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| Genre = [[Hard rock]]
| Genre = [[Hard rock]]
| Length = 2:53
| Length = 2:53
| Writer = [[Jimmy Page]]<ref>[http://repertoire.bmi.com/title.asp?blnWriter=True&blnPublisher=True&blnArtist=True&keyID=97930&ShowNbr=0&ShowSeqNbr=0&querytype=WorkID Publisher entry]</ref>
| Writer = [[Jeff Beck]], [[Jimmy Page]]<ref>[http://repertoire.bmi.com/title.asp?blnWriter=True&blnPublisher=True&blnArtist=True&keyID=97930&ShowNbr=0&ShowSeqNbr=0&querytype=WorkID Publisher entry]</ref>
| Label = [[Columbia Records|Columbia]]
| Label = [[Columbia Records|Columbia]]
| Producer = [[Jimmy Page]], [[Mickie Most]]
| Producer = [[Jimmy Page]], [[Mickie Most]]

Revision as of 01:28, 15 August 2009

"Beck's Bolero"
Song
A-side"Hi Ho Silver Lining"

"Beck's Bolero" is a short, rock-based instrumental piece heavily influenced by Maurice Ravel's Bolero, recorded by Jeff Beck with Jimmy Page on guitar, John Paul Jones on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano, and Keith Moon on drums. The song was first released as the b-side of a Jeff Beck solo single on 25 March 1967, and was later on released on the 1968 album Truth. The single charted at Number 14 on the UK charts.[2]

"Beck's Bolero" is considered by many critics to be an important work in the early proto development of both the heavy rock and progressive rock genres.[3]

Song structure

The song is roughly divided into three parts. The first part being two lead guitars playing separate melodies over a bolero rhythm; the first a rock lead in a moderately overdriven tone; the other playing a slide piece in a clean slinky tone resembling a steel guitar. A simultaneous drum break and vocal scream is heard at halfway (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 from the sonic sludge along with the bolero rhythm, this time being played with percussive flourishes. Shortly thereafter, another lead guitar playing its own melody. The song is then brought to a very abrupt end as the band simply stops playing.

Recording

"Beck's Bolero" was recorded at IBC Studios on 16 May 1966.[4] John Entwistle was scheduled to play bass but couldn't attend, so John Paul Jones was called in as a last minute replacement.[5] Beck, Page, Hopkins, Jones and Moon planned to record a whole album, but contractual obligations prevented them from recording together again, and this was the only song from that session that was released, as a b-side. Moon couldn't leave The Who and he arrived at the studio during the sessions in disguise so no one would know he was playing with another band.[6] Jeff Beck later claimed that Pete Townshend "glared like daggers at me" after he found out about the recording sessions.[7]

Disagreement over credits

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.[8]

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.[9]

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.[10]

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.[11]

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.[12]

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[13] and photo shoots.[14] Beck attended the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert at the O2 Arena London on 10 December 2007. On 4 April 2009, Page formally inducted Beck into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[15] Page and Beck were previously present and inducted as members of The Yardbirds in 1992.[16] "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.

Accolades

Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Bruce Pollock United States "The 7,500 Most Important Songs of 1944-2000"[17] 2005 *
Toby Creswell Australia "1001 Songs: the Great Songs of All Time"[18] 2005 *
DigitalDreamDoor United States "The 100 Greatest Rock Guitar Solos"[19] 2005 133
DigitalDreamDoor United States "The 100 Greatest Rock Instrumentals"[20] 2008 44

(*) designates unordered lists.

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.

Personnel

Cover versions

References

  1. ^ Publisher entry
  2. ^ "Top 100 Singles - 13 May 1967". chartstats.com. Retrieved 2009-01-19.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Terralavoro, David (November 1990). "Jeff Beck - "The Early Years"". The Jeff Beck Fanzine Issue #1. Terralavoro. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
  6. ^ 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. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Terralavoro, David (November 1992). "Jeff Beck - The Early Years (1965-1967)". The Jeff Beck Fanzine Issue #4. Terralavoro. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
  9. ^ 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. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
  10. ^ Best of Guitar Player '95
  11. ^ Steven Rosen, 1977 Jimmy Page Interview, Modern Guitars, May 25, 2007 (originally published in the July 1977, issue of Guitar Player magazine).
  12. ^ Dave Schulps, Interview with Jimmy Page, Trouser Press, October 1977.
  13. ^ "Page + Beck", in Guitar World October 1999
  14. ^ Ross Halfin Photo Gallery
  15. ^ "Rock Hall presenters to include Eminem, Jimmy Page". Entertainment News. Associated Press. 20 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
  16. ^ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum: Inductee Biography: The Yardbirds (1992)
  17. ^ "The 7,500 Most Important Songs of 1944-2000 - 2005". Acclaimed Music. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
  18. ^ Creswell, Toby (2005). "Beck's Bolero". 1001 Songs: the Great Songs of All Time (1st ed.). Prahran: Hardie Grant Books. p. 234. ISBN 9781740664585. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  19. ^ "The 100 Greatest Rock Guitar Solos - 2005". DigitalDreamDoor. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
  20. ^ "The 100 Greatest Rock Instrumentals - 2008". DigitalDreamDoor. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
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