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Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold Beck (24 June 1944 – 10 January 2023) was an English guitarist. He rose to prominence as a member of the rock band the Yardbirds, and afterwards founded and fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to an instrumental style with focus on an innovative sound, and his releases spanned genres and styles ranging from blues rock, hard rock, jazz fusion and a blend of guitar-rock and electronica.

Beck has been consistently ranked in the top five of Rolling Stone and other magazines' lists of the greatest guitarists. He was often called a "guitarist's guitarist". Rolling Stone described him as "one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock". Although he recorded two successful albums (in 1975 and 1976) as a solo act, Beck did not establish or maintain commercial success like that of his contemporaries and bandmates. He recorded with many artists.

Beck earned wide critical praise and received the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance six times, winning in three categories at the 2010 Grammy Awards for a career total of eight Grammies. In 2014, he received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: first as a member of the Yardbirds (1992) and secondly as a solo artist (2009).

Early life
Beck was born on 24 June 1944 to Arnold and Ethel Beck at 206 Demesne Road, Wallington, Surrey (now London Borough of Sutton, Greater London). As a ten-year-old, Beck sang in a church choir. He had a sister, Annetta. He attended Sutton Manor School and Sutton East County Secondary Modern School.

Beck cited Les Paul as the first electric guitar player who impressed him. Beck said that he first heard an electric guitar when he was six years old and heard Paul playing "How High the Moon" on the radio. He asked his mother what it was. After she replied it was an electric guitar and was all tricks, he said, "That's for me". Cliff Gallup, lead guitarist with Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, was also an early musical influence, followed by B. B. King and Steve Cropper. Beck considered Lonnie Mack "a rock guitarist [who] was unjustly overlooked [and] a major influence on him and many others."

As a teenager, he learned to play on a borrowed guitar and made several attempts to build his own instrument, first by gluing and bolting together cigar boxes  for the body and an unsanded fence post for the neck with model aircraft control lines and frets simply painted on it.

After leaving school, he attended Wimbledon School of Art (now Wimbledon College of Arts). Then, he was briefly employed as a painter and decorator, a groundsman on a golf course, and a car paint sprayer. Beck's sister Annetta introduced him to Jimmy Page when both were teenagers.

Beginnings and Yardbirds: 1963-1967
While attending Wimbledon College of Art, Beck played in a succession of groups. In 1963, after Ian Stewart of the Rolling Stones introduced him to R&B, he formed The Nightshift with whom he played at the 100 Club in Oxford Street. Beck joined the Rumbles, a Croydon band, in 1963 for a short period as lead guitarist, playing Gene Vincent and Buddy Holly songs, displaying a talent for mimicking guitar styles. Later in 1963, he joined the Tridents, a band from the Chiswick area. "They were really my scene because they were playing flat-out R&B, like Jimmy Reed stuff, and we supercharged it all up and made it really rocky. I got off on that, even though it was only twelve-bar blues." He was a session guitarist on a 1964 Parlophone single by the Fitz and Startz titled "I'm Not Running Away", with B-side "So Sweet". Also in 1964, Beck was part of Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages when they recorded "Dracula's Daughter"/"Come Back Baby" for Oriole Records.

In March 1965, Beck was recruited by the Yardbirds to succeed Eric Clapton on the recommendation of fellow session musician Jimmy Page, who had been their initial choice. The Yardbirds recorded most of their Top 40 hit songs during Beck's short but significant 20-month tenure with the band allowing him only one full album, which became known as Roger the Engineer (titled Over Under Sideways Down in the U.S.), released in 1966. In May 1966, Beck recorded an instrumental titled "Beck's Bolero". Rather than members of the Yardbirds, he was backed by Page on 12-string rhythm guitar, Keith Moon on drums, John Paul Jones on bass, and Nicky Hopkins on piano. In June, Page joined the Yardbirds, at first on bass and later on second lead guitar. This dual lead-guitar lineup was filmed performing an adaptation of "Train Kept A-Rollin'", titled "Stroll On", for the 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni film Blow Up.

Beck was fired during a U.S. tour for being a consistent no-show—as well as difficulties caused by his perfectionism and explosive temper on stage.

Band leader and co-leader: 1967 to 1974
In 1967, he recorded several solo singles for pop producer Mickie Most, including "Hi Ho Silver Lining" and "Tallyman", which also included his vocals. He then formed the Jeff Beck Group, which included Rod Stewart on vocals, Ronnie Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano, and Aynsley Dunbar on drums (replaced by Micky Waller).

The group produced two albums for Columbia Records (Epic in the US): Truth (as Jeff Beck, August 1968) and Beck-Ola (July 1969). Truth, released five months before the first Led Zeppelin album, features "You Shook Me", a song written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Muddy Waters, also covered on the Led Zeppelin debut with a similar arrangement. It sold well (reaching No. 15 on the Billboard charts). Beck-Ola saw drummer Micky Waller replaced by Tony Newman, and, while well-received, was less successful both commercially and critically. Resentment, coupled with touring incidents, led the group to disband in July 1969.

In his autobiography, Nick Mason recalls that, during 1967, Pink Floyd had wanted to recruit Beck to be its guitarist after the departure of Syd Barrett, but "none of us had the nerve to ask him." In 1969, following the death of Brian Jones, Beck was approached about joining the Rolling Stones.

After the break-up of his group, Beck took part in the Music from Free Creek "super session" project, billed as "A. N. Other" and contributed lead guitar on four songs, including one co-written by him. In September 1969, he teamed with the rhythm section of Vanilla Fudge: bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice (when they were in England to resolve contractual issues), but when Beck fractured his skull in a car accident near Maidstone in December the plan was postponed for two-and-a-half years, during which time Bogert and Appice formed Cactus. Beck later remarked on the 1960s period of his life: "Everyone thinks of the 1960s as something they really weren't. It was the frustration period of my life. The electronic equipment just wasn't up to the sounds I had in my head."

