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Credit: The Midnight Special
The Midnight Special’s ever-expanding online archive has released another classic performance, with the full version of Jeff Beck‘s 1975 version of You Know What I Mean, the opening track of that year’s jazz fusion masterpiece, Blow By Blow, finding its way online.
Beck’s appearance on The Midnight Special was as a guest of Billy Preston, who also co-hosted the show, while LaBelle, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, and Tonto’s Expanding Head Band also appeared on the show.
In the footage, Beck is joined by a frankly astonishing group of stellar musicians, including pianist Preston, drummer Ollie Brown, percussionist Buddy Miles, keyboardist Max Middleton (who co-wrote the song with Beck) and bassist Willie Weeks.
To add to the historical nature of the footage, Beck can be seen playing the 1954 Oxblood Gibson Les Paul he was pictured with on the cover of Blow By Blow, an instrument that sold for £1,068,500 ($1,440,221) at auction earlier this year.
The cover of Blow By Blow, a stylised portrait of Beck playing the Les Paul, was painted by John Collier, who also created artwork for albums by Donny Hathaway, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Saga and many more.
You Know What I Mean was released as a single in the US but failed to chart. However, three other songs from the Blow By Blow – Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers, She’s a Woman and Freeway Jam – received widespread airplay on FM radio, which helped the album reach a Top 5 position on the Billboard album chart. More than a decade later, in 1986, it was certified Platinum.
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