What would happen if you gave Jeff Beck a Floyd Rose?

[toomanycats]

This would happen, the song "Ambitious" from Jeff Beck's 1985 album Flash. One of the great face melter solos of all time. Still gives me chills.

[Partscaster]

Great Sandwich, is right.

[toomanycats]

I was just an adolescent when this video first aired on MTV in 1985, and it can confirm that it was on heavy rotation at the time.

Back then I was a young guy who had recently picked up the guitar, having been inspired to play by people like Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, and Neal Schon. I was also familiar with the newer crop of hot guitar players in bands like RATT and Dokken. It is somewhat embarrassing to admit that, apart from seeing his name referenced in highly reverential terms in magazines like Guitar Player, Guitar World, and Guitar For the Practicing Musician, I was unfamiliar with Jeff Beck.

When I saw the video for "Ambitious" it blew my mind. Every time I heard it on I ran to the tv and planted myself in front of it. Who was this guy?!?! Understand, there was no Wikipedia and no YouTube. I didn't have parents, older siblings, or friends with Beck's records in their collection. Everything was a mystery to me back then, hidden darkly behind a veil.

In my OP I cued up the video for "Ambitious" at the end solo because, well, it's the part that is most devastating. But this entire video is genius on a level which I can only now fully appreciate and articulate. Do yourself a favor and watch the entire video from the beginning.

Consider this: Here is Jeff Beck, who in 1985 had not had a "hit" record in ten years, since the pair Blow by Blow (1974) and Wired (1976). That time span is an eternity in show business.

In the video for "Ambitious" Jeff (or whoever it was who is the brainchild behind the video) self-consciously capitalizes on his forgotten, has-been status, casting other 70s, long-in-the-tooth cultural icons such as Donny Osmond, Parker Stevenson, Marilyn McCoo, Tattoo, Cheech Marin, Al Cooper, and Herb Alpert, amongst others. In this video all these people are poking fun at themselves. But here also is Jeff, one amongst his 70s peers, showing that he can still throw down and kick anyone's ass who has shown up in the last ten years. Jeff even uses this new-fangled Jackson Soloist instrument with the Floyd Rose toy on it, showing how it can be used in an eminently musical and expressive way, and not just as a gimmick. How many people can pull that off?

In the years after its release Jeff Beck panned the Nile Rodgers produced Flash album, calling it a, "record company goof." But I find it to be a work of genius, and "Ambitious" in particular a song containing one of the greatest guitar solos ever.

[andrewsrea]

Donny Osmond was singing that right? This was his breaking out of bubblegum into legitimacy, courtesy of Jeff Beck.

[toomanycats]

Donny Osmond was singing that right? This was his breaking out of bubblegum into legitimacy, courtesy of Jeff Beck.

Yes, Donny is the guy wearing the sunglasses and goes second to last before the end solo.

Honestly, I don't know who many of those other people are, though I assume they're celebrities and notables of some type. Like the "Great sandwich" guy for instance . . . Who the heck is he?

[bc rich]

Check out Simon Phillips reminiscing on working with Jeff Beck. At the 4min mark 'I don't like easy to play guitars' is interesting.
Flash is a cherisded cd.