Rough and Ready (album)
| Rough and Ready | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by The Jeff Beck Group | ||||
| Released | 25 October 1971 | |||
| Recorded | April–July 1971 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock, blues rock, jazz fusion | |||
| Length | 36:48 | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Producer | Jeff Beck | |||
| The Jeff Beck Group chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| The Village Voice | C+ |
Rough and Ready is the third album by The Jeff Beck Group and the first of two by the second Jeff Beck Group. Released in 1971, 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, 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, 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, a sixteen-day promotional tour in USA followed and the album eventually reached #46 in the album charts.
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