“I’m an awkward son of a bitch when it comes to doing the expected,” Jeff Beck said in an interview published in the April 1992 issue of Guitar Player.
BECK MADE THE comment while explaining his decision to not record Gene Vincent’s biggest hit, “Be-Bop-a-Lula,” for the Crazy Legs album, but the guitarist’s quote could apply to any moment from his career, or even its entirety.
During the late ’80s, when instrumental rock guitar albums became increasingly popular and artists like Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen reached respectable chart positions, the music industry’s “guitar hero” environment seemed perfect for Beck to stage a comeback. He did, indeed, finally emerge from several years of relative silence by releasing Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop in 1989. But instead of returning to his jazz-rock fusion roots or jumping into the fray with a collection of blazing metal-inspired shred workouts, the guitarist delivered an album that defied the era’s genre categories with its high-tech synths, state-of-the-art electronic production and truly innovative guitar performances.
The album presented Beck in a different kind of power trio, accompanied by keyboardist Tony Hymas (who previously played on Beck’s 1980 release, ) and ex-Zappa, U.K. and Missing Persons drummer Terry Bozzio. The material was dazzling and eclectic, with Beck performing everything from the punky newappearances elsewhere. The overall result could only be described as “Jeff Beck music.”
