Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold ("Jeff") Beck (born June 24, 1944 in Wallington, Greater London, England) is a guitarist and songwriter. Though he played in several influential bands in the 1960s and 1970s (notably in The Yardbirds) Beck has main

Geoffrey Arnold ("Jeff") Beck (born June 24, 1944 in Wallington, Greater London, England) is a guitarist and songwriter. Though he played in several influential bands in the 1960s and 1970s (notably in The Yardbirds) Beck has maintained a sporadic solo career over the last 25 years. Despite never attaining the commercial viability of his contemporaries, Beck has gained widespread critical acclaim, especially in the guitar playing community. Never one to be tied to one particular genre, he has experimented with blues rock, heavy metal, and jazz fusion. Most recently, he has absorbed the influence of techno, creating a blend of heavy guitar rock and electronica.

Like many rock musicians in the early 1960s, he began his career working as a session guitarist. In 1965, following a gig with the Tridents, Beck was recruited to join the Yardbirds (after Eric Clapton had left the group for John Mayall's Bluesbreakers). It was during his tenure with the Yardbirds that they recorded most of their hits. His volatile temper, coupled with the unreliable nature of amplifiers in those days, resulted in many incidents of taking out his frustration on his equipment, although he rarely actually destroyed his guitars. That gimmick was understood to belong to Pete Townshend of The Who; when Beck was asked by Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni to smash a guitar during the Yardbirds' appearance in the 1966 film Blowup, he was reluctant to "steal" the gimmick from Townshend but did so anyway. In 1966, he shared the dual-lead guitar role with Jimmy Page. His time with The Yardbirds was short, allowing Beck only one full album, Roger the Engineer (1966); Beck left after 18 months, partly for health reasons.