WIRED

When I noticed that Jeff Beck was added to Prog Archives, I took a dive into my rock book collection in order to read some serious comments about him. In John Tobler his book entitled Guitar Heroes I traced a very revealing quote: "His refusal to compromise prevented him from becoming as great a popular hero as he is a critical choice". Indeed, if you look at the average guitar poll in music magazines, Jeff Beck is considered as the Yardbirds guitarist #3 (after Clapton and Page) but if you take a look at his musical curriculum vitae you will not be surprised that among musicians he is hailed and embraced as a very adventurous and creative guitarplayer who delivered a lot of interesting progressive ideas and who played with many excellent musicians: with Jimmy Page in The Yardbirds, with Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice (both ex-Vanilla Fudge and ex- Cactus) in Beck, Bogert & Appice, with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood in The Jeff Beck Group I, with the late drummer Cozy Powell in The Jeff Beck Group II, as a studio musician he contributed on albums by Stevie Wonder (Talking Book), Stanley Clarke (Journey To Love) and Mick Jagger (The Boss) and on his solo albums with ex-UK drummer Terry Bozzio (Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop), Jan Hammer (Wired and There And Back) and Simon Phillips (There And Back). And Jeff Beck is even to be seen in the famous cult movie Blow Up during a short shot on The Yardbirds playing in a bar when he is destroying his guitar so a big hand for Jeff Beck!

This solo album from 1976 is my favorite one, what an incredibly exciting, adventurous and varied sound and how powerful and distinctive Jeff Beck plays, to start with the mindblowing first song Led Boots: amazing interplay between a propulsive and fluent rhythm-section, a swinging clavinet sound, fiery guitar and biting guitar runs and halfway sensational Minimoog synthesizer flights, what a way to start an album! The next song Come Dancing is a progressive blend of rock (spectacular distorted guitar solo), jazz (Fender Rhodes piano) and funk (bass), topped by a sensational Minimoog solo. Then the bluesy Goodbye Pork Pie Hat featuring a guitar sound that varies from tender and elegant to raw and heavy and great work on the tremolo arm, a Jeff Beck trademark! The rest of this album delivers nothing but great, mainly jazzrock inspired tracks: a funky bass, fiery guitar and pleasant Fender Rhodes piano in the swinging Head For Backstage Pass, exciting interplay between fiery electric guitar and flashy Minimoog in Blue Wind (the duo Jeff Beck/Jan Hammer sounds like a four piece powerhouse!), amazing interplay and strong soli in the dynamic Sophie, sensational Minimoog work in the swinging Play With Me and finally warm piano and acoustic guitar in Love Is Green.

Highly recommended!