Jeff Beck - Blow by Blow

Vortex > work meeting

What’s a man to do? I have 14 minutes until my first meeting and am being harrassed by a portly American to shit out a review. So here it is.

As a young(er) man I was pretty obsessed with shredding. I would wander down to the local record shop, trying to avoid the groovy post-thrash police, to see if Vin and the lads were hanging out the front whistling and gyrating at the hot babes walking by. Not that I’d talk to them if they were. I’d try to slink by without being noticed so that I could peruse the latest offerings on the shelves.

So I probably came to Jeff Beck relatively late. It would have been some time in the early 90s, after discovering metal but before the internet took away all my mojo. Somehow. I’d heard about the old fella in metal / guitar magazines and quite liked the cover of Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop. So I bought it. Most of it was kinda cheesy but holy fuck “Where Were You” was a masterpiece. The tones this guy got out of his guitar were godly. He wasn’t playing one twentieth of the notes that Malmsteen would have crammed in, but somehow this was still amazing. What a revelation. This track was enough to bring even a big strong man like me to tears. Not that it did. But it could have. This encouraged further explorations into Beck’s catalog. And thus I ended up at Blow By Blow.

I enjoyed it from the first syncopated bars of “You Know What I Mean”. Jazz rock. You know you love it, baby. It’s mostly very listenable without too many over the top prog stylings which everyone seemed to think a good idea around this time. “You Know What I Mean” is cool. “Scatterbrain” is a vibe, the coda was one of my favourite moments on the album. “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers” is a great track. “Freeway Jam” is undeniably a driving song. “Diamond Dust” has some beautiful moments.

I’d say the album’s main weakness for me is that I would have liked more of Beck’s actual playing. But that’s probably because of my aforementioned predilection for men sliding their hands quickly up and down long things. You might say it’s a bit easy listening. I might tell you to get fucked.

Hope you enjoy it. It’s an 8 for me. I’m late for my meeting.