In 1970, after Beck had regained his health, he set about forming a band with the drummer Cozy Powell. Beck, Powell, and producer Mickie Most flew to the United States and recorded several tracks at Motown's famed Studio A in Hitsville U.S.A. with the Funk Brothers, Motown's in-house band, but the results remained unreleased. By April 1971 Beck had completed the line-up of this new group with guitarist/vocalist Bobby Tench, keyboard player Max Middleton, and bassist Clive Chaman. The new band performed as "The Jeff Beck Group" but had a substantially different sound from the first line-up.

Rough and Ready (October 1971), the first album they recorded, on which Beck wrote or co-wrote six of the album's seven tracks (the exception being written by Middleton), included elements of soul, rhythm-and-blues, and jazz, foreshadowing the direction Beck's music would take later in the decade.

A second album, Jeff Beck Group (July 1972), was recorded at TMI studios in Memphis with the same personnel. Beck employed Steve Cropper as producer and the album displayed a strong soul influence, five of the nine tracks being covers of songs by American artists. One, "I Got to Have a Song", was the first of four Stevie Wonder compositions covered by Beck. Shortly after the release of the Jeff Beck Group album, the band was dissolved and Beck's management put out the statement that: "The fusion of the musical styles of the various members has been successful within the terms of individual musicians, but they didn't feel it had led to the creation of a new musical style with the strength they had originally sought".

Beck then started collaborating with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, who became available following the demise of Cactus but continued touring as the Jeff Beck Group in August 1972, to fulfill contractual obligations with his promoter, with a line-up including Bogert, Appice, Max Middleton and vocalist Kim Milford. After six appearances Milford was replaced by Bobby Tench, who was flown in from the United Kingdom for the Arie Crown Theatre Chicago performance and the rest of the tour, which concluded at the Paramount North West Theatre, Seattle. After the tour, Tench and Middleton left the band and the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice emerged. Appice took on the role of vocalist with Bogert and Beck contributing occasionally.

They were included on the bill for Rock at The Oval in September 1972, still as "The Jeff Beck Group", which marked the start of a tour schedule of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany. Another U.S. tour began in October 1972, starting at the Hollywood Sportatorium Florida and concluding on 11 November 1972 at The Warehouse in New Orleans. In April 1973 the album Beck, Bogert & Appice was released (on Epic Records). While critics acknowledged the band's instrumental prowess the album was not commercially well received except for its cover of Stevie Wonder's hit "Superstition".

On 3 July 1973, Beck joined David Bowie onstage to perform "The Jean Genie"/"Love Me Do" and "Around and Around". The show was filmed and was finally released in the 2022 Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream. During October 1973 Beck recorded tracks for Michael Fennelly's album Lane Changer.

Early in January 1974, Beck, Bogert & Appice played at the Rainbow Theatre in London as part of a European tour. The concert was broadcast in full on the U.S. show Rock Around the World in September of the same year. This last recorded work by the band previewed material intended for a second studio album, included on the bootleg At Last Rainbow. The tracks "Blues Deluxe" and "BBA Boogie" from this concert were later included on the Jeff Beck compilation Beckology (1991).

Beck, Bogert & Appice dissolved in April 1974 before their second studio album (produced by Jimmy Miller) was finished. Their live album Beck, Bogert & Appice Live in Japan, recorded during their 1973 tour of Japan, was not released until February 1975 by Epic/Sony.

After a few months, Beck entered Underhill Studio and met with the band Upp; he recruited them to be the backing band for his appearance on the BBC TV program Guitar Workshop in August 1974. Beck produced and played on their self-titled debut album and their second album This Way Upp, though his contributions to the second album went uncredited. During 1974, he participated in recording sessions for the first album by former Jeff Beck Group member Bobby Tench's band Hummingbird' but did not contribute to the album.

Going solo: 1974 to 1980
In October the same year Beck began to record instrumental sessions at AIR Studios with Max Middleton who was also associated with Hummingbird, bassist Phil Chen and drummer Richard Bailey using George Martin as producer and arranger. These formed the basis for Beck's solo album Blow by Blow (March 1975) and showcased Beck's technical prowess in jazz-rock. The album reached number four in the charts and is Beck's most commercially successful release. Beck, fastidious about overdubs and often dissatisfied with his solos, often returned to AIR Studios until he was satisfied. A couple of months after the sessions had finished, producer George Martin received a telephone call from Beck, who wanted to record a solo section again. Bemused, Martin replied: "I'm sorry, Jeff, but the record is in the shops!"

Beck put together a live band for a US tour, which was preceded by a small and unannounced gig at The Newlands Tavern in Peckham, London. He toured through April and May 1975, mostly supporting the Mahavishnu Orchestra, retaining Max Middleton on keyboards but with a new rhythm section of bassist Wilbur Bascomb and noted session drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, who interestingly was also associated with Hummingbird.

In a May 1975 show in Cleveland at the Music Hall, he became frustrated with an early version of a talk box he used on his arrangement of the Beatles' "She's a Woman", and after breaking a string, tossed his legendary Yardbirds-era Fender Stratocaster guitar off the stage. He did the same with the talk box and finished the show playing a Les Paul guitar without the box. During this tour he performed at Yuya Uchida's "World Rock Festival", playing eight songs with Purdie. In addition, he performed a guitar and drum instrumental with Johnny Yoshinaga and, at the end of the festival, joined in a live jam with bassist Felix Pappalardi of Mountain and vocalist Akira "Joe" Yamanaka from the Flower Travellin' Band. Only his set with Purdie was recorded and released.

He returned to the studio and recorded Wired (1976), which paired ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra drummer and composer Narada Michael Walden and keyboardist Jan Hammer. The album used a jazz-rock fusion style, which sounded similar to the work of his two collaborators. To promote the album, Beck joined forces with the Jan Hammer Group, playing a show supporting Alvin Lee at The Roundhouse in May 1976, before embarking on a seven-month-long world tour. This resulted in the live album Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live (1977).

At this point, Beck was a tax exile and took up residency in the US, remaining there until his return to the UK in the autumn of 1977. In the spring of 1978, he began rehearsing with ex-Return to Forever bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Gerry Brown towards a projected appearance at the Knebworth Festival, but this was cancelled after Brown dropped out. Beck toured Japan for three weeks in November 1978 with an ad hoc group consisting of Clarke and newcomers Tony Hymas (keyboards) and Simon Phillips (drums).

