By the early years of the 1970s, Jeff Beck was a man without a mission. Following his departure from the Yardbirds in 1966, he had attempted to form several groups, with little to show for it.
His initial effort, made with assistance from Jimmy Page, resulted in “Beck’s Bolero,” a blistering instrumental featuring Beck and Page on electric guitar, future Led Zeppelin bass guitarist John Paul Jones, pianist Nicky Hopkins and the Who drummer Keith Moon. Although the group enjoyed the session and spoke of forming a band, nothing came of it. Beck couldn’t even claim a writing credit for the tune, as Page insisted he wrote it.
His few initial solo singles were followed by the formation of the Jeff Beck Group in 1967, which went through two different lineups — including an initial band that included singer Rod Stewart and future Faces/Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood on bass — before evolving into Beck, Bogert and Appice, featuring the bassist and drummer, respectively, from Vanilla Fudge and Cactus.
Despite some chart success with his acts, Beck suffered from a lack of original material, musical direction and his own volatile behavior. By 1974, he was solo once again, but he was anything but idle. Following a half-hearted audition with the Rolling Stones following the departure of their guitarist Mick Taylor, Beck decided to try again. Along with keyboardist Max Middleton, bassist Phil Chen and drummer Richard Bailey, he began recording his first proper solo album with former Beatles producer George Martin.
The result was Blow by Blow, his first bona fide success. Unlike other guitarists of the day, he had managed to create a work that distilled his virtuoso talents into a set of engaging jazz-fusion tracks that fit neatly into the mid 1970s’ diverse spectrum of popular music.
A lot of people liked Blow by Blow because it simplified [John] McLaughlin, and it complicated rock and roll.”
— Jeff Beck
“A lot of people liked Blow by Blow because it simplified [John] McLaughlin, and it complicated rock and roll,” Beck once said. “That album was just one of those things that was so easy. There were great players, willing to play, and decent material. And in four days, we’d track all the songs.”
As one might expect, Beck’s unusual musical sensibilities were at odds with the mindset of his more traditionally minded producer. Beck and Martin clashed over their session work, but Beck ultimately proved willing to listen to the older and more experienced studio magician.
“Some of my favorite solos got trashed because he thought they were hideous — not musical,” Beck reflected. “He’d say, ‘That’s really the most dreadful noise I’ve ever heard.’ And I’d say, ‘That’s what I want!’ But I’d usually come round to his way of thinking.”
Released in March 1975, went on to reach number four on the Billboard 200 album chart, a remarkable achievement for a jazz-fusion album and was eventually designated Platinum for selling more than one million copies. Beck’s mainstream success opened the door to new performance opportunities, one of which included a spot on The Midnight Special, one of the era’s premier TV shows dedicated to live music performance.
The show’s archives have been slowly released online, with Jeff Beck’s energetic live version of “You Know What I Mean” from 1975 being the latest released into the wild.
The late-night musical variety series ran throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s, and featured performances from AC/DC, King Crimson, Chuck Berry, and plenty more beyond. In recent months, a raft of standout performances have been uploaded to the show's YouTube channel, which was launched in late 2022.
Beck, promoting his newly released Blow by Blow album, wielding his infamous Oxblood Les Paul – which sold for $10.7 million at auction last year — leads the performance’s charge with slinky, funk-laced playing.
“You Know What I Mean,” the record's opening track, was written with Middleton, whose dueling lines feature throughout as Beck mutates from a spiky clean tone to a thick fuzz sound. Middleton had featured in the Jeff Beck Group and survived Beck's stylistic shakeup as he pivoted towards instrumental music and life as a solo artist.
The spasmodic performance showcases how Beck’s talents walked the tightrope between melodic and memorable, and left-field oddisms. The guitarist’s voice always had a unique vocabulary, hence him regularly being headhunted by other acts, but it was during this period that Beck truly came into himself in an unapologetic way.
Aside from Middleton, Beck’s live band at that time also featured percussionist Buddy Miles, famous for his work with Jimi Hendrix, who also present at John McLaughlin’s ill-fated late-night jam session with the late virtuoso. Beck's Midnight Special bandwas completed by bass player Willie Weeks, onetime Beatles keyboardist Billy Preston, and drummer Ollie Brown.
“You Know What I Mean” was released as a single but failed to chart. Other singles, including “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers”, “She’s a Woman” and “Freeway Jam” fared much better, getting extensive radio airplay.
In related news, Mick Rogers has claimed that he owns the last known recording of Jeff Beck's playing, but admits that releasing it is another matter entirely.
