BECK'S BOLERO (1967) by the Jeff Beck Group - with backwards guitar ending video free download


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Duration: 03:19
Uploaded: 2009/11/04

This instrumental track was recorded in 1966 by Jeff Beck (lead guitars), Jimmy Page (12 string rhythm), John Paul Jones (bass), Keith Moon (drums) and Nicky Hopkins (piano). I had the extended version of this with backwards guitar at the end as the flip side of Beck's single, Hi Ho Silver Lining (1967). However it is best known as a track on Beck's album Truth (1968), minus this end bit. Here is the complete track.

The following is paraphrased from Douglas J Noble's article written based on his interview with Beck: So how did Jimmy Page come to write 'Beck's Bolero'? '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......I was using a Les Paul for the lead guitar and for the backwards slide guitar through a Vox AC30 - it was the only amp I had and it was covered with beer! Actually, I think it was the beer that gave it it's sound! You can hear Moon screaming in the middle of the record over the drum break. If you listen after the drum break you can only hear the cymbal afterwards 'cause he knocked the mic over! Wonderful!'

As I understand it, the track was recorded with all musicians playing at the same time, as Beck is reported to have said there was 'leaking' into one another's microphones. He also suggested that there were 3 or 4 songs came out of it of which only Bolero saw the light of day and one other had a finished melody. No others were released.

Unfortunately there are no videos of the song, or photos of the session, so I have created a slide show for it. Comments are invited on this video but please no 'my guitarist is better than your guitarist'.

Comments

8 years ago

kathy 2trips

Though I was just a kid at the time (like, 8 or something), I remember reading in one of my rock fan mags that the "finished melody" song was, in fact, "Rice Pudding", which didn't get used until "Beck-Ola" for some reason (probably legal).

8 years ago

james woody

Is this Jimmy Page on slide guitar? Anyone?

8 years ago

Russ Smith

The great (and underrated) Jeff Beck. #jeffbeck 

8 years ago

Maria Evans

Hold on now you guys, there are a few of us in this modern generation who think this revolutionary music kicks ass! Thank you, mom and dad for that. The fact that Page, Beck, Jones, and Moon all jammed on this blows my mind. Radical song

8 years ago

harry lamb

Unforgettable!! Sublime!! One of the pinnacles of English rock.

8 years ago

kathy 2trips

This is a beautiful line up; no slackers in the bunch. All performances are stellar. Wish they could have made this work.

8 years ago

dr. rae christopher

One of the best versions of Beck's Bolero.

9 years ago

Rob Sokolyk

Ain't it something that there are no musicians like these guys around today for the current generation of kids to look up to? Why do you think so many 60's acts make so much money comming out of retirement and touring all the time? Wheres today's Jeff Beck, keith Moon, etc? No, you get Britney Spears, go home. These kids today are actually jealous of us baby boomers because we had such greats to look up to. And when putting together a super group for a one tme thing such as this who better to get than the greatest drummer of all time Keith Moon! This song takes me back in time to old Goodale Elementary on Detroit's east side sneaking a smoke in the playground, man what a time indeed!

9 years ago

mjazzguitar

I never knew all those guys played on this track.Does it say so on the album?

9 years ago

JohnJohnerson

So epic

9 years ago

dezert fox

Strange, yet beautifully evocative.

9 years ago

Mike Cobb

One of the Best

9 years ago

Andy Thomas

Still A Blast! PS. Should be listened to in Mono for the bottom end alone!

9 years ago

Norebo Oberon

Yeah,one of my favorities, when I heard Beck's Bolero first time I was in British Music for ever at that time when a was a kid. Later a Zepp fan and never forgot Beck.

9 years ago

Guglielmo Marcheselli

è la versione del 45 giri che avevo acquistato nel 1968

9 years ago

SK Sheppard

This is NOT The Jeff Beck Group.This song was recorded in May 1966 while Beck was still in The Yardbirds. The group playing here consists of Beck, Jimmy Page (who wrote and produced it), Keith Moon, John Paul Jones and Nicky Hopkins. It was released on Truth by The Jeff Beck Group but Beck is the only member of that group that plays on this song.

9 years ago

tjdinvt

+PowerGuido Kilmister From an interview Jeff Beck gave to Tony Fletcher: 'You hear [Keith Moon] scream, and at the same moment he screams, he knocks the microphone off the stand.... He does play quite reservedly early on, you can hear his bass drum going, then when we come to the bridge he screams and does a roll. And then the cymbal fill is so wild that he actually smashes the mike, deliberately, because he’s in that vicinity of the mike. Boff! Kicks the mike off with a stick, and then you don’t hear the drum again. And that’s the tape we used.'

9 years ago

Bliss Blossum

Now this is a mighty, meaty, MONDAY!!!

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