- Scatterbrain is an instrumental tune by Jeff Beck, co-written with Max Middleton. The melody reportedly started as Beck’s warm-up exercise, with Middleton adding chords to create a distinctive fusion groove.
- It appears on the 1975 album Blow by Blow, a guitar-led jazz fusion record produced by George Martin and recorded at AIR Studios in London.
- The track features Jeff Beck on guitar and Max Middleton on keyboards, with Jan Hammer also contributing keyboards on the album.
- The tune is known for its fast, tricky melody that shifts with the harmony, using modal ideas such as Bb Phrygian and B Lydian, and it ends with descending unison bends before the improvisation.
- A notable live version was recorded at the Astor Theatre in Reading on August 31, 1976, with Jeff Beck, Jan Hammer, Steve Kindler, Fernando Saunders, and Tony “Thunder” Smith.