Work then began on a new studio album at the Who's Ramport Studios in London and continued sporadically throughout 1979, resulting in There & Back in June 1980. It featured three tracks composed and recorded with Jan Hammer, while five were written with Hymas. Stanley Clarke was replaced by Mo Foster on bass, both on the album and the subsequent tours. Its release was followed by extensive touring in the US, Japan, and the UK.

Collaboration years: 1980s and 1990s
In 1981, Beck made a series of historic live appearances with his Yardbirds predecessor Eric Clapton at the Amnesty International-sponsored benefit concerts dubbed The Secret Policeman's Other Ball shows. In that show, he appeared with Clapton on "Crossroads", "Further on Up the Road", and his arrangement of Stevie Wonder's "Cause We've Ended As Lovers". Beck also featured prominently in an all-star band finale performance of "I Shall Be Released" with Clapton, Sting, Phil Collins, Donovan, and Bob Geldof. Beck's contributions were seen and heard in the resulting album and film, both of which achieved worldwide success in 1982. Another benefit show, the ARMS Concert for multiple sclerosis, featured a jam with Beck, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page, during which they performed "Tulsa Time" and "Layla".

In 1985, Beck released Flash, featuring a variety of vocalists, but most notably former bandmate Rod Stewart on a rendition of Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready". The aforementioned cover song was also released as a single which went on to become a hit. A video was made for the track and the clip achieved heavy rotation on MTV. The two also played a few dates together during this time but a full tour in tandem never materialized. At Stewart's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, Beck gave the induction speech saying of Stewart, "We have a love hate relationship—he loves me and I hate him." During this time, Beck made several guest appearances with other performers, including one in the 1988 movie Twins, where he played guitar with singer Nicolette Larson.

After a four-year break he made a return to instrumental music with the 1989 album Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop, the first album to feature Beck as a fingerstyle guitarist, leaving the plectrum playing style. It was only his third album to be released in the 1980s. Much of Beck's sparse and sporadic recording schedule was due in part to a long battle with tinnitus.

In the 1990s, Beck had a higher musical output. He contributed to Jon Bon Jovi's solo debut album Blaze of Glory in 1990, playing the main solo of the album's title song, which was also the theme song to the movie Young Guns II. The same year, he was a featured performer on Hans Zimmer's score for the film Days of Thunder. He played lead guitar on Roger Waters' 1992 concept album Amused to Death, and on the 1993 albums The Red Shoes by Kate Bush and Love Scenes by Beverley Craven. He recorded the 1992 instrumental soundtrack album Frankie's House, as well as Crazy Legs (1993), a tribute album to 1950s rockabilly group Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps and their influential guitarist Cliff Gallup.

Beck rehearsed with Guns N' Roses for their concert in Paris in 1992, but did not play in the actual concert due to ear damage caused by a Matt Sorum cymbal crash, causing Beck to become temporarily deaf. The Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. In Beck's acceptance speech, he humorously noted that "Someone told me I should be proud tonight... But I'm not, because they kicked me out... They did... Fuck them!

He accompanied Paul Rodgers of Bad Company on the album Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters in 1993.

Solo career renewal: 1999 to 2020s
Beck's next release was in 1999, his first foray into guitar-based electronica, Who Else!. The album was Beck's first collaboration with a female instrumentalist, Jennifer Batten, in touring, writing, and recording as well as the first time he had worked with another guitarist on his own material since playing in the Yardbirds. Beck continued to work with Batten through the post-release tour of You Had It Coming in 2001.

Beck won his third Grammy Award, this one for 'Best Rock Instrumental Performance' for the track "Dirty Mind" from You Had It Coming (2000). The song "Plan B" from the 2003 release Jeff, earned Beck his fourth Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, and was proof that the new electro-guitar style he used for the two earlier albums would continue to dominate. Beck was the opening act for B.B. King in the summer of 2003 and appeared at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2004. Additionally, in 2004, Beck was featured on the song "54-46 Was My Number" by Toots and the Maytals as part of the album True Love which won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.

In 2007, he accompanied Kelly Clarkson for her cover of Patty Griffin's "Up to the Mountain", during the Idol Gives Back episode of American Idol. The performance was recorded live and afterward, was immediately released for sale. In the same year, he appeared once again at Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival, performing with Vinnie Colaiuta, Jason Rebello, and then 21-year-old bassist Tal Wilkenfeld.

Beck announced a world tour in early 2009 and remained faithful to the same lineup of musicians as in his tour two years before, playing and recording at Ronnie Scott's in London to a sold-out audience. Beck played on the song "Black Cloud" on the 2009 Morrissey album Years of Refusal and later that year, Harvey Goldsmith became Beck's manager. Beck was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist on 4 April 2009; the award was presented by Jimmy Page. Beck performed "Train Kept A-Rollin'" along with Page, Ronnie Wood, Joe Perry, Flea, and Metallica members James Hetfield, Robert Trujillo, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Jason Newsted. On 4 July 2009, David Gilmour joined Beck onstage at the Albert Hall. Beck and Gilmour traded solos on "Jerusalem" and closed the show with "Hi Ho Silver Lining".

Beck's album, Emotion & Commotion, was released in April 2010. It features a mixture of original songs and covers such as "Over the Rainbow", Puccini's Nessun Dorma and Benjamin Britten's Corpus Christi Carol, interpreted through Beck's "uniquely sensitive touch". Joss Stone and Imelda May provided some of the guest vocals. Two tracks from Emotion & Commotion won Grammy Awards in 2011: "Nessun Dorma" won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, and "Hammerhead" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Beck collaborated on "Imagine" for the 2010 Herbie Hancock album, The Imagine Project along with Seal, P!nk, India.Arie, Konono N°1, Oumou Sangare and others and received a third Grammy in 2011 for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for the track.

