Customer Reviews

Beckology (Jewel)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This three CD set is a great but not perfect representation of guitarist Jeff Beck's exciting mix of blues, rock, jazz and funk. Like a tomcat on the prowl he, scratches, cries and wails, always landing on his feet with his impeccable sense of time.

The first CD starts out with several tracks from the Tridents, Beck's pre-Yardbirds blues group. Beck was well on his way to defining his style in this group with surprising accomplished slide work on "Trouble In Mind" and the sonic blasts on Bo Diddley's "Nursery Rhyme." The bulk of Disc One highlights his work with the Yardbirds. In addition to the hits, "Heart Full of Soul," "Over Under Sideways Down" and "Shapes of Things," two numbers, "The Nazz Are Blue" and "Jeff's Boogie, " showcase his brand of blues. The "Nazz Are Blue" features Mr. Beck on vocals! Four of the Yardbirds songs are from a live BBC taping, including " You're A Better Man Than I." The disc ends with three cuts from the start of his solo career including the silly but fun "Hi Ho Silver Lining."

Disc two consists of songs from both incarnations of the Jeff Beck Group and songs from the heavy, sometimes leaden, Beck, Bogart and Appice (BBA.) The first six cuts feature Rod Stewart on vocals, including the hard to find, "I've Been Drinking." Unfortunately, there is only one song from the post Stewart album, Rough and Ready, with Bob Tench on vocals. The version of "Blues Deluxe" is a live track by BBA, not the Rod Stewart version from the Truth album.

Disc three starts with the sublime tribute to Roy Buchanan, "Cause We've Ended As Lovers." Having been written by Stevie Wonder and produced by George Martin for Blow By Blow, it's no surprise that this track is five minutes of sheer aural ecstasy. Only one other song, "Diamond Dust," is taken from Blow By Blow. It is baffling why two ballads were used when there was so much great funk on the album. The version of "Freeway Jam" is a live version and while it is not as sleek as the Blow By Blow version, it is fun listening to Beck and Jan Hammer try to break the sound barrier. The 1984 hit "People Get Ready" is also on here, with Rod the Mod on vocals,once again.

The rest of Disc three is a mixed bag from Beck's eighties work. Some of it leans toward a techno sound and other tracks are retro. Some of the techno tracks sound forced as if he's trying to keep up with the guitarists he originally influenced like Van Halen, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani. But the remake of "Train Kept A-Rollin" holds up and his slide work on "Sleep Walk"(you'll know this oldie when you hear it) is reminiscent of his early work with The Tridents. The set concludes with two solid numbers from the 1989 album Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop with Terry Bozzio and Tony Hymas.

Too bad some of his mid-eighties work with Mick Jagger and the Honeydrippers is not included. But overall, Beckology, compiles a generorus overview of 25 years of unique sound explorations by one of music's premier electric guitarists

Released in 1991, this box set pretty much covers Jeff Beck's entire recorded career, from the Tridents treatment of the old chestnut, "Trouble In Mind" to highlights from Guitar Shop, which was probably his best solo album. Some fans might complain that there are too many Yardbirds tracks here---well, not this fan! In my mind, you can never have too many Yardbirds tracks, and every last one here is a keeper, from the Eastern sound Jeff got from his guitar on "Over, Under, Sideways, Down," to the pseudo-Gregorian chants of "Still I'm Sad." Also welcome are the numerous Jeff Beck Group tracks, particularly the ones featuring Rod Stewart. Rod the Mod may have had a stellar career, but saved some of his best work for Beck. (Who do you think Rod asked to give his induction speech to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?). I wish there could have been more BBA tracks, particularly live ones, because the two that are offered here are basically both "Blues DeLuxe" medleys. Still, both are excellent. Most of the choices from his solo albums are apt, including one of the best recordings of "Wild Thing" you will hear anywhere. Maybe a few more tracks from Guitar Shop and a few less from Flash would have made the set even better. But, enough quibbling. There's plenty of great material here you will want to listen to over and over while pondering this question: Was Jeff Beck the model for Nigel Tufnel in the Spinal Tap movie??? Enquiring minds want to know!!!

Jeff Beck is my mind, is arguably the greatest guitarist today. I saw him this year (2001, as we speak), have heard his new album and he sounds as fresh as ever. He broke ground in the 60s, 70s, 80's and now today mainly cause he never stuck to one thing. He kept experimenting all the time and often succeding in it. With a very ecletic career (spanning from the Yardbirds and present), it would be difficult to capture it all in a box set.

But this doesn't mean this 3- disc box set could have been better assembled. While Disc 1 contains some Tridents stuff and some of his early solo singles as "Hi Ho Silver Lining,", Disc 1 uses 3/4 of his content to the Yardbirds. Sure, some of Jeff's work with Yardbirds was needed, but do we need almost a whole's disc work of it, since there's a lot more to Beck than the Yardbirds? Above all, there are plenty of Yardbirds greatest hits for those who need it.

