His solo career has been spotty overall, but his groundbreaking work with The Yardbirds is deservedly given classic status in my view. The original Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, and a fine if obscure drummer named Mickey Waller was great and more influential than they're given credit for- for instance, they set the template for Led Zeppelin, and their first album was mostly great. Beck had a lot of range: he played blues, folk, classical guitar, psychedelia, proto-metal, jazz- the guy was capable at any style it seemed, and not a jack of all trades, master of few either. Highly innovative and influential.