Customer Reviews

Flash

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Nobody argues that this was one of the worst PRODUCED and CONCEIVED Jeff Beck albums ever, including Jeff himself. But let's not overlook the fact that it contains two SUPREME tracks,
the immortal "People Get Ready", and the vastly overlooked instrumental gem, "You Know, We Know". I also find the Jan Hammer track "Escape", which won a Grammy by the way, to be a very cool 1980s flashback. Overlook some of the horrendous vocals, and listen to the guitar solos---true Jeff Beck fans know it's all here, just sift through the garbage to get to it.

In general, I agree with most of the above comments, but as a long-time music lover, I have to rate this album as a must-have for one reason : People Get Ready. Beck nails the track, and it's probably one of Rod Stewart's best vocal performances. The combination of raspy vocals and Beck's thoughtful, haunting guitar work redeems an otherwise synthetic mish-mash of tracks. Like was stated before, you can sift through and hear the trademark Beck . I can't help but visualize most of this album as a soundtrack for a mediocre made-for-tv 80s movie. Too bad.

Flash is one of guitar idol Jeff Beck's best selling album, a lot of this buoyed by the great remake of The Impressions' classic "People Get Ready," with vocals by Beck's old bandmate Rod Stewart (truly delivering one of his best performances).

But the rest of this record is solid and entertaining, including "Ambitious," (featuring a particularly nasty Beck solo), "Gets Us All In The End," and the Grammy-award winning instrumental "Escape."

If people buy this expecting to rock out, forget it. But if they want to hear some great guitar solos mixed in with some great vocals, you'll enjoy Flash.

This LP is a must only for completists and hardcore fans, especially those that want to hear Beck sing again (he's on two tracks).

Beck's solo work is excellent-- even the addition of Jimmy Hall's histrionic vocals can't diminish the sheer audacity and skill of one of the best guitarists in the world. Hall's not a bad singer-- he's amazing-- yet it seems his vocal style was of its period. Up against Rod Stewart, there's no comparison. The track 'People Get Ready' is phenomenal, and should've been a bigger hit.

Check out the second track to get an idea of what Beck might've sounded like firing up an Eighties Hair Metal band (via Mike Oldfield). While the song itself is rubbish, there's something to be gained from hearing it.

The rest is dross, and suffers particularly because it's bracketed by two of Beck's best albums, 'There And Back' and 'Guitar Shop'.

Oh, and while it's been re-released, it hasn't been remastered.

This is the least satisfying release from the catalog of rock's greatest guitarist. But you get a lot of great solos here, and the fantastic version of "People Get Ready" with Rod Stewart on vocals (it's too bad they didn't do the entire album together). A 3 star Jeff Beck album is still better than a lot of others. He has set the bar so high for himself!

This CD has some classically excellent Beck. Also, the music in this CD is typical of the 80s disco type music. Rod Stewart does a fantastic People Get Ready. And Beck has some awesome guitar work here in Back On The Streets.

Reading some of these other reviews you'd think that Jeff must have been phoning it in while his producers assembled the bits and pieces just to throw new product out on the market. The only problem with that view is the fact that this is a great album. I've never really cared for the hit "People get ready," so I was really pleased to find that the singer on most of the other tracks, Jimmy Hall, is in fact a major league talent.
Sure this album is of its time but Beck's licks are timeless and he elevates any material that he appears on. If you have any appreciation for late 70's Stones or 80's Santana then this album makes for a great listen. In fact, I'll probably listen to it more often than Truth, Blow by Blow or Wired because it is a rare example of first class Beck guitar combined with good songs and great singers. Don't fear the funk.