Beck's 2010 World Tour band featured Grammy-winning musician Narada Michael Walden on drums, Rhonda Smith on bass, and Jason Rebello on keyboards. He released a live album titled Live and Exclusive from the Grammy Museum on 25 October 2010. On 9 June 2010 Beck with Imelda May's band recorded a DVD named Rock 'n' Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul), of a concert at the Iridium in NYC featuring several Les Paul songs (with Ms. May doing the Mary Ford vocals).

In 2011, Beck received two honorary degrees from British universities. On 18 July 2011, he was honoured with a fellowship from University of the Arts London in recognition of his "outstanding contribution to the field of Music". On 21 July 2011 Beck was also presented with an honorary doctorate from University of Sussex (by Sanjeev Bhaskar, the university's chancellor), stating the honour acknowledged "an outstanding musical career and celebrated the relationship between the university and the Brighton Institute of Modern Music (BIMM)".

In 2013, it was announced that he would be performing on Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson's solo album (alongside Beach Boys Al Jardine and David Marks) on Capitol Records. On 20 June, Wilson's website announced that the material might be split into three albums; one of new pop songs, another of mostly instrumental tracks with Beck, and another of interwoven tracks dubbed "the suite". Beck also accompanied Wilson (along with Jardine and Marks) on an eighteen date fall 2013 tour which started in late September and ended in late October (prior to which, Beck made clear he regarded sharing the stage with Wilson as a complete honour for him).

In 2014, to mark the beginning of Jeff's World Tour in Japan, a three-track CD titled Yosogai was released on 5 April; the album had yet to be finalized at the time of the tour. In November 2014 he accompanied Joss Stone at The Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.

For the 2016 album Loud Hailer, Beck teamed up with Carmen Vandenberg and Rosie Bones of Bones UK. The album protests the state of the world, with titles ranging from Thugs' Club via Scared for the Children to O.I.L. (Can't Get Enough of That Sticky).

On 16 April 2020, Beck released a new single, in which Beck collaborated with Johnny Depp to record John Lennon's song "Isolation", explaining that this was a first record release from an ongoing musical collaboration between the two men. They had been recording music together for some time, with the track being produced the year before, but Beck explained that the decision to release it was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns: "We weren't expecting to release it so soon but given all the hard days and true 'isolation' that people are going through in these challenging times, we decided now might be the right time to let you all hear it".

On 2 June 2022, Beck appeared in the news after Depp appeared with him at The Sage in Gateshead, following his victory in the high-profile defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard. Both also had performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London earlier in the week. Beck and Depp's first single from their collaborative album 18, titled "This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr", was announced on 10 June 2022.

Beck is featured on two tracks (the title track and "A Thousand Shades") from Ozzy Osbourne's album Patient Number 9, which was released on 24 June 2022. On Dion DiMucci's 2020 album Blues with Friends he played lead guitar on "Can't Start Over Again."

Beck's final recording before his death was his contribution to a supergroup recording of "Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero" to support the Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America.

Style and influence

Described by Rolling Stone magazine as "one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock", Beck cited his major influences as Les Paul, the Shadows, Cliff Gallup, Ravi Shankar, Roy Buchanan, Chet Atkins, Django Reinhardt, Steve Cropper and Lonnie Mack. Beck said John McLaughlin "has given us so many different facets of the guitar and introduced thousands of us to world music, by blending Indian music with jazz and classical. I'd say he was the best guitarist alive." McLaughlin also praised Beck, calling Beck his favorite progressive rock artist.

According to musicologist and historian Bob Gulla, Beck is credited for popularising the use of audio feedback and distortion on guitar. During his short time with the Yardbirds, Beck's experimentation with feedback, distortion, and "fuzz" tone "pushed the band into directions that would open the door for psychedelic rock" while "jolt[ing] British rock forward", according to Gulla. While Beck was not the first rock guitarist to experiment with electronic distortion, he nonetheless helped to redefine the sound and role of the electric guitar in rock music. His use of a commercial fuzz box for the Yardbirds' "Heart Full of Soul" (June 1965) has been cited as perhaps the first significant use of the effect. Beck's work with the Yardbirds and the Jeff Beck Group's 1968 album Truth were seminal influences on heavy metal music, which emerged in full force in the early 1970s. Gulla identifies one of Beck's characteristic traits to be his sense of pitch, particularly in exercising the whammy bar to create sounds ranging from "nose-diving bombs to subtle, perfectly pitched harmonic melodies".

According to guitarist and author Jack Wilkins, Beck is regarded alongside Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton as one of his generation's greatest guitarists, receiving praise for his technical skill and versatile playing. Stephen Thomas Erlewine finds him to be "as innovative as Jimmy Page, as tasteful as Eric Clapton, and nearly as visionary as Jimi Hendrix", although unable to achieve their mainstream success, "primarily because of the haphazard way he approached his career" while often lacking a star singer to help make his music more accessible. On his recorded output by 1991, Erlewine remarked that "never has such a gifted musician had such a spotty discography", believing Beck had largely released "remarkably uneven" solo records and only "a few terrific albums". In Christgau's Record Guide (1981), Robert Christgau essentialised Beck as "a technician" and questioned his ability to "improvise long lines, or jazz it up with a modicum of delicacy, or for that matter get funky", although he later observed a "customary focus, loyalty, and consistency of taste".

In 2015, Beck was ranked No. 5 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists". In an accompanying essay, guitarist Mike Campbell applauded Beck for his "brilliant technique" and "personality" in his playing, including a sense of humour, expressed through the growl of his wah-wah effects. Campbell also credited Beck with expanding the boundaries of the blues, particularly in his two collaborations with Stewart.

Technique and equipment
From approximately the early 1990s, Beck's principal guitar was the Fender Stratocaster, which he used in various iterations throughout his career. Beck stopped the regular use of a guitar pick in the 1980s. He produced a wide variety of sounds by using his thumb to pluck the guitar strings, his ring finger on the volume knob, and his little finger on the vibrato bar. By plucking a string and then 'fading in' the sound with the volume knob he created a unique sound that can resemble a human voice, among other effects. He frequently used wah-wah pedals and slides both live and in the studio. Eric Clapton once said, "With Jeff, it's all in his hands".

