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Track Listings
| 1. You Know What I Mean |
| 2. She's A Woman |
| 3. Constipated Duck |
| 4. Air Blower |
| 5. Scatterbrain |
| 6. Cause We've Ended As Lovers |
| 7. Thelonius |
| 8. Freeway Jam |
| 9. Diamond Dust |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
His guitar-slinging contributions to the Yardbirds having dwarfed those of Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page, Mrs. Beck's bad boy spent the next several years playing blues-rock (the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart), soul-rock (the second edition of that band), and leading a power trio. Then, he made this all-instrumental album, which was a huge 1975 success. Produced by George Martin, the nine-song session finds Beck fronting a keyboards-bass-drums outfit, augmented by some tastefully unobtrusive string arrangements. Call it a jazz-fusion album at your own risk. While Beck's playing is less in-your-face than his previous efforts, all the fierce attack, thick tone, microtonal bends, distortion, feedback, vibrato, sustain, sonic hoodoo, and rhythmic and harmonic creativity that the man's fans have come to know and love can be heard here. "Freeway Jam" boasts the most memorable melody and thus remains a Classic Rock staple to this day. "Cause We've Ended As Lovers"--written by Stevie Wonder--is Beck's gorgeous tribute to one of his own guitar-heroes, the now-deceased Roy Buchanan. --Don Waller
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As the 1970's dawned Jeff Beck was becoming bored with the constraints of rock music, and, never one to remain in a rut, he wisely expanded his horizons to include jazz rock. In fact, Jeff Beck was one of the first to explore the possibilities of making a rock album with no lyrics whatsoever. Beck was never one to enjoy singing (To this day he still hates singing Hi Ho Silver Lining), and tired of sharing the limelight with a lead singer, he focassed all his attention on the music, it's arrangements and the complex guitar solos he would play with characteristic aplomb. Blow by Blow was a tremendous success when it was first released in the early 1970's, thrusting Beck into a whole new area of serious jazz rock. This whole area of music was sufficiently exciting and original to attract the attention of George Martin, no less, who produced this magnificent album. Beck's strength's lie firmly in guitar playing and his arrangements of solo's. Various sources are credited with the writing of the songs on this album, whilst Beck concentrates wholly on the guitar. The result is a genuine innovation and one that would equally astound and infuriate Beck's fans and critics. Some thought Beck should stick purely with blues and rock like his old mate Eric Clapton, while others thought this album was truly an original piece of work, easily out classing other less adventurous guitarists. Needless to say, the album is well produced by George Martin, with a couple of tracks being enhanced by strings, arranged by Martin. The whole thing is so utterly compelling and refreshing now, it must have seemed breathtaking at the time. Such a success this album was that Beck turned his back completely on pure rock music to concentrate his efforts instead upon his own blend of highly charged jazz rock.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
One of THE great guitar albums. I was amazed to see that someone had given this a 2 star rating but having read their review, it would appear that they are at the Joe Satriani level so didn't "get" Blow by Blow. For everyone one else, this is a must buy.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The spark of inspiration for this ground-breaking Jazz/Rock ,instrumental album ,came when Jeff had the idea of taking some of the more obscure guitar lines that John McLaughlin was employing with The Mahavishnu Orchestra and making them more accessible.Of course ,Jeff has always had his own unique musical expression on the guitar and he had already demonstrated his talent for playing instrumentals prior to this on superb tracks such as "Definitely Maybe","I Can't Give Back The Love I Feel For You" and the atmospheric,"Max's Tune".Max Middleton wrote the latter song and he makes a massive contribution here on "Blow By Blow", in terms of his piano playing as well as his strong writing.The brilliant George Martin produced the album and was also responsible for the wonderful orchestral arrangement.Jeff has described how working with George Martin felt like they were "really getting to the nuts and bolts of making music".Of the nine songs contained here ,Jeff wrote one and co-wrote two others;there are other songs by Lennon/McCartney ("She's a Woman"),Stevie Wonder ("Thelonius")and "Diamond Dust" , written by Bernie Holland .My favourite songs on the album are"She's a Woman",which contains joyous,lyrical phrasing,"Scatterbrain" containing a gloriously original,exciting and inventive lead break,"Cause We've Ended as Lovers" with it's soulful, yearning , Roy Buchannan inspired, playing, and,in my opinion,the best track of all ..."Diamond Dust".Max Middleton plays commanding piano here, whilst Jeff executes some really poignant,profound lead guitar lines on this masterpiece and George Martin's amazing string orchestration and the sympathetic drumming of Richard Bailey and full sounding bass of Phil Chenn,work together really successfully on "Diamond Dust"!An ox-blood brown Les Paul was the main guitar used on" Blow by Blow " .Jeff also played a Tele-Gib' guitar (created for him by Seymour Duncan,when he added Humbucker pick-ups to replace the original single coils on a maple necked Fender Telecaster)on " Cause We've Ended as Lovers".The unmistakable sound of a Stratocaster is unmissable on another great ,Middleton penned,track called "Freeway Jam".This guitar sound continued on JB's next album ,"Wired".If you are expecting a mainstream ,riff based , rock album then you may find "Blow by Blow" confusing.If ,however, you appreciate some of the very finest musically inspired and original lead guitar playing ever then give "Blow by Blow" a chance.You may find that you need to give it several listens but I believe that you will be glad that you did...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Tasty and Masterful
Having been to a JB gig fairly recently, I remembered an album which somehow had slipped under the radar, so I decided to backtrack to 1975 vintage and see how things stood up. Read more
Published 7 months ago by hornet
As good as ever
This cd is replacing a cassette tape which became grotty but it's renewed my interest in Jeff Beck,
he's a fantastic musician and sounds as good as ever.
he's a fantastic musician and sounds as good as ever.
Published 11 months ago by iamhe
Blow by blow
Unusual and fine instrumentals. My first introduction to Jeff Beck; His "ROCK AND ROLL PARTY" is completely different {which I have purchased from you] Looks like I will be... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Johnny Johnson
Not my kind of music.
I bought this album after listening to (and really liking) Joe Satriani's 'Surfing with the Alien'. Before then I had not been very interested in purely instrumental music though I... Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2005 by T Brown
Superb.
An astounding and in it's day, a groundbreaking album by the Universe's greatest guitarist.Still fresh after all these years.
Published on 18 Jan 2004 by Clive Culbertson
blow by blow
Not bad for a British Rocker. Jeff really does play some lines here, and odviously has way more chops than say Clapton. Read more
Published on 8 Oct 2003 by "flute2monkey"
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