Jeff Beck’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Party is worth having even though it constitutes a marked digression from the fusion forays the British guitarist began with 1975’s Blow By Blow. Even more than the main concert footage, the bonus segments give varied perspective on the heartfelt sentiment involved in this tribute to Les Paul as well as valuable insight into the psyche of Jeff Beck.
Accompanied dutifully by Imelda May and her band, Beck does justice to the innovator par excellence of modern guitar in a performance originally recorded at the same venue Les frequented for so many years, New York’s tiny Iridium. Jeff may well see himself as a figure comparable to Paul in terms of finding new ways to make new sounds with minimal technology and that’s hard to argue even on a rootsy vocal rendition of “Train Kept A’Rollin’,” once covered by The Yardbirds.
But apart from the performance of instrumentals such as “Peter Gunn,” with a hard-charging horn section, and “Apache,” where Beck unabashedly takes center stage, the rest of the performance content consists of things like “How High the Moon,” which, while they’re played with genuine sincerity by Jeff and company—including guests Brian Setzer of The Stray Cats and Gary “US” Bonds—cannot avoid coming off kitschy. Those who were not rhapsodized by Jeff Beck’s homage to rockabilly back in 1993, Crazy Legs, may consider passing on this item….
Except that the bonus features are definitely worth the price of the package. Any interview with the notoriously reclusive Beck is worth seeing: he’s as good humored as he is articulate about his work, not to mention humble for all his eccentricities and his explanation of his roots accurately frames the good intentions at the heart of this tribute to Les Paul. Then there’s the footage of his 1983 live appearance with his idol that he references in an otherwise rote Q&A.
El Becko’s love of music, however, becomes all the more palpable during the segment title “Jeff’s Guitars.” Here the man who replaced Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds comes across like nothing so much as a kid in awe of his own toy collection as he discusses the various forms of the instrument that, on stage, he appears to conduct a love/hate relationship.
It’s in such unguarded moments, when he talks about his technique (or lack thereof) that Jeff Beck tells us the most about himself. His child-like wonder at how he does what he does no doubt explains why he would engage in the labor of love that constitutes the bulk of Rock and Roll Party Honoring Les Paul.