Along with Stratocasters, Beck occasionally played Fender Telecaster and Gibson Les Paul models as well. His amplifiers were primarily Fender and Marshall. In his earlier days with the Yardbirds, Beck also used a 1954 Fender Esquire guitar (now owned by Seymour W. Duncan and housed in the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) through Vox AC30s. He also played through a variety of fuzz pedals and echo units along with this set-up and used the Pro Co RAT distortion pedal. The pickup is based on a Gibson pickup rewound by Duncan and used in a salvaged Telecaster dubbed the "Tele-Gib" which he had constructed as a gift to Beck. Scott Morgan of the Rationals, who at one point shared a dressing room with the Yardbirds, recalls how Beck amplified his lead guitar through a Vox Super Beatle while using banjo strings for the unwound G string on his guitar because "they didn't make sets with an unwound G at that point."

In 1987, Beck asked that the newly opened Fender Custom Shop make a stratocaster guitar to his specifications. The resulting guitar became known for its graffiti yellow colour, to match Beck's 1932 Ford Hot Rod. Based on these specifications, Fender released the "Strat Plus", as Beck had vetoed the use of his name to market that model. However, in 1991, Fender did release a Jeff Beck Stratocaster with some of those same features, which as of 2024 has been on the market continuously, with updates at various times, and particularly significant changes made in 2001. An additional Jeff Beck Custom Shop stratocaster was released in 2004.

Gibson released the limited edition Jeff Beck 1954 Les Paul Oxblood model in two different finishes in 2009.

Long term collaborators

 * The graph below includes musicians who've worked on multiple occasions (concerts or published music) with Jeff Beck or for a long time continuously, been on more than one album with him, or have done at least quite a substantial part of a tour with him. Overlap between personnel and albums on this graph does not always mean that that personnel was present on that album as some parallel projects overlapped in time.

Personal life and death
From 1963 to 1967, Beck was married to Patricia Brown. However, this relationship had deteriorated by the time Beck joined the Yardbirds. During the Yardbirds years, Beck began a relationship with American model and actress Mary Hughes, whom he moved in with when his relationship with the Yardbirds broke down. By 1968, Beck had entered what would be a nearly 18-year relationship with the English model Celia Hammond, whose portrait appears on the album cover of Truth. In 2005, he married Sandra Cash. He had no children.

At the time of his death, Beck lived in a Grade II-listed building called Riverhall in the civil parish of Wadhurst, East Sussex. Beck became a vegetarian in 1969 and was a patron of the Folly Wildlife Rescue Trust. He also had an interest in classic Ford hot rods, performing much of the work on the exteriors and engines of the cars by himself.

Beck died from a bacterial meningitis infection at a hospital near Riverhall on 10 January 2023, at the age of 78. Within minutes of his death announcement, musicians and friends began paying tribute; Jimmy Page wrote that "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. His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless. Jeff I will miss you along with your millions of fans". Mick Jagger expressed his condolences, writing "With the death of Jeff Beck we have lost a wonderful man and one of the greatest guitar players in the world. We will all miss him so much." Ronnie Wood, a former bandmate of Beck's, stated "Now Jeff has gone, I feel like one of my band of brothers has left this world, and I'm going to dearly miss him." Beck's funeral service took place at St Mary's Church in Beddington, Sutton on 3 February. Mourners included Johnny Depp, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Tom Jones, Ronnie Wood, David Gilmour, Bob Geldof, Robert Plant, and Chrissie Hynde. Jimmy Page delivered a eulogy referring to Jeff Beck as "the quiet chief". A private burial, with only Beck's widow Sandra, the couple's dog, and Johnny Depp in attendance, followed at Riverhall.

Awards
Beck was the winner of eight Grammy awards, the first being Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "Escape" from the album Flash at the 1986 Grammys.

Grammy Awards
Information is taken from Grammy.com.
 * 1977 – Best Pop Instrumental Performance – Wired – (nominee)
 * 1986 – Best Rock Instrumental Performance – "Escape" – (winner)
 * 1990 – Best Rock Instrumental Performance – Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop with Terry Bozzio & Tony Hymas – (winner)
 * 1993 – Best Rock Instrumental Performance – "Hound Dog" (track) – (nominee)
 * 1994 – Best Rock Instrumental Performance – "Hi-Heel Sneakers" (track) – (nominee)
 * 2000 – Best Pop Instrumental Performance – "A Day in the Life" (track) – (nominee)
 * 2000 – Best Rock Instrumental Performance – "What Mama Said" (track) – (nominee)
 * 2002 – Best Rock Instrumental Performance – "Dirty Mind" – (winner)
 * 2004 – Best Rock Instrumental Performance – "Plan B" – (winner)
 * 2010 – Best Rock Instrumental Performance – "A Day in the Life" – (winner)
 * 2011 – Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals – "Imagine" – (winner)
 * 2011 – Best Pop Instrumental Performance – "Nessun Dorma" – (winner)
 * 2011 – Best Rock Instrumental Performance – "Hammerhead" – (winner)
 * 2011 – Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals – "I Put a Spell on You" – (nominee)
 * 2011 – Best Rock Album – Emotion & Commotion – (nominee)
 * 2012 – Best Rock Album – Rock 'N' Roll Party Honoring Les Paul – (nominee)
 * 2023 – Best Rock Performance – Patient Number 9 – (nominee)

Studio albums

 * Truth (1968)
 * Beck-Ola (1969) – by the Jeff Beck Group
 * Rough and Ready (1971) – by the Jeff Beck Group
 * Jeff Beck Group (1972) – by the Jeff Beck Group
 * Blow by Blow (1975)
 * Wired (1976)
 * There & Back (1980)
 * Flash (1985)
 * Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop (1989)
 * Who Else! (1999)
 * You Had It Coming (2001)
 * Jeff (2003)
 * Emotion & Commotion (2010)
 * Loud Hailer (2016)

Collaborative albums

 * Beck, Bogert & Appice (1973) – by Beck, Bogert & Appice
 * Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live (1977)
 * Frankie's House (1992) – with Jed Leiber
 * Crazy Legs (1993) – with the Big Town Playboys
 * 18 (2022) – with Johnny Depp

title: Jeff Beck


text:
Pheromone

A pheromone is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavior of the receiving individuals. There are alarm pheromones, food trail pheromones, sex pheromones, and many others that affect behavior or physiology. Pheromones are used by many organisms, from basic unicellular prokaryotes to complex multicellular eukaryotes. Their use among insects has been particularly well documented. In addition, some vertebrates, plants and ciliates communicate by using pheromones. The ecological functions and evolution of pheromones are a major topic of research in the field of chemical ecology.

