''Flash'' is the fifth studio album by guitarist

Jeff Beck Geoffrey Arnold Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with the Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a focus ...

, released in July 1985 by

Epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements Epic or EPIC may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and medi ...

/ CBS Records. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas
"Flash - Jeff Beck"
''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

''. RhythmOne. Retrieved 31 March 2020. The album reached No. 39 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 chart"Flash - Jeff Beck , Awards"
''

''. RhythmOne. Retrieved 31 March 2020. as well as reaching the top 60 in four other countries."Jeff Beck - Flash (album)"
''finnishcharts.com''. Hung Medien. Retrieved 31 March 2020. Two singles also charted, the first being a reunion with singer

Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...

(from the

Jeff Beck Group 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. First ...

) for a cover of " People Get Ready" by Curtis Mayfield/ The Impressions, which reached No. 5 on ''Billboards

Mainstream Rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent the middle ground between classic rock and active rock ...

and No. 48 on the

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

, as well as the top 40 in four other countries. The second single, " Gets Us All in the End", reached No. 20 on Mainstream Rock. The

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

"Escape" went on to win the award for

Best Rock Instrumental Performance The Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance was an honor presented to recording artists for quality instrumental rock performances at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Award ...

at the 1986 Grammys,"28th Grammy Awards - 1986"
Rock On The Net. Retrieved 31 March 2020. which was to be Beck's first of many such awards.

Overview

The album is unique for Beck in that it is composed mainly of songs with

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

, save for two instrumentals in the form of "Escape" and "You Know, We Know", written by his longtime collaborators

Jan Hammer Jan Hammer () (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as his film scores fo ...

and

Tony Hymas Anthony James Keith "Tony" Hymas (born 23 September 1943) is an English keyboard player, pianist, and composer. Career Hymas started as a chorister at Exeter Cathedral School, where his contemporaries included composer and cathedral organist Ba ...

respectively. Designed to be a foray into

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

in order to capitalise on that sound at the time, ''Flash'' was produced by

Nile Rodgers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, record producer and composer. The co-founder of Chic, Rodgers has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million ...

for that reason. Such was the desire by the record company to score a hit album, Beck uncharacteristically found himself singing on "Get Workin'" and "Night After Night", at the insistence of Rodgers.Rosen, Steven (1989)
"Jeff Beck Interview (1989)"
Modern Guitars Magazine. Archived fro

on 5 January 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2020. "Ambitious" and "People Get Ready" feature a rare instance of Beck playing a Jackson Soloist rather than his usual Fender Stratocaster. Despite its success, he has since expressed his disdain for the album, calling it a "record company goof" and "a very sad sort of time" for him. "Ambitious" had a notable presence on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

shortly after the album's release, primed by a phenomenon of the era that saw a brief run of multiple

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

s within the same video. The only common thread among these was a young

Hasid Ḥasīd ( he, חסיד, "pious", "saintly", "godly man"; plural "Hasidim") is a Jewish honorific, frequently used as a term of exceptional respect in the Talmudic and early medieval periods. It denotes a person who is scrupulous in his observ ...

who seemed to be completely lacking in situational awareness. The main gag in this piece is

Donny Osmond Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond (born December 9, 1957) is an American singer, dancer, actor, television host, and former teen idol. He first gained fame performing with four of his elder brothers as the Osmonds, earning several top ten hits and gol ...

trying to land a major audition. The CD edition of ''Flash'' included two bonus tracks, "Nighthawks" and "Back on the Streets", which were originally released as B-sides. Another track from the album's recording sessions, " Wild Thing" (a cover of The Troggs), was released only as a

promo single A promotional recording, or promo, or plug copy, is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as ...

and never on the album,"Jeff Beck – Wild Thing"

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

. Retrieved 31 March 2020. but would later be featured on Beck's 1991 compilation album ''

Beckology ''Beckology'' by guitarist Jeff Beck was released in 1991 as a 3 CD career retrospective. Beckology covers the work of a guitarist widely acknowledged as one of the most influential and gifted exponents of the electric guitar, from early days ...

''.

Critical reception

''Flash'' has received mixed reviews.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

gave it three stars out of five and described "People Get Ready" as "a fine performance". David Fricke at ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' called the album "one of Beck's best ever" and praised it as having "awesome guitar prowess and startling commercial daring", but remarked that the collaborations with Rodgers and Baker "almost don't work".

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

at ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' gave it a 'B' grade, labelling it as "funk-metal fusion" and "the best LP of eck'spathologically spotty career"; the latter due to Rodgers' production.

Track listing

Personnel

– lead vocals (tracks 6, 8), guitar, producer (tracks 3, 4, 9, 11) *

Jimmy Hall Jimmy Hall (born April 26, 1949) is the American lead singer and harmonica player for the Southern rock group, Wet Willie. Hall was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and reared in Mobile, Alabama. He first gained notoriety in 1970 as the lead vocal ...

– lead vocals (tracks 1, 2, 5, 7, 10), backing vocals *

– lead vocals (track 4) * Karen Lawrence – lead vocals (track 11) *

– Fairlight CMI (track 3) *

– keyboard (track 9), producer (track 9) *Duane Hitchings – keyboard *

Robert Sabino Robert Sabino is an American rock keyboardist.(14 July 1996)Star Turns From a Home in the Firehouse ''The New York Times'' ("Mr. Sabino, a well-known keyboardist, attracted a record producer, Nile Rodgers, who lived in Fairfield County, to some o ...

– keyboard * Carmine Appice – drums *Jimmy Bralower – drums *Barry DeSouza – drums * Tony "Thunder" Smith – drums *Jay Burnett – percussion * Doug Wimbish – bass *Tina B – backing vocals *Curtis King – backing vocals *David Simms – backing vocals *Frank Simms – backing vocals *George Simms – backing vocals *David Spinner – backing vocals Technical * David Charles – engineering *Jason Corsaro – engineering *Eddie DeLena – engineering *Rob Eaton – engineering * Chris Lord-Alge – engineering *

Tom Lord-Alge Tom Lord-Alge (born January 17, 1963) is an American music engineer and mixer. He began his career at The Hit Factory in New York. Subsequently, he was the resident mixer at what used to be known as "South Beach Studios", located on the ground f ...

– engineering *Eric Mohler – engineering *Tony Tavener – engineering *Nigel Walker – engineering *Andy Wallace – engineering *

– producer (tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10) * Arthur Baker – producer (tracks 2, 7)

Charts

Album

Singles

Awards

Notes

References

{{Authority control Jeff Beck albums 1985 albums Epic Records albums Albums produced by Nile Rodgers Albums produced by Arthur Baker (musician) Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance