A Tribute to Jeff Beck

Truth arrived before Led Zeppelin, and arguably showed them the way.

After leaving the Yardbirds, Beck assembled a band that read like a who's who of future rock royalty: Rod Stewart on vocals, Ronnie Wood on bass, Micky Waller on drums. Their debut album Truth, released in August 1968, is widely regarded as one of the blueprints for heavy metal and hard rock. It reached number 15 on the US Billboard 200. The follow-up, Beck-Ola, arrived in 1969. Both records predated Led Zeppelin's debut and covered similar ground: heavy, blues-drenched rock with a swagger that owed nothing to anyone. The Jeff Beck Group proved short-lived, but its influence was enormous.

Beck went platinum without singing a single note; the guitar alone was enough.

Released in March 1975 and produced by George Martin, Blow by Blow was a sharp left turn. No vocals. No band name. Just Beck and his guitar navigating jazz fusion, funk and instrumental rock with a fluency that startled critics and fans alike. The album reached number four on the US Billboard 200 and went platinum. Its follow-up, Wired (1976), continued in the same vein, featuring collaborations with keyboard virtuoso Jan Hammer. Together, the two albums established Beck as something rare in rock: a guitarist who could sell records without singing a note.

Beck survived the synthesiser era and walked away with his first Grammy for the trouble.

After a relatively quiet decade spent tinkering with synthesisers and electronic textures, Beck returned with Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop in 1989. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, his first Grammy. It was a statement of intent: Beck had absorbed the digital revolution and come out the other side with his identity intact.

Three guitar legends, one band; the Yardbirds' 1992 Hall of Fame honour said everything about their alumni's collective weight.

In 1992, Beck was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds, alongside Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Chris Dreja and the late Keith Relf. It was fitting recognition for a band whose alumni had gone on to reshape rock music several times over. Beck, characteristically, seemed more interested in what came next than in looking back.

Inducted twice; the second time Beck arrived with a hot rod joke and Jimmy Page holding the trophy.

Only a handful of musicians have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. In 2009, Beck joined that exclusive group when he was honoured as a solo artist. Jimmy Page presented the award, and Beck used his acceptance speech to joke that he should have spent more time practising rather than building hot rods in his garage.

Still recording and touring at 78; Beck never once considered stopping.

On 10 January 2023, Jeff Beck died at the age of 78 after contracting bacterial meningitis. He had been touring and recording until the very end, collaborating with Johnny Depp on the album 18 released in July 2022. Tributes poured in from across the music world. Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Rod Stewart, Ozzy Osbourne and countless others paid their respects to a guitarist who had never stopped evolving. Beck left behind eight Grammy Awards, two Hall of Fame inductions, 17 studio albums and a body of work that defied every attempt at categorisation. He was, by any measure, one of the most important guitarists in the history of popular music.