Background
The portmanteau word "pheromone" was coined by Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher in 1959, based on the Greek φέρω phérō ('I carry') and ὁρμων hórmōn ('stimulating'). Pheromones are also sometimes classified as ecto-hormones. They were researched earlier by various scientists, including Jean-Henri Fabre, Joseph A. Lintner, Adolf Butenandt, and ethologist Karl von Frisch who called them various names, like for instance "alarm substances". These chemical messengers are transported outside of the body and affect neurocircuits, including the autonomous nervous system with hormone or cytokine mediated physiological changes, inflammatory signaling, immune system changes and/or behavioral change in the recipient. They proposed the term to describe chemical signals from conspecifics that elicit innate behaviors soon after the German biochemist Adolf Butenandt had characterized the first such chemical, bombykol, a chemically well-characterized pheromone released by the female silkworm to attract mates.

Aggregation
Aggregation pheromones function in mate choice, overcoming host resistance by mass attack, and defense against predators. A group of individuals at one location is referred to as an aggregation, whether consisting of one sex or both sexes. Male-produced sex attractants have been called aggregation pheromones, because they usually result in the arrival of both sexes at a calling site and increase the density of conspecifics surrounding the pheromone source. Most sex pheromones are produced by the females; only a small percentage of sex attractants are produced by males. Aggregation pheromones have been found in members of the Coleoptera, Collembola, Diptera, Hemiptera, Dictyoptera, and Orthoptera. In recent decades, aggregation pheromones have proven useful in the management of many pests, such as the boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis), the pea and bean weevil (Sitona lineatus, and stored product weevils (e.g. Sitophilus zeamais, Sitophilus granarius, and Sitophilus oryzae). Aggregation pheromones are among the most ecologically selective pest suppression methods. They are non-toxic and effective at very low concentrations.

Alarm
Some species release a volatile substance when attacked by a predator that can trigger flight (in aphids) or aggression (in ants, bees, termites, and wasps)    in members of the same species. For example, Vespula squamosa use alarm pheromones to alert others to a threat. In Polistes exclamans, alarm pheromones are also used as an alert to incoming predators. Pheromones also exist in plants: Certain plants emit alarm pheromones when grazed upon, resulting in tannin production in neighboring plants. These tannins make the plants less appetizing to herbivores.

An alarm pheromone has been documented in a mammalian species. Alarmed pronghorn, Antilocapra americana flair their white rump hair and exposes two highly odoriferous glands that releases a compound described having the odor "reminiscent of buttered popcorn". This sends a message to other pronghorns by both sight and smell about a present danger. This scent has been observed by humans 20 to 30 meters downwind from alarmed animals. The major odour compound identified from this gland is 2-pyrrolidinone.

Epideictic
Epideictic pheromones are different from territory pheromones, when it comes to insects. Fabre observed and noted how "females who lay their eggs in these fruits deposit these mysterious substances in the vicinity of their clutch to signal to other females of the same species they should clutch elsewhere." It may be helpful to note that the word epideictic, having to do with display or show (from the Greek 'deixis'), has a different but related meaning in rhetoric, the human art of persuasion by means of words.

Territorial
Laid down in the environment, territorial pheromones mark the boundaries and identity of an organism's territory. Cats and dogs deposit these pheromones by urinating on landmarks that mark the perimeter of the claimed territory. In social seabirds, the preen gland is used to mark nests, nuptial gifts, and territory boundaries with behavior formerly described as 'displacement activity'.

Trail
Social insects commonly use trail pheromones. For example, ants mark their paths with pheromones consisting of volatile hydrocarbons. Certain ants lay down an initial trail of pheromones as they return to the nest with food. This trail attracts other ants and serves as a guide. As long as the food source remains available, visiting ants will continuously renew the pheromone trail. The pheromone requires continuous renewal because it evaporates quickly. When the food supply begins to dwindle, the trail-making ceases. Pharaoh ants (Monomorium pharaonis) mark trails that no longer lead to food with a repellent pheromone, which causes avoidance behaviour in ants. Repellent trail markers may help ants to undertake more efficient collective exploration. The army ant Eciton burchellii provides an example of using pheromones to mark and maintain foraging paths. When species of wasps such as Polybia sericea found new nests, they use pheromones to lead the rest of the colony to the new nesting site.

Gregarious caterpillars, such as the forest tent caterpillar, lay down pheromone trails that are used to achieve group movement.

Sex
In animals, sex pheromones indicate the availability of the female for breeding. Male animals may also emit pheromones that convey information about their species and genotype.

At the microscopic level, a number of bacterial species (e.g. Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Bacillus cereus) release specific chemicals into the surrounding media to induce the "competent" state in neighboring bacteria. Competence is a physiological state that allows bacterial cells to take up DNA from other cells and incorporate this DNA into their own genome, a sexual process called transformation.

Among eukaryotic microorganisms, pheromones promote sexual interaction in numerous species. These species include the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the filamentous fungi Neurospora crassa and Mucor mucedo, the water mold Achlya ambisexualis, the aquatic fungus Allomyces macrogynus, the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum, the ciliate protozoan Blepharisma japonicum and the multicellular green algae Volvox carteri. In addition, male copepods can follow a three-dimensional pheromone trail left by a swimming female, and male gametes of many animals use a pheromone to help find a female gamete for fertilization.

Many well-studied insect species, such as the ant Leptothorax acervorum, the moths Helicoverpa zea and Agrotis ipsilon, the bee Xylocopa sonorina, the frog Pseudophryne bibronii, and the butterfly Edith's checkerspot release sex pheromones to attract a mate, and some lepidopterans (moths and butterflies) can detect a potential mate from as far away as 10 km. Some insects, such as ghost moths, use pheromones during lek mating. Traps containing pheromones are used by farmers to detect and monitor insect populations in orchards. In addition, Colias eurytheme butterflies release pheromones, an olfactory cue important for mate selection. In mealworm beetles, Tenebrio molitor, the female preference of pheromones is dependent on the nutritional condition of the males.