Disc 2 is the groups. Jeff Beck Group 1-2 and Beck Bogert and Appice get adequate and somewhat fair treatment. I would have taken a few out and added a few in. But overall, an alright job.

Disc 3 sadly dedicates a few tracks to what was arguable Jeff's best period from "Blow by Blow"-"There & Back". Only a couple of tracks are there (some which weren't the most important of the period) and yet so many essential tracks are lost, denying a listener to what made that period wonderful in Jeff's career. Strangely, "Flash", Jeff's worst album, gets more than what we need to hear.

Not to mention, we miss some of Jeff's guest work with Stevie Wonder, Donovan, Tina Turner, Mick Jagger and the Robert Plant-led Honeydrippers. And some tracks of that never-released Motown album cut with Cozy Powell is missing as well. I know it would be impossible to get all that is worthwhile there, especially to satisfy a hard core fan as myself. But let's face it, hard core fans as me were going to be the main buyers here and should we get something we didn't get anywhere else.

Those who are casual fans may only get a taste of Beck here, but to fully experience the magic of Jeff Beck and what made him a great player, they are recommended to start with his invidiual albums.

I think the thing I love most about Jeff Beck is that even though he doesn't play a million notes a second like most so called "guitar heros", his solos are always intriguing and in great taste. He never did the "finger tapping" thing or the "sweep arpeggio"...he ingnored most trends through the years and did things entirely his way. The mark of a true artist!

Getting back to this three disc set, I agree 100% with the other reviewers with the fact that there is much too much space dedicated to the Yardbirds....they aready have too many "Best Of the Yardbirds" CDs.

It gets a star taken off for omitting my all time favorite Beck jams..."Blue Wind", off of the Wired album. Also, just one track off "There and Back" doesn't cut it. They should have dedicated all three discs to his solo career from Truth, to the Guitar Shop album.

They did a great job on the remastering, however. "Going Down", sounds like it was recorded yesterday, with none of that nasty shrillness and compression that you hear on so many of those CBS albums from the 60's and 70's.

There are two problems with this collection. First, Jeff's career is long and diverse. A lot of disc one is pretty dated stuff and, while it is certainly of historical interest, the guitar playing is not going to floor you. 2nd, the choice of tracks is highly questionable. Disc 3, which should highlight the dizzying heights of JB's amazing guitar playing in the 70s and 80s, instead contains far too much - 5 tracks! - from "Flash," an abominable album Jeff was forced into making by his record company. So, while this is an interesting cross-section of Jeff's playing, it contains a lot of the bad with the good. You're better off getting the three CD pack of "Blow by Blow," "Wired" and "There and Back" which Amazon sells as a specially priced "threefer." Then add "Truth" and a Yardbirds compilation and you've got an excellent early Jeff Beck collection, for about the same cost.

This three CD set is a great but not perfect representation of guitarist Jeff Beck's exciting mix of blues, rock, jazz and funk. Like a tomcat on the prowl he, scratches, cries and wails, always landing on his feet with his impeccable sense of time.

The first CD starts out with several tracks from the Tridents, Beck's pre-Yardbirds blues group. Beck was well on his way to defining his style in this group with surprising accomplished slide work on "Trouble In Mind" and the sonic blasts on Bo Diddley's "Nursery Rhyme." The bulk of Disc One highlights his work with the Yardbirds. In addition to the hits, "Heart Full of Soul," "Over Under Sideways Down" and "Shapes of Things," two numbers, "The Nazz Are Blue" and "Jeff's Boogie, " showcase his brand of blues. The "Nazz Are Blue" features Mr. Beck on vocals! Four of the Yardbirds songs are from a live BBC taping, including " You're A Better Man Than I." The disc ends with three cuts from the start of his solo career including the silly but fun "Hi Ho Silver Lining."

Disc two consists of songs from both incarnations of the Jeff Beck Group and songs from the heavy, sometimes leaden, Beck, Bogart and Appice (BBA.) The first six cuts feature Rod Stewart on vocals, including the hard to find, "I've Been Drinking." Unfortunately, there is only one song from the post Stewart album, Rough and Ready, with Bob Tench on vocals. The version of "Blues Deluxe" is a live track by BBA, not the Rod Stewart version from the Truth album.

Disc three starts with the sublime tribute to Roy Buchanan, "Cause We've Ended As Lovers." Having been written by Stevie Wonder and produced by George Martin for Blow By Blow, it's no surprise that this track is five minutes of sheer aural ecstasy. Only one other song, "Diamond Dust," is taken from Blow By Blow. It is baffling why two ballads were used when there was so much great funk on the album. The version of "Freeway Jam" is a live version and while it is not as sleek as the one on Blow By Blow, it is fun listening to Beck and Jan Hammer try to break the sound barrier. The 1984 hit "People Get Ready" is also on here, with Rod the Mod on vocals,once again.

