Beck, Bogert & Appice

Discussions among guitarist Jeff Beck, bassist Tim Bogert, and drummer Carmine Appice about forming a supergroup dated back to 1970, yet those plans stalled when Beck sustained a fractured skull in a car accident. With the guitarist sidelined for more than a year, Bogert and Appice, both veterans of Vanilla Fudge, instead launched Cactus alongside singer Rusty Day and guitarist Jim McCarty, delivering several boogie rock albums on Atlantic before the band split. Once recovered, Beck assembled a fresh Jeff Beck Group lineup that produced two records and then disbanded in 1972; at that point Bogert and Appice rejoined him, and the three musicians quickly tracked material that became the solidly selling Beck, Bogert & Appice LP in 1973. An in-demand live set later appeared exclusively in Japan. While they were preparing a follow-up studio album, Beck suddenly disbanded the group in early 1974. Although the musicians reconvened for occasional one-off shows, they never resumed full-time activity.

After Beck’s unexpected passing several months prior, Rhino released the four-disc concert overview Live 1973 & 1974 in September 2023. Beck and Appice had overseen remixes of two full performances: the 1973 Japan concert that had originally surfaced only in extremely limited form, plus a 1974 date at London’s Rainbow Theater captured shortly before the breakup. The Rainbow set featured live renditions of tracks slated for the trio’s unfinished second album.