The effect of Hz-2V virus infection on the reproductive physiology and behavior of female Helicoverpa zea moths is that in the absence of males they exhibited calling behavior and called as often but for shorter periods on average than control females. Even after these contacts virus-infected females made many frequent contacts with males and continued to call; they were found to produce five to seven times more pheromone and attracted twice as many males as did control females in flight tunnel experiments.

Pheromones are also utilized by bee and wasp species. Some pheromones can be used to suppress the sexual behavior of other individuals allowing for a reproductive monopoly – the wasp R. marginata uses this. With regard to the Bombus hyperboreus species, males, otherwise known as drones, patrol circuits of scent marks (pheromones) to find queens. In particular, pheromones for the Bombus hyperboreus, include octadecenol, 2,3-dihydro-6-transfarnesol, citronellol, and geranylcitronellol.

Sea urchins release pheromones into the surrounding water, sending a chemical message that triggers other urchins in the colony to eject their sex cells simultaneously.

In plants, some homosporous ferns release a chemical called antheridiogen, which affects sex expression. This is very similar to pheromones.

Other
This classification, based on the effects on behavior, remains artificial. Pheromones fill many additional functions.
 * Nasonov pheromones (worker bees)
 * Royal pheromones (bees)
 * Calming (appeasement) pheromones (mammals)
 * Necromones, given off by a deceased and decomposing organism; consisting of oleic and linoleic acids, they allow crustaceans and hexapods to identify the presence of dead conspecifics.
 * Suckling: TAA is present in rabbit milk and seems to play a role of pheromone inducing suckling in the newborn rabbit.

Releaser
Releaser pheromones are pheromones that cause an alteration in the behavior of the recipient. For example, some organisms use powerful attractant molecules to attract mates from a distance of two miles or more. In general, this type of pheromone elicits a rapid response, but is quickly degraded. In contrast, a primer pheromone has a slower onset and a longer duration. For example, rabbit (mothers) release mammary pheromones that trigger immediate nursing behavior by their babies.

Primer
Primer pheromones trigger a change of developmental events (in which they differ from all the other pheromones, which trigger a change in behavior). They were first described in Schistocerca gregaria by Maud Norris in 1954.

Signal
Signal pheromones cause short-term changes, such as the neurotransmitter release that activates a response. For instance, GnRH molecule functions as a neurotransmitter in rats to elicit lordosis behavior.

In the olfactory epithelium
The human trace amine-associated receptors are a group of six G protein-coupled receptors (i.e., TAAR1, TAAR2, TAAR5, TAAR6, TAAR8, and TAAR9) that – with exception for TAAR1 – are expressed in the human olfactory epithelium. In humans and other animals, TAARs in the olfactory epithelium function as olfactory receptors that detect volatile amine odorants, including certain pheromones; these TAARs putatively function as a class of pheromone receptors involved in the olfactive detection of social cues.

A review of studies involving non-human animals indicated that TAARs in the olfactory epithelium can mediate attractive or aversive behavioral responses to a receptor agonist. This review also noted that the behavioral response evoked by a TAAR can vary across species (e.g., TAAR5 mediates attraction to trimethylamine in mice and aversion to trimethylamine in rats). In humans, hTAAR5 presumably mediates aversion to trimethylamine, which is known to act as an hTAAR5 agonist and to possess a foul, fishy odor that is aversive to humans; however, hTAAR5 is not the only olfactory receptor that is responsible for trimethylamine olfaction in humans. hTAAR5-mediated trimethylamine aversion has not been examined in published research.

In the vomeronasal organ
In reptiles, amphibia and non-primate mammals pheromones are detected by regular olfactory membranes, and also by the vomeronasal organ (VNO), or Jacobson's organ, which lies at the base of the nasal septum between the nose and mouth and is the first stage of the accessory olfactory system. While the VNO is present in most amphibia, reptiles, and non-primate mammals, it is absent in birds, adult catarrhine monkeys (downward facing nostrils, as opposed to sideways), and apes. An active role for the human VNO in the detection of pheromones is disputed; while it is clearly present in the fetus it appears to be atrophied, shrunk or completely absent in adults. Three distinct families of vomeronasal receptors, putatively pheromone sensing, have been identified in the vomeronasal organ named V1Rs, V2Rs, and V3Rs. All are G protein-coupled receptors but are only distantly related to the receptors of the main olfactory system, highlighting their different role.

Evolution
Olfactory processing of chemical signals like pheromones exists in all animal phyla and is thus the oldest of the senses. It has been suggested that it serves survival by generating appropriate behavioral responses to the signals of threat, sex and dominance status among members of the same species.

Furthermore, it has been suggested that in the evolution of unicellular prokaryotes to multicellular eukaryotes, primordial pheromone signaling between individuals may have evolved to paracrine and endocrine signaling within individual organisms.

Some authors assume that approach-avoidance reactions in animals, elicited by chemical cues, form the phylogenetic basis for the experience of emotions in humans.

Avoidance of inbreeding
Mice can distinguish close relatives from more distantly related individuals on the basis of scent signals, which enables them to avoid mating with close relatives and minimizes deleterious inbreeding.

In addition to mice, two species of bumblebee, in particular Bombus bifarius and Bombus frigidus, have been observed to use pheromones as a means of kin recognition to avoid inbreeding. For example, B. bifarius males display "patrolling" behavior in which they mark specific paths outside their nests with pheromones and subsequently "patrol" these paths. Unrelated reproductive females are attracted to the pheromones deposited by males on these paths, and males that encounter these females while patrolling can mate with them. Other bees of the Bombus species are found to emit pheromones as precopulatory signals, such as Bombus lapidarius.

