Beck's Bolero
| "Beck's Bolero" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Single by Jeff Beck | ||||
| A-side | "Hi Ho Silver Lining" | |||
| Released | 25 March 1967 | |||
| Format | 45 RPM | |||
| Recorded | 16 May 1966, IBC Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock, Hard rock | |||
| Length | 2:53 | |||
| Label | EMI Columbia | |||
| Writer(s) | Jimmy Page[1] | |||
| Producer | Mickie Most | |||
| Jeff Beck singles chronology | ||||
|
||||
"Beck's Bolero" is a short, rock-based instrumental piece heavily influenced by Maurice Ravel's Boléro, recorded in May 1966 by Jeff Beck with Jimmy Page (then a prolific session musician) on guitar, John Paul Jones on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano, and Keith Moon on drums. Jeff had long been the lead guitarist with the Yardbirds, whose management was encouraging the individual band members to bring attention to the band through success in solo projects.[2] The song wasn't released until March 24, 1967 (April 3 in the U.S.), though, by which time Jeff was long gone from the Yardbirds--and it was "hidden" as the B-side of the Beck single "Hi Ho Silver Lining," at that. (The single charted at Number 14 on the UK charts, 123 in the U.S.[3]) In early pressings of the UK 45, Columbia DB 8151, the title was listed on the label as "Bolero" and the songwriting credit listed Jeff Beck as the composer.[4] "Beck's Bolero" was released in 1968 on the Jeff Beck Group album Truth.[5]
Contents |
[edit] Composition
The song is roughly divided into three parts; The first part features two lead guitars playing separate melodies over a bolero rhythm modelled after Ravel's: the first a rock lead in a moderately overdriven tone, the other playing a slide piece in a cleaner tone resembling a steel guitar. A simultaneous drum break and vocal scream is heard roughly halfway through the recording (courtesy of Moon, who knocked over his recording mic in the process, resulting in his crash cymbal being heard over the other percussion for the rest of the piece), after which the band begins playing a powerful blues-rock section. The first fuzzbox-distorted lead guitar eventually emerges with the bolero rhythm, this time played with percussive flourishes. Shortly thereafter, another lead guitar emerges, playing its own melody. The song then comes to an abrupt end.
[edit] Recording
"Beck's Bolero" was recorded at IBC Studios in London on 16 May 1966, and involved some controversy and secrecy among its performers.[6] John Entwistle of The Who, originally scheduled to play bass, could not attend, so John Paul Jones (then a well-respected London session musician, later a member of Led Zeppelin with Page) was called in as a last-minute replacement.[7] Beck, Page, fellow session player Hopkins, Jones, and Entwistle's bandmate Moon planned to record a whole album, but contractual obligations prevented them from recording together again. "Beck's Bolero" became the only recording from the session to be released.
Jeff Beck played a Gibson Les Paul for the lead guitar parts and the backwards slide parts through a Vox AC30 amplifier.[8] Jimmy Page played a Fender XII 12-string electric guitar for the rhythm guitar parts.
Moon came to the session in disguise so no one would know he was playing with a band other than The Who.[9] Beck later claimed that Pete Townshend "glared like daggers at me" after he found out about the recording sessions.[10]
[edit] Influence on rock
Beck claims that "Beck's Bolero" may contain the first heavy metal riff,[11] probably referring to the aggressive guitar-bass line in the midsong break, played six times in the break's ascending keys. The May 1966 recording pre-dated by only weeks or months other 1966 landmarks in hard rock and protometal, including the formation of Cream, Jimmy Page's formal joining with Beck as a member of the Yardbirds, and Jimi Hendrix's arrival in England to form the Experience.
"Beck's Bolero" also inspired Duane Allman to take up slide guitar, later his signature style. In St. Louis, Allman's Hour Glass bandmate Paul Hornsby put "Beck's Bolero" on a record player for him, and Allman "'loved that slide part and told me he was going to learn to play it,' Paul said." [12]
American rock group The James Gang (who had also covered the Yardbirds' "Lost Woman") directly quoted the entire slide guitar passage of "Beck's Bolero" in their own multi-part suite, "The Bomber" from their 1969 album James Gang Rides Again, which ironically also included a rendition of Ravel's original Bolero.
