BEEFY’S TUNE (DEAN BLUNT EDIT): BOOK REVIEW

Dean Blunt is the type of artist who you could write volumes about, and Dhanveer Signh Brar begins that tradition with his book-essay Beefy’s Tune (Dean Blunt Edit). In his essay, he compares the ethos of Babyfather’s 2016 album titled “BBF” and Franco Rosso’s 1981 feature film Babylon. He uses these two seemingly disparate references to explore Blackness within Britain. Through this parallel, he draws a direct line between the speech of Franco’s main character, Beefy, and the intense feeling of alienation that Blunt portrays on BBF. Beefy’s Tune (Dean Blunt Edit) offers a much-needed analysis of Blunt’s work and attempts to meet him on his playing field.

In the film Babylon, the character Beefy is an intense man prone to loud laughter and seems to need protection from the world by those around him. Although he has these quirks, he is the character through which the viewer learns about race and belonging. Specifically, Beefy gives a speech towards the middle of the film in a climactic moment. He says, “This is my country lady! And it’s never been fucking lovely!” This phrase acts as a thesis for this text. The idea that something can be yours, and be something that you rebel against is central to Dean Blunt’s music. With BBF, Blunt shows that there is no contradiction here.

Beefy’s Tune (Dean Blunt Edit) is special, because of how it bridges the role of the critic and the writer. The book is written in an almost academic fashion: it has a clear thesis and moves through various progressions to prove its overall point, but Brar’s style of writing flows in a way that keeps you searching for more. There’s an intimate beauty to the words Brar chooses and a clear demonstration of a personal connection to both Blunt’s work and his overall message. At times, when the writing becomes too academic, Brar does an excellent job of bringing us back to the music. At the end of the day, everything flows through the art.

Beefy’s Tune (Dean Blunt Edit) takes Dean Blunt’s words seriously. Blunt has never been one to hide his feelings on the world, but in his music, he often obscures his message behind humor or distortion. This book aims to cut through some of that distortion and reveals a few things about the author Brar in the process. Dean Blunt creates music meant to echo your personal experiences and throughout this book we learn more about Brar than Blunt himself. This is an interesting unintended consequence of the book that puts yet another spin on the argument presented.

Brar offers us a better way to understand our relationship to our country through the words of Dean Blunt. In the book, he reveals to us his own relationship with Blunt’s work and through that offers us the opportunity to connect on a deeper level ourselves. Brar expertly bridges criticism with artfully academic prose to create a book that feels almost like a poem. Beefy’s Tune (Dean Blunt Edit) is an intense trip through Blunt and Brar’s minds and an interesting read for anyone interested in British music.