Pheromone trapping
Pheromones of certain pest insect species, such as the Japanese beetle, acrobat ant, and the spongy moth, can be used to trap the respective insect for monitoring purposes, to control the population by creating confusion, to disrupt mating, and to prevent further egg laying.

Animal husbandry
Pheromones are used in the detection of oestrus in sows. Boar pheromones are sprayed into the sty, and those sows that exhibit sexual arousal are known to be currently available for breeding.

Human sex pheromone controversies
While humans are highly dependent upon visual cues, when in close proximity smells also play a role in sociosexual behaviors. An inherent difficulty in studying human pheromones is the need for cleanliness and odorlessness in human participants. Though various researchers have investigated the possibility of their existence, no pheromonal substance has ever been demonstrated to directly influence human behavior in a peer reviewed study. Experiments have focused on three classes of possible human pheromones: axillary steroids, vaginal aliphatic acids, and stimulators of the vomeronasal organ, including this 2018 study claiming pheromones affect men's sexual cognition.

Axillary steroids
Axillary steroids are produced by the testes, ovaries, apocrine glands, and adrenal glands. These chemicals are not biologically active until puberty when sex steroids influence their activity. The change in activity during puberty suggest that humans may communicate through odors. Several axillary steroids have been described as possible human pheromones: androstadienol, androstadienone, androstenol, androstenone, and androsterone.
 * Androstenol is the putative female pheromone. In a 1978 study by Kirk-Smith, people wearing surgical masks treated with androstenol or untreated were shown pictures of people, animals and buildings and asked to rate the pictures on attractiveness. Individuals with their masks treated with androstenol rated their photographs as being "warmer" and "more friendly". The best-known case study involves the synchronization of menstrual cycles among women based on unconscious odor cues, the McClintock effect, named after the primary investigator, Martha McClintock, of the University of Chicago. A group of women were exposed to a whiff of perspiration from other women. Depending on the time in the month the sweat was collected (before, during, or after ovulation) there was an association with the recipient woman's menstrual cycle to speed up or slow down. The 1971 study proposed two types of pheromone involved: "One, produced prior to ovulation, shortens the ovarian cycle; and the second, produced just at ovulation, lengthens the cycle". However, recent studies and reviews of the methodology have called the validity of her results and existence of menstrual synchronization into question.
 * Androstenone is postulated to be secreted only by males as an attractant for women, and thought to be a positive effector for their mood. It seems to have different effects on women, depending on where a female is in her menstrual cycle, with the highest sensitivity to it during ovulation. In 1983, study participants exposed to androstenone were shown to undergo changes in skin conductance. Androstenone has been found to be perceived as more pleasant to women during their time of ovulation.
 * Androstadienone seems to affect the limbic system and causes a positive reaction in women, improving mood. Responses to androstadienone depend on the individual and the environment they are in. Androstadienone negatively influences the perception of pain in women. Women tend to react positively after androstadienone presentation, while men react more negatively. In an experiment by Hummer and McClintock, androstadienone or a control odor was put on the upper lips of fifty males and females and they were tested for four effects of the pheromone: 1) automatic attention towards positive and negative facial expressions, 2) the strength of cognitive and emotional information as distractors in a simple reaction time task, 3) relative attention to social and nonsocial stimuli (i.e. neutral faces), and 4) mood and attentiveness in the absence of social interaction. Those treated with androstadienone drew more attention to towards emotional facial expressions and emotional words but no increased attention to neutral faces. These data suggest that androstadienone may increase attention to emotional information causing the individual to feel more focused. It is thought that androstadienone modulates on how the mind attends and processes information.

While it may be expected on evolutionary grounds that humans have pheromones, these three molecules have yet to be rigorously proven to act as such. Research in this field has suffered from small sample sizes, publication bias, false positives, and poor methodology.

Vaginal aliphatic acids
A class of aliphatic acids (volatile fatty acids as a kind of carboxylic acid) was found in female rhesus monkeys that produced six types in the vaginal fluids. The combination of these acids is referred to as "copulins". One of the acids, acetic acid, was found in all of the sampled female's vaginal fluid. Even in humans, one-third of women have all six types of copulins, which increase in quantity before ovulation. Copulins are used to signal ovulation; however, as human ovulation is concealed it is thought that they may be used for reasons other than sexual communication.

Stimulators of the vomeronasal organ
The human vomeronasal organ has epithelia that may be able to serve as a chemical sensory organ; however, the genes that encode the VNO receptors are nonfunctional pseudogenes in humans. Also, while there are sensory neurons in the human VNO there seem to be no connections between the VNO and the central nervous system. The associated olfactory bulb is present in the fetus, but regresses and vanishes in the adult brain. There have been some reports that the human VNO does function, but only responds to hormones in a "sex-specific manner". There also have been pheromone receptor genes found in olfactory mucosa. There have been no experiments that compare people lacking the VNO, and people that have it. It is disputed on whether the chemicals are reaching the brain through the VNO or other tissues.

In 2006, it was shown that a second mouse receptor sub-class is found in the olfactory epithelium. Called the trace amine-associated receptors (TAAR), some are activated by volatile amines found in mouse urine, including one putative mouse pheromone. Orthologous receptors exist in humans providing, the authors propose, evidence for a mechanism of human pheromone detection.

Although there are disputes about the mechanisms by which pheromones function, there is evidence that pheromones do affect humans. Despite this evidence, it has not been conclusively shown that humans have functional pheromones. Those experiments suggesting that certain pheromones have a positive effect on humans are countered by others indicating they have no effect whatsoever.

A possible theory being studied now is that these axillary odors are being used to provide information about the immune system. Milinski and colleagues found that the artificial odors that people chose are determined in part by their major histocompatibility complexes (MHC) combination. Information about an individual's immune system could be used as a way of "sexual selection" so that the female could obtain good genes for her offspring. Claus Wedekind and colleagues found that both men and women prefer the axillary odors of people whose MHC is different from their own.

Some body spray advertisers claim that their products contain human sexual pheromones that act as an aphrodisiac. Despite these claims, no pheromonal substance has ever been demonstrated to directly influence human behavior in a peer reviewed study. Thus, the role of pheromones in human behavior remains speculative and controversial.

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title: Pheromone