Rough and Ready | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 25 October 1971 | |||
Recorded | April–July 1971 | |||
Studio | Island, London | |||
Genre | Jazz rock | |||
Length | 36:48 | |||
Label | Epic | |||
Producer | Jeff Beck | |||
The Jeff Beck Group chronology | ||||
|
Rough and Ready is the third studio album by the Jeff Beck Group and the first of two by the second Jeff Beck Group. Released in 1971 by Epic Records, it featured more of a jazz, soul and R&B edge to counter Beck's lead guitar. As a songwriter, Beck contributed more pieces to Rough and Ready than he had before, or ever would again. Beck enlisted Bobby Tench as vocalist and it is also the first time keyboardist Max Middleton is heard. Other members of this line up are drummer Cozy Powell and bassist Clive Chaman.
In early April and still signed to RAK, Jeff Beck reformed The Jeff Beck Group with keyboardist Max Middleton, drummer Cozy Powell and bassist Clive Chaman and vocalist Alex Ligertwood. Later in April that year the new band began recording sessions at Island Studios in London. They worked on songs by Beck and focused on "Situation", which had lyrics by Ligertwood. Other songs such as "Morning Dew" were given attention, with the help of producer Jimmy Miller, who had worked with Traffic and with The Rolling Stones.
During May 1971, after a week of recording sessions, Beck left RAK and signed a new record deal with CBS. Epic, a subsidiary of CBS, was assigned to release Beck's work, and having heard the Island studio tapes were not happy with the vocals. During May, Beck started looking for a new vocalist. In late May, after hearing Bobby Tench perform with his band Gass, [1] : 111 he employed him as vocalist for the band. Tench was given only a few weeks to write new lyrics and add his vocals to the album, before mixing resumed on tracks previously recorded by Beck and the other band members. During early July 1971 the band returned to Island Studios to finish the album and Beck took over as producer. Rough and Ready was released in UK on 25 October 1971 with the US release following during February 1972. [2] A sixteen-day promotional tour in USA followed, [1] and the album eventually reached #46 in the album charts. [3]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [4] |
The Village Voice | C+ [5] |
In a contemporary review for The Village Voice , music critic Robert Christgau found Tench's singing pretentious and the songs tedious: "Despite some superb textures, this is as sloppy and self-indulgent as ever." [5] Roy Carr, writing in NME , felt that the album "falls into that trap whereby the performance far exceeds the material. Beck hasn't lost any of his fire as he rips off solo after solo with flashy confidence". [1] On the other hand, Rolling Stone magazine's Stephen Davis said that Rough and Ready is "a surprisingly, fine piece of work from a man who wasn't really expected to come back. Beck is back, and in pretty good shape too." [4] Derek Johnson of NME reviewed the single "Got the Feeling" positively and called it "an excellent disc combining a strong commercial element with an altogether more progressive approach". [1]
Rough and Ready finished 23rd in the voting for the best album of 1971 in the Pazz & Jop, an annual critics poll run by The Village Voice. [6]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Got the Feeling" | Jeff Beck | 4:46 |
2. | "Situation" | Beck | 5:26 |
3. | "Short Business" | Beck | 2:34 |
4. | "Max's Tune
| Max Middleton | 8:24 |
Total length: | 21:03 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
5. | "I've Been Used" | Beck | 3:40 |
6. | "New Ways / Train Train" | Beck | 5:52 |
7. | "Jody" | Beck, Brian Short | 6:06 |
Total length: | 15:34 |
Chart (1971–1972) | Peak position |
---|---|
Canada Top Albums/CDs ( RPM ) [7] | 35 |
Japanese Albums (Oricon) [8] | 56 |
US Billboard 200 [9] | 46 |
Geoffrey Arnold Beck was an English guitarist. He rose to prominence as a member of the rock band the Yardbirds, and afterwards founded and fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to an instrumental style with focus on an innovative sound, and his releases spanned genres and styles ranging from blues rock, hard rock, jazz fusion and a blend of guitar-rock and electronica.
Cozy Powell was an English drummer who made his name with major rock bands and artists such as The Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Gary Moore, Graham Bonnet, Brian May, Whitesnake, Emerson, Lake & Powell, and Black Sabbath.
The Jeff Beck Group was a British rock band formed in London in January 1967 by former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck. Their innovative approach to heavy-sounding blues, rhythm and blues and rock was a major influence on popular music.
