Hot Wired Guitar: The Life of Jeff Beck by Martin Power

Author:Martin Power [Power, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Music, Individual Composer & Musician
ISBN: 9780857128102
Google: xjwDAwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B007IJHM9S
Publisher: Omnibus Press
Published: 2012-03-07T11:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

Hammer Time

In a career already defined by several high-stakes ventures, Jeff Beck’s decision to reposition his talents in the jazz-rock/fusion market was his most audacious gamble yet. By his own admission, Beck was no “jazzer”, having come to that musical form via a solid, albeit extremely experimental blues, pop and rock background. More, aside from several piano lessons as a child – most of which ended in boredom and frustration for both student and teacher – he could claim no great credits in advanced compositional theory or major knowledge of harmonic intervals and stacked fourths. But as Blow By Blow made clear, Jeff could probably find a tune in a dustbin, his instinctive gift for lyrical phrasing and proven ability to adapt to almost any genre more important than recognising a diatonic scale when he heard it. “The audience doesn’t clap because you’ve hit every little dot,” Beck said. “They clap because they like what they hear.”

With its Top Five US chart placing, Blow By Blow had proved him spectacularly right on this point, the album achieving gold status within months and eventually selling over two million copies worldwide. Its success also gave Beck critical distance from past associations, placing him a healthy acre or two from the likes of old rivals such as Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, while also establishing a new stall from which to sell his more refined, but still user-friendly goods. “I want to do stuff that’s not too far from the audience because that’s not productive,” he told Creem in 1975. “You can be great, but you can still miss the boat by a mile. Then when you die, everyone picks up what you’ve done, and that’s just totally frustrating. To me, the best formula is when what you’re playing isn’t beneath you, but at the same time keeps both you and the audience on its toes. Most performers turn things out to be consumed and digested. Then, the audience comes back for more and more until they get indigestion. That’s overindulgence and I don’t want that.” When it came to following up Blow By Blow, Beck’s solution to such ‘indigestion’ was to stick to his guns but ramp up the firepower, providing an album still heavy on funk and jazz grooves but with a harder-edged, more overdriven sound.

Recording of Jeff’s second solo disc began in October 1975 at London’s AIR and Trident studios. George Martin returned as producer, but the group of musicians assembled to aid Beck’s latest vision had widened considerably since last time around. With session bassist Phil Chen having departed for a spot in Rod Stewart’s new backing band, Wilbur Bascomb was free to take his place, still piping hot from several months on the road with Jeff. Like Bascomb, Max Middleton picked up where he had left off, providing keyboard textures and the odd tune when required. As for percussion, Blow By Blow’s Richard Bailey was invited to attend several sessions (as was newcomer Ed Green) though their

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