cI never felt imposed upon or any creepy vibe, none of that chauvinist energy; women who work in music, we\u2019ve experienced the gamut \u2013 I speak from experience. He was very gentle and safe and welcoming.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-100965145.jpg” alt=”Jeff Beck performing at a Crystal Palace Garden Party event” title_text=”Beck At Crystal Palace” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Jeff Beck performing at a Crystal Palace Garden Party event<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

“Jeff’s playing and sound were like a voice, very human, a loving, caressing sound.”<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Jan Hammer<\/h3>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

It\u2019s a sentiment echoed by Rosie Bones, whose year with Beck is an extraordinary tale: having seen her band Bones play at a pub, Beck immediately invited them to collaborate on an album (2016\u2019s satirically charged, politically angry Loud Hailer) and join him on the road.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cWe went back and forth to his house in the countryside and hung out by the log fire with bottles of prosecco and bowls of nuts, writing the record on the floor giggling with all the dogs running about,\u201d Rosie recalls. \u201cJeff wasn\u2019t a lad. I think he felt much more comfortable with a nurturing, feminine energy around him. He was a sensitive soul. He\u2019d cry. He enjoyed the feminine energy in himself as well. He was silly. He\u2019d pootle around the house in this big fluffy onesie with a pair of rabbit ears that [his wife] Sandra had bought him; it was fantastically weird.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cHe had a childlike excitement for collaborating with all sorts of people,\u201d continues Bones, \u201cthis playful energy that always wanted to explore new things. He wasn\u2019t a natural leader but led if you needed it. His nature was to support the song or the singer, to decorate what was going on. He just played the most beautiful guitar and that\u2019s what he loved.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

These latter years seem to describe a totally different Beck from the young man who, baffled by his own self-sabotaging volatility, talked of ungovernable childhood temper tantrums and the possibility that being knocked down by a car driven by his headmaster might also have had something to do with it.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-74253782.jpg” alt=”The Jeff Beck Group (L-R Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, Mickey Waller and Jeff Beck) pose for a portrait circa 1968″ title_text=”The Jeff Beck Group” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

The Jeff Beck Group (L-R Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, Mickey Waller and Jeff Beck) pose for a portrait circa 1968<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cI never felt that there was trouble or dysfunction behind those eyes,\u201d says bassist Pino Palladino. \u201cIt was all about the beauty of music. Nobody has ever touched an electric guitar like Jeff Beck, nobody has had those depths of expression, that inbred genius to play the most tender guitar imaginable. Then he could also be such a thug; this terrifying anger came out with the guitar \u2013 but with a really pleasant smile while he was playing. I\u2019ve seen a look on his face almost like he couldn\u2019t believe what had just come out, like, \u2018Wow, did you hear that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cHe\u2019d go between those two worlds within a piece of music in the blink of an eye,\u201d remembers Clive Deamer. \u201cAs soon as that guitar went on him you could see his body language change; his brain and soul and the guitar were meeting in this special place. As a musician, it put you on your game to the utmost degree. You had to let your senses go to the same place to be ready to play with him.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Unlike Les Paul and his inspirational \u201ctricks\u201d, how Beck achieved his vast palette of sounds was all in the fingers and thumbs as they manipulated the volume and tone controls and, crucial to his style, \u201cthe whammy bar and bent strings, all the in-between notes,\u201d says Tal Wilkenfeld. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t just playing in half steps; it was microtonal, bending all over the place, very influenced by Indian classical.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Fellow guitarists were often shocked to discover how seldom he used effects pedals, that his amps came off-the-peg and his default Olympic White Stratocasters were barely modified from the standard production model and would often arrive wrapped in the dog\u2019s blanket.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-109243444-1.jpg” alt=”Jeff Beck portrait, London, 1972″ title_text=”Jeff Beck” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Indeed, for someone whose barely changing late- \u201960s dandy rooster image was so rock\u2019n\u2019roll that it was parodied as Nigel Tufnel in This Is Spinal Tap (a movie throughout which Beck roared with laughter at its VIP preview in 1984), he was very un-rock\u2019n\u2019roll. Vanessa Freebairn-Smith thought it hilarious that he\u2019d unwind after a show with a mimosa, and Harvey Goldsmith recalls that this confirmed vegetarian \u201chated people drinking too much and never went near drugs; he wanted to be in control. He got his jollies playing great music. \u2018How did I do? How do I play better?\u2019\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

\u201cHe was always searching for something that nobody else had thought of, something brand new and revolutionary like reinventing the wheel,\u201d says Pino Palladino, adding with a fond chuckle that, \u201cJeff had a mystique about him; he didn\u2019t give it all away. In the dressing room before we went on-stage he would usually have an amplifier and be warming up. One time he played something incredible and I said, \u2018Wow, Jeff, what was that you just played?\u2019 He turned away from me so I couldn\u2019t see what he was doing with his guitar and said, \u2018Don\u2019t worry, mate \u2013 plenty more where that came from\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

This article first appeared in issue 353 of Mojo<\/em><\/p>\n

Images: Getty<\/em><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff Beck made the guitar do things no-one had imagined, let alone heard before. And while other axemen of his pioneer generation were more loudly lauded, he was the one who kept moving, kept growing, right until his sad passing in 2023. If that went under the radar, that was just too bad. \u201cJeff had a mystique about him,\u201d discovers Mat Snow. \u201cHe didn\u2019t give it all away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mojo-presents","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"kschwarz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3313"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3360,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3313\/revisions\/3360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}