John Voorhis "Tim" Bogert III was an American musician. As a bass guitarist and vocalist he was best known for his powerful vocal ability and his fast runs, fluid agility and ground-breaking sound on his Fender Precision Bass. He was one of the pioneers of using distortion with his bass to help it cut through the mix with the low-powered amps of his time which also imparted a very sharp-edged sound to it. He was a frequent collaborator with drummer Carmine Appice; the duo performed in such bands as Vanilla Fudge, Cactus and the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice.
Philip Neil Murray is a Scottish musician, best known as the former bassist of Whitesnake, the Brian May Band, Black Sabbath, and Gary Moore.
Beck, Bogert & Appice was a rock supergroup and power trio formed by English guitarist Jeff Beck, evolving from the Jeff Beck Group. It included bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, Americans who had played together in Vanilla Fudge and Cactus.
Streetwalkers were an English rock band formed in late 1973 by two former members of rock band Family, vocalist Roger Chapman and guitarist John "Charlie" Whitney. They were a five piece band which evolved from the Chapman Whitney Band.
David Maxwell Middleton is an English composer and keyboardist. Trained as a classical pianist, Middleton also had a strong affinity for jazz. He is known for his work on the Fender Rhodes electric piano and the Minimoog synthesiser, and for his percussive playing style on the Hohner Clavinet. He started his professional music career by playing keyboards for Jeff Beck and is best known for his work on Beck's Blow by Blow (1975).
Jeff Beck Group is the fourth and final studio album by the Jeff Beck Group and the second album with the line up of Jeff Beck, Bobby Tench, Clive Chaman, Max Middleton and Cozy Powell. The album was produced by Steve Cropper and often referred to as the Orange Album, because of the orange which appears prominently at the top of the front cover.
Gonzalez were a British R&B and funk band. They became well known as a backing band for touring R&B, funk, and soul stars. Their eponymous album was released in 1974 and they recorded a total of six albums before disbanding in 1986. They are best known for their 1979 single success with their worldwide disco hit "Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet."
Over the Top is an album by British rock drummer Cozy Powell. It was Powell's first solo album, and it featured many well-known musicians playing alongside him.
What a Lemon is an album by Danish rock band Gasolin', released in August 1976 on Epic Records in the United States, some parts of Europe, Japan and Australia. It is the third of four albums with English lyrics that Gasolin' released between 1974 and 1978 in an attempt to break the international music market. The album received good reviews from leading American rock critics, but lack of airplay and the fact that the record company invested only small efforts in promotion and distribution meant that it never earned the band the public acclaim it was striving for.
Go for the Throat is the tenth studio album recorded by the English rock band Humble Pie and the second with the new lineup including, guitarist and vocalist Steve Marriott, drummer Jerry Shirley, American bassist Anthony "Sooty" Jones and vocalist and guitarist, Bobby Tench from The Jeff Beck Group. Marriott also brought in backing vocalists Marge Raymond, Dana Kral and Robin Beck, once again looking for a more authenthic and refined R&B sound and feel. Go For The Throat was released by Atco in 1981 and the new version of "Tin Soldier" reached #58 in the US single charts.
Clive Chaman is a UK-based bass guitarist and session musician, born in Trinidad and Tobago.
Robert Tench was a British vocalist, guitarist, sideman, songwriter and arranger.
Hummingbird were a British rock band, formed in 1974 by Bobby Tench of The Jeff Beck Group. The band recorded three albums which were released by A&M Records in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and Europe and employed Ian Samwell as their producer. The original line-up included members of the second Jeff Beck Group, vocalist and guitarist Bobby Tench, keyboardist Max Middleton, bassist Clive Chaman, drummer Conrad Isidore and second guitarist Bernie Holland.
The Gass was a rock band formed in May 1965 by Robert Tench, Godfrey McLean, and Errol McLean. They were managed by Rik Gunnell and Active Management. The band fused melodies with soul, Latin influences, blues and progressive rock often employing complex rhythms with an eclectic mix of other influences.
This page lists the albums recorded by the rock band Hummingbird, which was formed by Bobby Tench and included other former members of The Jeff Beck Group. All three albums were produced by Ian Samwell.
Cozy Powell Forever is a tribute album dedicated to the British rock drummer Cozy Powell, who died a few months before the album release. The album was produced by Japanese drummer Munetaka Higuchi, with the contribution of many prominent Japanese rock and metal musicians and of the western musicians Carmine Appice and Tony Franklin. The songs covered in the album span from the early career of Powell in the Jeff Beck Group, to his membership in Rainbow, Whitesnake and Michael Schenker Group, to his solo production. Higuchi brought the songs of this album on tour in Japan and in 1999 released a live album with recordings of a show held in Tokyo.
Cosmic Wheels is the tenth studio album, and eleventh album overall, by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in both the UK and the US in March 1973.