Jeff Beck – Beck’s Bolero

I hardly ever post instrumentals but this one is special. Keith Moon on drums, John Paul Jones on bass, Nicky Hopkins on keyboard and Jimmy Page,  on 12-string guitar along with Jeff Beck on slide. John Paul Jones said the group that played on Beck’s Bolero was going to be called Led Zeppelin…They were kicking around the idea of touring

Jimmy Page is credited with writing the song but Jeff has said no that he worked more of it out.

Jimmy Page: “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. Napier-Bell, he just sort of left me and Jeff to it. Jeff was playing and I was in the box (recording booth). And even though he 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 (classical composer) 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.”

Jeff Beck: “No, Page didn’t write that song,” Beck has insisted. “We sat down in his front room once, this tiny, pokey room, and he was sitting on the arm of a chair and he started playing that Ravel rhythm. He had a 12-string, and it sounded so full, really fat and heavy. And I just played the melody. And I went home and worked out the other bit [the up-tempo section].”

This song was the B side to Hi Ho Silver Lining which peaked at #14 in the UK in 1967. The song was later on Jeff Beck’s Truth album.

From Songfacts

Beck recorded this with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Keith Moon and Nicky Hopkins during a single-day recording session in 1966. They 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. This Beck/Page/Jones/Moon/Hopkins combination had the makings of a supergroup, and it nearly happened, but they couldn’t find a suitable lead singer, failing to pry Steve Marriott away from Small Faces. Page and Jones then formed Led Zeppelin.

Author: badfinger20

Power Pop fan, Baseball fan, old movie and tv show fan... and a songwriter, bass and guitar player. View all posts by badfinger20