[edit] Disagreement over credits
 |
This section is written in the style of a debate rather than an encyclopedic summary. It may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards and make it more accessible to a general audience. Please discuss this issue on the talk page. (April 2009) |
Mickie Most claimed production credit on the song when it was released as a single even though he was not in the studio either at the recording or mixing stages.[13]
Page is officially credited for the arrangement, although there is disagreement over creative input. Beck explained on how the tune was written:
Well, with some difficulty and largely without me! ..... I went over to Jim's house and he had this 12-string Fender and he loved the idea of using a bolero-type rhythm for a rock record. He was playing the bolero rhythm and I played the melody on top of it, but then I said, "Jim, you've got to break away from the bolero beat - you can't go on like that for ever!". So we stopped it dead in the middle of the song - like the Yardbirds would do on 'For Your Love' - then we stuck that riff into the middle.[14]
In a interview for Guitar Player magazine, Beck elaborated:
Me and Jim Page arranged a session with Keith Moon in secret, just to see what would happen. But we had to have something to play in the studio because Keith only had a limited time -- he could only give us like three hours before his roadies would start looking for him. So I went over to Jim's house a few days before the session, and he was strumming away on this 12-string Fender electric that had a really big sound. It was the sound of that Fender 12-string that really inspired the melody. And I don't care what he says, I invented that melody, such as it is. I know I'm going to get screamed at because in some articles he says he invented it, he wrote it. I say I invented it. This is what it was: He hit these Amaj7 chords and the Fm7 chords, and I just started playing over the top of it. We agreed that we would go in and get Moonie to play a bolero rhythm with it. That's where it came from, and in three or four takes it was down. John Paul Jones on the bass. In fact, that group could have been a new Led Zeppelin.[15]
This has remained a point of contention between the two. In an interview he gave in 1977, Page contradicted Beck's version:
You see on the “Beck’s Bolero” ... thing I was working with that, the track was done and then the producer just disappeared. He was never seen again; he simply didn’t come back. [Simon] Napier-Bell just sort of left me and Jeff to it. Jeff was playing, and I was in the box (recording booth). And even though it says he wrote it, I wrote it. I’m playing the electric 12-string on it. Beck’s doing the slide bits, and I’m basically playing around the chords. The idea was built around Maurice Ravel’s’ “Bolero.” It’s got a lot of drama to it; it came off right. It was a good lineup too, with Keith Moon and everything.[16]
In a separate interview, also given in 1977, Page expressed his recollections more bluntly:
[I] wrote it, played on it, produced it... and I don't give a damn what [Beck] says. That's the truth.[17]
Whatever disagreements they had in the past, they still appear to have remained as friends. Both Page and Beck have appeared together in magazine articles[18] and photo shoots.[19] Beck attended the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert at the O2 Arena London on 10 December 2007 and Page was in the audience at one of Beck's concerts at Ronnie Scott's, London in November of the same year. On 4 April 2009, Page formally inducted Beck into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[20] Page and Beck were previously present and inducted as members of The Yardbirds in 1992.[21] "Beck's Bolero" was performed by both Beck and Page together at the induction ceremony, with Page playing the original Fender XII guitar from the 1966 session.
[edit] Accolades
| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bruce Pollock | United States | "The 7,500 Most Important Songs of 1944-2000"[22] | 2005 | * |
| Toby Creswell | Australia | "1001 Songs: the Great Songs of All Time"[23] | 2005 | * |
(*) designates unordered lists.
[edit] Formats and tracklistings
The song appeared as a B-side on the 1967 "Hi Ho Silver Lining" single, and also on the 1968 Jeff Beck Group album Truth. On the original mono mix of the song (the B-Side and Mono Album Version), it ends with a brief backwards guitar solo by Page that would later come to define the sound of Led Zeppelin. This version can be found on the 2006 CD remaster as a bonus track and on Sundazed Records recent reissue of the original mono vinyl version of the album.
