Beck did work with singers again, including Stewart, on Flash, which is probably the only decent song on the record ("People Get Ready," an old bit of gospel).
I like "People Get Ready" quite a bit, but that sort of proves my point-- a flash guitarist like Beck is only decently matched by a great singer-- something that happens so rarely in Beck's career that his greatness is really best understood in the context of his instrumental work.
Which leads, actually, to an interesting question: how come there are so few rock'n'roll insrumentalists who eschew vocals? When you think about it, that was one of the things that was so notable about "Blow By Blow"-- there just aren't many all instrumental sides out there. Some of this has to do with rock's roots in the Blues-- a traditionally vocal music, but I think there is more to it.
I think the answer is simple, although I don't think it's one that either one of us may like. It's about money. Recording companies need to sell records. Eventually this will effect the artisits work. More consumers will buy Rock n Roll music with vocals, than consumers that will buy instrumental albums. There may be a small part of Rock n Roll musicians that will not have vocals because of purely musical reasons, but there may be another facor. Having played with many other musicians I can tell you, when you put a masterfully talented guitarist in the same room as a vocalist with a ego the size of the universe, well, just sit back and watch the show.
I have a bootleg CD of a 1969 or 1970 NYC concert by the Jeff Beck Group with Bob Tench on "vocals." The sound quality is very poor, which is fortunate, because I believe that the sounds that Bob Tench makes on this recording would cause male sterility if they were any more audible. I never listen to it, but it's so incredibly bad that it's one of my treasured possessions.
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