We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
1972 saw the final album release for what was called the Jeff Beck Group. The self-titled LP was a mixture of blues-rock and the more fusion type stuff that Beck would pursue on his solo records through the rest of the 70’s
It was the second LP for this configuration of the band which included Max Middleton on keyboards, Clive Chaman on bass, Cozy Powell on drums and Bobby Tench on vocals.
I’ve never been a fan of Tench’s vocals on this or Hummingbird albums but he does sing with intensity. I just don’t think he’s very good. Middleton’s jazzy keyboards are a much more positive contribution
The album was produced by the legendary Steve Cropper in Memphis and includes a Cropper-Beck composition called “Sugar Cane” that was written in the studio. It’s one of the standout tracks along with “Definitely Maybe” and ‘Ice Cream Cakes” the latter of which shows the new direction that Beck will be heading.
They also cover Dylan’s “Tonight, I’ll Be Staying Here With You” as a blues. Other covers on the record include “Glad All Over (the Carl Perkins version not the Dave Clark Five), Stevie Wonder’s “I’Ve Got To Have A Song” and Ashford & Simpson’s ” I Can’t Give Back The Love I Feel For You”
The centerpiece of the LP, though, is a smoking cover of “Going Down”. Written by Don Nix, recorded by many including Freddie King. Beck and his boys kill it.
The critics were not impressed by this record…calling it “dull and predictable”. Rob Mackie wrote that “you can’t tell youre listening to a band led by one of Britain’s best ever guitarists”. Robert Christgau thought Beck was playing “cliches”.
I don’t play guitar, but for me, the ax is not the problem with this record.
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