Blow By Blow: The Jeff Beck Story
by Brad Tolinkski & Chris Gill
(Da Capo)
Figures it took a Jersey Boy—Chris Gill from Bergen County—to co-write the definitive Jeff Beck biography. Beck was as enigmatic, profound, ultra-talented, unfathomable and iconoclastic as Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix combined. And this bio—unlike the Keith Richards book which took 50 pages to slog through before the good stuff—gets right to the meat of the matter on Page 2 when Beck sees The Girl Can’t Help It rock’n’roll movie in 1956 when he was 11 years old. The film had performances from two of his favorites: Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent. Before that he loved “How High The Moon” by Les Paul and Mary Ford on the radio in 1951 when he was six. But it was bluesman Buddy Guy—who original Rolling Stone pianist Ian Stewart turned him on to when he was a teenager—who changed his life. And that’s just Chapter #1.
The first sentence of Chapter #2 is “in 1965, 20-year old guitarist Eric Clapton was a self-appointed prick.” The Yardbirds chapters are fascinating as are the stories of his first U.S. tour. He meets Rod Stewart and the two become fast friends. He explodes in rage when Led Zeppelin copies his exact arrangement of the 1962 Muddy Waters hit “You Shook Me” on their debut after The Jeff Beck Group recorded it for Truth a year earlier. He buys cars and a castle upon achieving international rock stardom while his bandmates are paid minimum wage. He pooh-poohs Rod’s solo material as being “too Dylanish.”
Finally, he records his jazz-rock fusion masterpiece, Blow By Blow, in 1975. It sets his musical course for the better part of a decade but what then? He seems lost in the ‘80s. Music bizzer Gregg Geller tries to steer him into a funk zone. Rod comes back for Flash in ’85 but the project feels behind-the-times. He earns a Grammy for Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop in ’89 and contributes lead to Jon Bon Jovi’s 1990 Blaze Of Glory solo debut. In 1992, The Yardbirds are inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. He accepts the honor and says to the celebrity-filled crowd, “I’ve done other music after The Yardbirds. Anyways, somebody told me I could be proud tonight but I’m not because they kicked me out. They did! Fuck them!” (And then he disappears, skipping the all-star jam.)
So he inexplicably records three albums of electronica, telling an interviewer “I’m quite happy being miserable.” He refuses to go the route Santana did dueting with younger stars on the super-successful Supernatural, saying “I wouldn’t want to do an album like that. I’d rather go back to painting cars.”
Through it all, his grumpiness, his aversion to stardom, his constant artistic quest to change course, his stirring moments of pure electrical genius be it as sideman, solo or star, all combine for one of the best rock bios in years.