The album that Jeff Beck regretted releasing: “I shouldn’t have done it”
Most artists have to spend years practising before they can reach the level of a virtuoso. While people like Eddie Van Halen seem like they were born to become geniuses behind their instruments, there’s no getting around the blood, sweat, and tears that musicians invest with various bands before becoming the strongest players on the scene. Jeff Beck may have been comfortable enough to spread his wings after The Yardbirds, but he thought that his solo career could have been better if he hadn’t released Blow By Blow.
If you look at the rest of his career, though, Blow By Blow really is ground zero. Since The Yardbirds had gotten into jamming towards the end of Beck’s time with the group, this felt like his opportunity to make something a little bit more freeform, which resulted in him turning his guitar into the leading voice of every track.
There might be the odd melodic phrase coming out of every song, but when you hear his solo coming out, it’s almost like you don’t need a vocal to get what he’s saying. The standard ‘Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers’ already had a great melody behind it, but hearing Beck add his signature touch to everything makes the listener feel more of the pain and anguish in the tune that couldn’t have been done with a singer.
Considering that all that fans had heard from him was straight-ahead blues at the time, this was Beck staking his claim for being a guitarist on the same level as the Jimi Hendrixes of the world. Sure, he wouldn’t be the same psychedelic hippy as Hendrix, but no one would mistake him for anyone else whenever he squeezed life out of his guitar.
But if Beck had his way, he would have never had Blow By Blow come out, telling Guitar Player, “I guess at that time I wanted some solidification; I had to be playing a tune, not just abstract flurries of noise. There had to be some nice chords to get the listener to draw an ear a bit closer. But I shouldn’t have done Blow By Blow. I wish I hadn’t done any of them because they’re just mistakes on record.”
Any guitarist might already consider the record perfect, but it’s easy to tell where Beck is coming from, given his background. He had been looking to incorporate pieces of jazz into his sound, so hearing mistakes on the record was the equivalent of listening to a Miles Davis that had a handful of lousy notes sprinkled in.
However, by not tidying up any of the mixes, Beck made something that felt a lot more natural than any of his other records. Instead of making it feel like one pristine piece of art, half the songs feel like walking into a jazz club with Beck sitting in, usually taking solos that bring more of an edge to this sophisticated form of musicianship.
And it’s not like Beck didn’t leave his mark with this album, either. He could say whatever he wanted to about whether his music could have been better, but without this kind of foundation, there’s a chance that he wouldn’t have had the courage to make an album like Wired years later.
