BENCH STRENGTH

BENCH STRENGTH

BOX OF FROGS (Epic)

ROD STEWART Camouflage (Warner Bros.)

VANILLA FUDGE Mystery (Atco)

Mitchell Cohen

by

It's been one Old Timers Day after another for Hall of Fame axe-handler Jeff Beck over the past year or so. First he turned up at the A.R.M.S. benefit, jamming with Jimmy Page and singing Hi Ho Silver Lining, and then he strolled into the studios where many of his former colleagues (not, fortunately, Jan Hammer or Donovan) were toiling over their reunion/comeback/reputationresuscitating (pick one) attempts, the results of which are now in record stores everywhere. Beck does his specialty on each of these LPs: on two, three or four cuts per, he comes up with guys on base and sprays some wicked liners to knock them home, then saunters back to the dugout (in the '80s, this is called 'pulling an Eddie Van Halen,' but the phrasemakers have something to learn about the geneology of the Guitar Hero as DH).

Aside from the fact that Beck, at one time or another, was in a band with these vets (quick history for latecomers: he replaced E. Clapton in the Yardbirds, three members of whom are now in Box Of Frogs; then he formed the Jeff Beck Group, with Rod Stewart on lead vocals; and, with the bassist and drummer of Vanilla Fudge, he was the Beck of Beck, Bogert & Appice), the three records under consideration here are fall descendants of albums that were, [in their moment, precedent-setting. Or, as it might go on Jeopardy:

A. Having A Rave-Up With The Yardbirds, Vanilla Fudge, Truth by the Jeff Beck Group.

Q: Name three albums from 1966-68 that established the ground rules for the heavy metal and art-rock of the '70s and thus shaped the sound of AOR as we know it.

Which is to say that it is inconceivable to imagine Led Zeppelin existing without the prior existence of the above-mentioned albums (and if you think the Fudge record is odd disc out, check out their version of Sonny Bono's 'Bang Bang': it's got 'Stairway To Heaven' all over it). Likewise Yes (the band, not the detergent with fabric softener). Likewise The Allman Brothers Band and Derek & The Dominoes et al. (blues + virtuosic guitars + song length2).

What of these '84 LPs? You know what Rod Stewart's been up to. In a nutshell, he's become the Burt Reynolds of rock, and it's a damned shame, because for a few years there he had the whole ball of wax; the pipes, the soul, the smarts. Camouflage isn't Stroker Ace; he seems to be trying, but his reflexes are shot. Free's 'All Right Now' was always a Rod Stewart song in disguise, and now that he's decided to sing it, he botches it. On this album's covers ('Some Guys Have All The Luck,' 'Can We Still Be Friends') he just makes you wonder how he'd have handled them when he knew what he was doing. The LP was produced by Michael Omarfian with the exception of 'Bad For You,' whose 'lyric content does not represent the views of Micheal Omartian, a born again Christian.' Since the song is such a thudding bore, it's hard to see what his gripe is, unless his walkout was over the line 'I put my brand on you.' See, since Stewart's tour is sponsored by Canada Dry, Rod is simply offering the girl a backstage patch, so it's all a big misunderstanding after all. Beck's wrenching guitar solo is the best thing on the aural 'Infatuation,' but, frankly, I wish the song came with a hologram of Kay Lenz.

From 'Infatuation' it's only a short emotional hop to 'Jealousy,' one of two tracks on the Vanilla Fudge reunion LP on which Beck, under the pseudonym J. Toad, puts in a cameo appearance. Anyone who remembers the slo-mo demolition jobs that the Fudge did on such '60s rock artifacts as 'Some Velvet Morning,' 'Shotgun' and 'Eleanor Rigby' might be hoping that the band has come back to work its mischief on today's chart-toppers. Say, Lionel Ritchie's 'Hello.' Or 'Church Of The Poisoned Mind.' No such luck. Not even much organ, their instrumental trademark, or much long-winded psychedelic soul (their 'Walk On By' clocks in at a snappy 4:57, which used to be the length of a Fudge intro). Mystery is a showcase for the melodramatic tenor and dopey songs of Mark Stein who, by the sound of this, wants to be Steve Perry. Good luck to him. Bogert and Appice don't chime in nearly enough with demented high harmonies, and original Fudge guitarist Vinnie Martell plays (rhythm) guitar on only one song. We get some of the power-trio crackle of Beck, Bogert & Appice on'My World Is Empty Without You' but most of Mystery is worse than Cactus. If that can be believed.

Reunions almost never work, in rock 'n' roll or life, and when a group's singer is deceased, and the legendary lead guitarists aren't involved much, what can you expect from a get-together of a rhythm guitarist, bassist and drummer? Confounding the odds-makers, exYardbirds Paul Samwell-Smith, Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty have made a crisp LP of rock-blues, with new vocalist John Fiddler and rotating twangers (Beck, Rory Gallagher, zal). I don't want to make too much of Box Of Frogs' virtues; they sound, at times, like too, too many secondbilled bands at the Fillmore East c. 1970, when Congress proposed a restrictive import tariff on English bands weaned on Elmore James. But particularly on three of the cuts with Beck contributions—'Two Steps Ahead,' 'Another Wasted Day,' 'Back Where I Started'—the band gets off a buzzing, low-key intensity that has a lot in common with early Fleetwood Mac. The songs aren't uniformly strong v but the Frogs play with a sturdy confidence, and the guest guitarists take the opportunity to uncork solos that snap. Unlike Stewart, who's scrambling to make up lost ground, and the Fudge's Stein, who's trying desperately to modernize, the guys in Box Of Frogs get the old engine humming. Wonder if they play 'Dust My Broom.'