In 1974, Jeff Beck found himself in a repeating cycle that rivaled the predicament of Bill Murray’s character, Phil, in the movie Groundhog Day.
AFTER BEING BOOTED from the Yardbirds in late November 1966, Beck formed three different bands — two iterations of the Jeff Beck Group, and the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice — that enjoyed moderate popularity primarily as touring acts. But no matter how much Beck varied his approach with the three bands, the outcome was always the same. Each managed to release two albums (in BBA’s instance a studio and a live album), but none of those records delivered any hits, and commercial success remained elusive. All three groups lasted only a few years before Beck became frustrated or disinterested in the projects and moved on.
Work on the second Beck, Bogert & Appice studio album began in January 1974, but that May, Beck pulled the plug before it was completed and disbanded the group. The guitarist had grown tired of recycling the same old blues-rock riffs and licks he’d been playing for most of his career, and realized that he needed to make a radical shift in
