Published on Oct 28, 1999
I remember this mutant in middle school that showed me a bag of
white powder he had in his gym locker. Given that he was three or
four years older than us half-children it was not a stretch to
believe he lived the life of a druggie in one of those DARE-type
films you had to watch in health class. It happened he also wore
black concert tee shirts, and had one that was particularly
obscure. Jeff Beck. I filed it away and continued public school,
eventually dropping clarinet and saving for a guitar.
That filed item came back at me in the form of another,
smellier, dude wearing a Jeff Beck tee shirt in high school biology
class. One afternoon, while fighting off the treble smells of stale
beer, cigarettes, and body odor, I raptly listened as he told me
how Jeff Beck was like, totally essential. Since I was going
apeshit over music in my own geeky way at the time I spent some
hard earned ducats on
Blow By Blow. It’s smooth edges just did not gel with my 16
year-old sledgehammer tastes, but the album remained in my
collection by default (you know – the more tapes the better).
Later, as my interest in jazz players grew, I was digging Jan
Hammer’s work and found
Jeff Beck With The Jan Hammer Band Live. Eventually this
caused me to rescue
Blow By Blow from bottom row obscurity and give it a
spin.
My evolving critical listening skills gave me a completely
different perception of the album. It grooves all the way through,
it’s totally lush, and sounds remarkably up to date. It’s not
really the songs; it’s his fine playing. Beck’s work is exquisite
and primitive at the same time, with colorful Strat tones and fresh
solos that work nicely within the fusion context of the band.
“Freeway Jam” inspires acceleration with its cool interplay and
bouncing bass line – Beck weaves tendrils of guitar around the
solid rhythm climaxing in one of the more memorable instrumental
melodies.
Those same instrumental melodies have limited appeal these days.
I saw Beck display a mind-blowing array of chops at a concert in
’95 that no one there really noticed (except the guitar players).
This is partly Beck’s fault. His aversion to recording with a band,
and his penchant for using a lot of different players, tends to
change the vibe dramatically from album to album. He also puts out
relatively few records, instead crafting individual guitar
masterpieces that are anything but mainstream.
Of course this is partly the appeal – when Beck does appear
among mere mortals he’s coming down from his guitar god perch
somewhere between Hendrix and Django and giving his own sacred
message. I know he’s not dead, but he’s certainly not your usual
rock star (despite the uncanny resemblance to Nigel Tufnel of the
loudest band in the world, Spinal Tap).
Anyway, it’s his quirky note choice that separates him from the
throng of blues-tempered guitar players – and it wigs me out to
think he plucks these otherworldly lines with only his fingers. His
slinky riffing is noticeable on the very first track; “You Know
What I Mean.” The melody is familiar but visionary at the same
time, and when Beck hits the nitrous his tone is wicked with the
bends and strange harmonics he summons using fuzz box and fingers.
The guitar tone throughout is haunting yet you still know its
“just” a Strat.
What follows is arguably the most popular of Beck tunes, a cover
of the Beatles’ “She’s Just A Woman.” With its reggae-spiked rhythm
section the song sounds very organic, leading up to the appearance
a 70s icon: the voice box. Peter Frampton popularized the voice box
on his
Frampton Comes Alive album; incidentally Beck had the thing
mastered long before Frampton released that damn song that goes
“whaa whaa wha whaa whaaa, whaa wha whaa whaaaa.”
It’s not a coincidence the album sounds great as a whole. I mean
it’s only George Martin producing. And the band, as you may expect,
is top notch, pumping out the funk-tinged fusion/rock mix that Beck
gently and oftentimes abusively floats above.
There is a heavily influenced fusion piece on
Blow By Blow. It consists of two songs: “Air Blower”, a
hopping song that eventually descends into the gentle melodies that
set up “Scatterbrain”, a nod to another Martin produced epic,
Apocalypse, by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. The frantic melody
with its semi-orchestral setting works well in the context of this
album, though it does come close to being too much at times. Too
intense would be a better descriptor. I personally like Beck’s
almost direct nod to the fusion master John McLaughlin in the
song’s coda: a searing and harsh guitar tone that segues into a bad
ass blues driven riff which turns around and brings the orchestral
instruments back into the song, lofting the guitar into a dramatic
solo that slowly fades out.
Beck’s nod to the great Roy Buchanan on “Cause We’ve Ended As
Lovers” is a wonderfully sedate guitar showcase. His mastery of
melodic guitar playing is jaw dropping, using subtle string bends
and impressively developed solos to push the song over the edge
into pure virtuosity. The fretboard noise is delicious, as is the
almost subconscious delay on each note.
Another Beck trademark is the futuristic sounds, something he
pulls off with aplomb using effects and technique. Over “Thelonius”
he lays a dense guitar on top of the churning funk chords. Once
again the voice box is used to great effect – this time as the
chorus in a disco-ish phrase. The song seamlessly flows into the
aforementioned masterpiece “Freeway Jam.” In fact, a lot of the
songs segue into one another, leaving no spaces. I suppose this is
the influence of George Martin, who had some experience from his
work with that well-known English band The Beatles.
The final piece, “Diamond Dust”, is an odd jazz progression that
is very atmospheric and sticks out a bit from the rest of the album
in its melodrama. I bet the smelly guy in my biology class didn’t
groove on this tune.
I guess
Blow By Blow is considered a classic, however it seems to
have been lost in time if you imagine its place in the “rock
consciousness”. Personally, I’ll take it over just about any
instrumental “rock” album; along with its cousin
Wired (which came out a year later),
Blow By Blow represents a dramatic shift from pure hard rock
to a more cerebral arrangement of songs.
If you haven’t heard Beck in the proper context, or all you know
of him is a stint on the Roger Waters album
Amused To Death, I strongly suggest checking this out if
there is the least bit of interest. The stuff certainly isn’t your
current run of the mill mainstream tripe, and it lacks the mystique
of a classic band like Led Zeppelin, but if you like guitar driven
music this is a worthwhile album. If you play rock guitar, this is
essential to your well-being.