RIP Jeff Beck: Beck’s innovation with the electric guitar, fingerstyle playing took the instrument beyond rock music

When we speak of the 1960s in the rock music, we tend to pivot the era on a sound that had come to define it. The attitude of heavy rock and sonic experimentation was the soundtrack of the decade, strung together by the brilliant guitaring of the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.

Beck has been one of the greatest of all time, admired by his contemporaries and idol-worshipped by the generations that followed. Frequently called a “guitarist’s guitarist”, Beck—whose demise was announced his morning—didn’t quite achieve the kind of superstardom his feted industry colleagues did.

Nevertheless, eight-time Grammy-winner and two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, is also among the unique guitarists to have graced rock music. His album Emotion & Commotion won two Grammys—Best Pop Instrumental Performance for his interpretation of operatic masterpiece Nessum Dorma and Best Rock Instrumental Performance for Hammerhead. Even though he was renowned for his work with rock music, his curiosity for newer sonic frontiers made him a name to reckon with in blues, jazz and even pop.

Beck considered pioneer of jazz-fusion and world music legend John McLaughlin the greatest guitarist to have graced the music scene, introducing artists to musical influences from around the world. In an interview with this writer almost a decade ago, McLaughlin in turn cited Beck as a revolutionary. “Jeff Beck, in my opinion, is a legend who has done so much for the guitar as a musical instrument as he has for guitar-playing as a form of expression. He is very kind with his words about me, but I would certainly say the same about him, acknowledging him for revolutionising what rock music and its many subgenres can sound like.”

The six stringed Warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions. Jeff could channel music from the ethereal.

— Jimmy Page (@JimmyPage) January 11, 2023

His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless. Jeff I will miss you along with your millions of fans. Jeff Beck Rest in Peace.https://t.co/4h1DfXXmWI

— Jimmy Page (@JimmyPage) January 11, 2023

The great British invasion that began with the meteoric rise of The Beatles in 1960, anchored itself on the chunky sound of the Clapton-Page-Beck guitar-playing, giving birth to legions of musicians who emulated the triumvirate’s penchant for pushing the limits of technical expertise and the technology of the era itself. While Beck wasn’t the first to employ distortion and audio feedback in rock music, the way he went about it and the fuzzy sounds he generated created a blueprint for psychedelic rock to emerge, away from the decidedly blues aesthetic of the late 50s.

Although we mention Beck’s name among the hallowed plectrum-wielding mortals of the 1960s, it was a decade of immense frustration for the guitarist who was once quoted as saying, “It was a time of great frustration. The electronic equipment of the time wasn’t up to the sounds in my head.” That, of course, didn’t stop him from becoming a revolutionary player.

Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, a childhood friend of Beck’s, recommended his name as a replacement for Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds. The rest is proverbial history. By the time Beck was done with the Yardbirds and had released the Jeff Beck Group’s 1968 album Truth, the role of the electric guitar had changed. From being an accompaniment to a shared lead with the singer in a rock band, Beck took it up several notches and established it as a worthy standalone instrument.

Ahead of legendary American guitarist Steve Vai’s 2017 performance in India, he spoke with this writer about his musical and spiritual influences. Recognising the niche nature of instrumental guitar-playing in a frontman-led genre like rock music, Vai said, “Instrumental guitar music is primarily attractive to people who are guitar players and those who love the instrument. The popularity of it, even in the time of EDM, is based on the inspiration of those who are making it. Before Jeff Beck started making instrumental guitar records, people would think, ‘oh boy, there’s no room for this’. Beck changed that. Then Satriani and others like myself subsequently came along and made this our own. You need to prioritise doing what you find exciting, regardless of what anyone says, of what’s happening in the scene. Once you have that, everything else will fall in place.”

Beck stopped using the plectrum in the 1980s, preferring instead to devote his attention on plucking the strings, using his pinkie to tap the vibrato bar and his ring finger to adjust volume controls. His love for the whammy bar as a means to create dramatic sounds and his ability to emulate human voice tonality onto a guitar amplify his achievements. Associated with his signature Fender Stratocaster, Beck has also been known to use a Fender Telecaster, a Fender Squire and Gibson Les Pauls.

During one of my visits to actor Saif Ali Khan’s home when we spoke about his love for rock music of the 1960s and 1970s, Khan said: “Guitarists like Jeff Beck showed you how to reimagine the guitar and not confine it to the specifications of an instrument or even a genre, for that matter.” Among Khan’s favourite possessions is a white Fender Telecaster a la Beck.

Beck counted McLaughlin, Les Paul, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Chet Atkins, Roy Buchanan among his major influences. He in turn has inspired the sound of artists like Pearl Jam, Aerosmith, Metallica, Prince and so many more. Pink Floyd, according to Nick Mason’s biography, even considered him as a replacement for Syd Barrett but none of them “had the nerve to ask”, he wrote. Beck, however, went on to play the lead guitar in Roger Waters’ Amused to Death, among his other collaborations.

His long battle with tinnitus notwithstanding, Beck continued to play it loud. He, however, did experience temporary deafness thanks to Matt Sorum’s cymbal crash in 1992, and ended up not playing with Guns N’ Roses in the process.

Beck spent over 50 years playing an instrument he discovered and rediscovered so many times, across so many musical disciplines. He leaves behind an indelible legacy through the various artists who have derived their calling through his work. Today, undoubtedly, guitars around the world gently weep.

Senior journalist Lakshmi Govindrajan Javeri has spent a good part of two decades chronicling the arts, culture and lifestyles.

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