[edit] Personnel
- Jeff Beck – electric guitar
- Jimmy Page – 12-string guitar
- Nicky Hopkins – keyboards
- John Paul Jones – bass guitar
- Keith Moon – drums
[edit] Cover versions
- 1969: Led Zeppelin (quoted in "How Many More Times" from Led Zeppelin I)
- 1969: SRC (Milestones)
- 2000: The Posies (At Least, at Last)
- 2003: El Whoppo & the Tequila Banditos ("Beck's Bolero")
- 2004: Les Fradkin & Get Wet (A Day at the Beach)
- 2004: STS (Shooting the Sun)
- 2007: Eric Johnson (Freeway Jam: To Beck and Back)
- 2008: Return to Forever (Live at Montreux 2008)
- 2009: Mystic Creek (live version)
- 2010: The Stuttering Cocoons (Let's hear it for the Anal Obelisk)
[edit] References
- ^ Publisher entry
- ^ Hjort, Christopher, & Doug Hinman (2000). Jeff's Book. Rumford, Rhode Island: Rock 'n' Roll Research Press. p. 49.
- ^ "Top 100 Singles - 13 May 1967". chartstats.com. http://www.chartstats.com/songinfo.php?id=4566. Retrieved 2009-01-19.
- ^ 45cat.
- ^ Hjort & Hinman. p. 90.
- ^ Clayson, Alan (2002). The Yardbirds: The Band That Launched Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page (1st ed.). San Francisco: Backbeat Books. p. 180. ISBN 0-87930-724-2.
- ^ Terralavoro, David (November 1990). "Jeff Beck - "The Early Years"". The Jeff Beck Fanzine Issue #1. Terralavoro. http://www.ainian.com/fanz1.html#1. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
- ^ Jeff Beck on "Beck's Bolero".
- ^ Noble, Douglas J (June 1993). "Jeff Beck on "Beck's Bolero"". Guitar Magazine Vol 3 No 4/The Jeff Beck Bulletin issue 2, Summer 1993. Guitar Magazine. http://www.djnoble.demon.co.uk/ints/JEFFBEC.KON.html. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
- ^ Fletcher, Tony (2000). Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend (1st ed.). New York: Harper Collins. p. 188. ISBN 0-380-78827-6.
- ^ Clayson, Alan (2002). The Yardbirds: The Band That Launched Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page (1st ed.). San Francisco: Backbeat Books. p. 95. ISBN 0-87930-724-2.
- ^ Freeman, Scott (1995). Midnight Riders: The Story of the Allman Brothers Band. Boston: Little, Brown. p. 31.
- ^ Terralavoro, David (November 1992). "Jeff Beck - The Early Years (1965-1967)". The Jeff Beck Fanzine Issue #4. Terralavoro. http://www.ainian.com/fanz4.html#1. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
- ^ Noble, Douglas J (June 1993). "Jeff Beck on "Beck's Bolero"". Guitar Magazine Vol 3 No 4/The Jeff Beck Bulletin issue 2, Summer 1993. Guitar Magazine. http://www.djnoble.demon.co.uk/ints/JEFFBEC.KON.html. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
- ^ Best of Guitar Player '95
- ^ Steven Rosen, 1977 Jimmy Page Interview, Modern Guitars, May 25, 2007 (originally published in the July 1977, issue of Guitar Player magazine).
- ^ Dave Schulps, Interview with Jimmy Page, Trouser Press, October 1977.
- ^ "Page + Beck", in Guitar World October 1999
- ^ Ross Halfin Photo Gallery
- ^ "Rock Hall presenters to include Eminem, Jimmy Page". Entertainment News. Associated Press. 20 March 2009. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/ROCK_HALL_PRESENTERS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-03-20-15-58-46. Retrieved 2009-04-04.[dead link]
- ^ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum: Inductee Biography: The Yardbirds (1992)
- ^ "The 7,500 Most Important Songs of 1944-2000 - 2005". Acclaimed Music. http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/Current/S4102.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
- ^ Creswell, Toby (2005). "Beck's Bolero". 1001 Songs: the Great Songs of All Time (1st ed.). Prahran: Hardie Grant Books. p. 234. ISBN 9781740664585.
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