Ok, ok I know what all you fellow Beck lovers are saying (I'm a Beck lover too of course). This is the worst Beck's album ever (I think Beck himself thinks the same...). I undersand why you're saying this, but sorry, I don't agree at all. Or better, I find this album great in its own right. Yes, Flash is incredibly untrendy now for a lot of reason (you can see it by the price it is sold now, 2 dollars!!), but I don't let arrangements fool me. Beck's music here is great as ever. There are reasons why I'm saying this album is great in its own right. First of all, Beck played phenomenally here, phenomenally. The solos are solos only Beck could conceive and play. Unbelievable guitar playing (I'm an expert guitar player, I know what I'm saying). He played more flashy than ever in a sense (and the album was rightly called "Flash"!!!!) because those were the eighties and excess, machism, and explosive personality were the things. Van Halen was the guy you have to compare with, and Beck could do it easily, so he did with this album and prove he could challenge all the youngers and (Ed apart) win. Second reason is because several songs from "Flash" are great, great vehicles for Jeff's improvisations. I love them! "Ambitious", "Gut us all in the end" (try to play this solo, go, try!), "You know We Know" (it's faaantastic), "Nighthawk", "Night after Night". Obviously the wonderful "People get ready". They're great songs. Ok the arrangements are eighties, there are synths and drums machines involved, but frankly I don't care at all until the music, the MUSIC is great, and moreover Beck plays like only he could do!!! In a sense those weird and untrendy arrangements make me smile and love this album even more. In my opinion Flash deserves 4 stars, because, yes someone could have the right to hate the arrangements because they are ... peculiar (!!!), but forgive me, I love this album even more just for them (they're sooooo funny!!!) so let me give this album my 5 stars! It's a Flashy rating I know, but I love FLASH!!!! Now it's been remastered, I'll buy another copy!

After a long run of classic rock guitar albums, Jeff Beck returned in 1985 with the Nile Rodgers produced Flash, an apparent attempt to create an MTV-friendly 80's hit record. In that regard, the album was a considerable success, charting in the American top 20 and going gold within months of its release; it even had the dubious distinction of winning a grammy award. But the album is completely awash in drum machines and synthesizers, making it sound dated (in the worst sense of the word) about five minutes after it came out. Some would argue that the brilliance of Beck's guitar playing slices through all the mechanized production, particularly on a song like "You know we know," which does recall his past triumphs as an instrumentalist. But there is no excuse for putting drum machines on a Jeff Beck record; there's also no way to sugarcoat the fact that most of these songs are, of all things, dance tracks. No matter how much revenue this album generated for the CBS label (and the other parties involved) it was the low point of Beck's recording career. No wonder he did not tour to support it, only playing two gigs, one in Hawaii with Stevie Ray Vaughan and one in Japan with Carlos Santana. For hardcore Jeff Beck fans, Flash may retain some value as an historical curiosity, a sad artifact of an era when corporate greed was actually perceived to be a good thing. People new to Jeff Beck's music should check out any of the many albums he did prior to this instead. He would rebound in a big way with his next album, 1989's Guitar Shop, on which he returned to his strengths with a vengeance.

Released in 1985, this was sort of Jeff Beck's return to rock and roll, after a wonderful romp through jazz fusion. The album is almost 50 minutes long.

The sound quality of this CD is mediocre. It is slighty flat and muddled. This is an example of why there were vinyl snobs in the 1980's who insisted that CD's would never be as good as LP's. The sound quality isn't horrible, and the mix is pretty good. It just isn't as good as LP's, or the CD's released now a days.

This CD is reflection of the times, incorporating almost every music genre that was popular in the mid eighties. There is new wave, a bit of disco, Sunday brunch jazz and corporate rock.

Despite what others say, there are great bits of searing guitar work on every track. The only problem is that they are mixed into some pretty bad songs. Not all songs are bad, and some are even pretty good.

There are the basic corporate rock songs, along the lines of Journey, Starship or Foriegner. There are even a few bits of Van Halen guitar cliches, but thankfully that is kept to a minimum. Gets Us All In The End and Nighthawks are the worst cases.

Back on the Streets sounds like something Pat Benatar might do. It is actually a fairly good song.

Get Working, is a typical, bouncy New Wave song. Ectasy is along the lines of what was going on in Disco music, as Disco started blending with New Wave.

Escape, which was written by and features Jan Hammer one a Grammy. It comes right after Hammer's popularity exploded with the Theme to Miami Vice. Escape and You Know, We Know are the softer jazz that was popular in the mid-eighties.

The best song on the CD is Ambitious, a driving rock number, featuring some piercing guitar work from Beck. People Get Ready (a blues/soul number written by Curtis Mayfield) is the famous track on this album, featuring the reunion with Rod Stewart.

Overall, this is a collection of some mediocre to bad songs. There are 3 really good tracks on it.

The only thing that really saves this CD is Beck's great guitar playing throughout. It has that menacing, distorted sound that Beck would feature in his metallic band in the nineties on such CD's as Guitar Shop and Live at BB King's.