The rest of Disc three is a mixed bag from Beck's eighties work. Some of it leans toward a techno sound and other tracks are retro. Some of the techno tracks sound forced as if he's trying to keep up with the guitarists he originally influenced like Van Halen, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani. But the remake of "Train Kept A-Rollin" holds up and his slide work on "Sleep Walk"(you'll now this oldie when you hear it) is reminiscent of his early work with The Tridents. The set concludes with two solid numbers from the 1989 album Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop with Terry Bozzio and Tony Hymas.

Too bad some of his mid-eighties work with Mick Jagger and the Honeydrippers is not included. But overall, Beckology, compiles a generorus overview of 25 years of unique sound explorations by one of music's premier electric guitarists.

This was a great purchase foe even tho I already have every Jeff Beck cd!(Except the newer rematsered "Truth" & "Beck-Ola")

Buying this you'll get a great sampling from almost every period
of Beck's muscial career up until after "Guitar Shop". Jeff Beck has always been a guitar pioneer! He revolutionized the way the electric guitar sounded influenced by his idol Les Paul! Jeff even played Gibson Les Paul guitar's until deciding on going with the Stratocaster. He made his 1st electric guitar or at least altered it & did alter his amp re-wiring it so it would produce strange sound effects like Les Paul!

Beck has always reinvented himself throughout the yrs! From the begining w/the "Tridents" & "Yardbirds"(my fave guitarist of the 3 Yarbird bands)& then thruoughout "Jeff Beck Group #8"! He almost aslways used Marshall amplification(he strayed away a few times but always came back to Marshall's)& this can be heard thruout these recordings. I w have been lucky enough to see almost every incarnation of the differing Jeff Beck Groups 'live' & saw the incredible power trio "BBA" live from 10 feet away! Incredible! Some of that material is available here. I had to order my dbl vinyl "BBA LIVE" from Japan in 1974!

So almost every period of his brilliant career is heard here! While 1 disc is almost entirely made up of "The Tridents" & "The Yardbirds" which some find unecessary, I like it. Sure some of his greatest tunes werew left off but hey you'd have to buy a 30 disc set to get almost everything!! I miss "Spanish Boots" & Ron Wood's incredible bass solo which that song fades out during just as Ron was getting going! A shame. However, you do get unreleased cut's like, Tident songs & others & the cuts only available before if you bought soundtract albums! Plus B sides of 45's most people reading this will have never heard before.!

Jeff is 1 of my fave artists & guitarists & belongs on a Mount Rushmore for Guitarists! He is still innovative & new & I just got a dvd of his 60th Bithday Concert(boot)that is great! It features Jan Hammer & special guests!

If you like Jeff Beck this would be a great purchase for you! EXCELLENT 3 disc boxed set with a great booklet that features a "Timeline" that shows the progression of Jeff's bands & the groups the memebers he used,in his bands came from. The entire ine-up's of both! Superb feature for history buffs of musicology! BUY THIS!

A disappointing box set for several reasons. One, too much Yardbirds where those tracks have been represented elsewhere. Second, over half of the third disc is derived from later Jeff Beck albums, such as the unlistenable Flash. Third, far too little of his Group and solo work is representated. As an introduction to Jeff Beck, Beckology is adequate, but otherwise, too much of this is redundant.

If I could give Beckology 4.5 stars, I would. However, I can't, so I'll give it 4.

I got the Beckology CD, and popped disc one in my CD player. Ah, the Tridents. Then, the Yardbirds. Some great stuff! Jeff's tone is well represented in the Yardbird's songs, especially in the BBC performances (which were a nice touch to the CD). CD two is equally as good, and the unreleased Beck Bogert and Appice songs are very cool. CD three, however, isn't quite as good. CD three doesn't have enough stuff from the instrumental era (a.k.a. Blow by Blow, Wired, and There and Back) and has way too much from Flash. Flash being probably Jeff's worst album, it doesn't make sense to have 4 cuts from it, when albums like There and Back have only one cut. Guitar Shop has two good cuts, and the Twins songs Jeff did are a good touch. With some more stuff from BBB, Wired, and There and Back, then take out some of the bad Flash cuts, and this compliation set would be worthy of a five.

If you are not familiar with the genius guitar that is Jeff Beck..this is a great place to START...but it is only a start. As you will listen to this and probably decide that you need more. A true classy guitarist that never wastes a note. Take the plunge and add it to your cart; just be ready to search for additional Jeff Beck results, that you'll be snatching up as well