Beck's Bolero

[8mileshigh]

So I'm cleaning out my office drawers Monday and I found the Truth CD and instantly popped it in the PC for a listen since I really never listened to it much.

Up comes Beck's Bolero and I think I must have played it 20 times here and on the way home in the car. Now, 48 hours later, I can't get this song out of my head, it plays over and over and it's driving me crazy !

I'm going to go home today, find my DIY tone bender and see if playing it full blast helps.

[hasserl]

That is one of my favorite records from way back. I was introduced to it by older brothers & friends. That album has probably my favorite Rod Stewart vocals and I've always wondered why he hasn't returned to those roots.

Beck on guitar, Ron Wood on bass, Rod Stewart on vocals, too bad none of them ever made it, huh? ;)

[Wagster]

Jeff Beck is the man!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vuj5toLeyY8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1hijzkOrnk

[blhm84]

That section when the drums really kick in, and it gets reallll rocking, is as heavy or heavier than anything put out by Zeppelin, Sabbath, or Deep Purple. Great tune.

[parvulesco]

The backing group for "Beck's Bolero" was Jimmy Page on Fender 12-string, John Paul Jones on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano, and Keith Moon on drums. Produced by Jimmy Page, with both Beck and Page claiming to have written it.

[aeolian]

This song was such a big influence on me. I spent many lonely highschool hours in my room with my guitar, laying on the bed playing that riff over and over. Sometimes working to try and get rid of the pick sound (didn't know he used his thumb) and sometimes trying to get the bends on pitch, and other times just letting my feelings though it. This song was so far ahead of it's time in so many ways. I'd wager that even if you've never heard it, that how you play was influenced by someone who's playing was influenced by this song.

[TommyMambo]

Love his tone on the middle slide breakdown on that...

[picnic]

We did BB at a FDP jam last spring after several attempts to get the song on the list. What a blast! No practice, just go for it. I played rhythm and slide part, someone had the lead, old buddy on bass and can't remember who drummed.
The outro had all of us going for broke. IPLAYLOUD crushed the outro solo too. WOW! I think we did a decent rendition, but just playing the song live was the real prize.

[TresGatos]

...with both Beck and Page claiming to have written it.

Well since Page claimed to have written most everything back then, I give it to Beck. :)

It is a classic track that thanks to you I can't get out of my head. (I don't mind really, it replaced Frankie goes to Hollywood's Pleasuredome):p

[zep41]

It was incredible seeing Beck and Page play this at the RnR HOF inductions this year. Page played the exact same Fender 12 string that he used on the original recording of the track (which is also the same guitar that he used on Stairway and probably the Song Remains the Same).

Page just stood off the stage and played the rhythm to Bolero, then before the riff part he walked out and him and Beck launched into Immigant Song. Then they segued into the Bolero riff.

Man it was sweet.

[Dave Shoop]

The Truth album was my first real exposure to Jeff Beck. His approach to playing just knocked me out. Joe Walsh did a cool thing with Bolero in "The Bomber ". Growing up Beck and Walsh were my guitar hero's.

[Lance]

Hmm, it seems that in 2006 they did another remastering, and included a bunch of killer bonus tracks. According to the Amazon reviews it sounds much better than the 2000 remaster, and is currently a mere $7.98. Ordering now....

Thanks for the thread!

[JDW3]

The backing group for "Beck's Bolero" was Jimmy Page on Fender 12-string, John Paul Jones on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano, and Keith Moon on drums. Produced by Jimmy Page, with both Beck and Page claiming to have written it.

I think Page wrote the 12 string rhythm, Beck wrote the cool electric lick and slide part, and Jones wrote the middle rave up. JPJ wrote a lot of the box pattern licks in LZ. Black Dog, Livin Lovin etc...

[epluribus]

One of those songs that sears itself into your brain the minute you hear it. Been playing that doggone thing since it came out! Still haven't got it *nailed* or anything--I'm not sure any mortal human can get through it without breaking off into improv at some point. :) Kinda like not bitin' a Tootsie Pop...

--Ray

[Tone_Terrific]

Had to listen to that, again.
I've played that, too, in some form, once upon a time.
Check James Gang 'The Bomber' for something that must be Bolero-inspired.

[Flyin' Brian]

I saw him the summer and he opened with Bolero. Not a bad start to an amazing set.

[Joe Kerr]

ECHOPLEX EP3.... It might be done with a digital delay ie mxr 1000ms
they sound real great to my ears.

Try 390 ms with about 8 repeats
25% feedback and 33% mix

For the slide part even sounds good with chordal parts behind
the slide parts.

Hard to beat a great echoplex in this tune really.
This is the setting I have made for this tune its close.
need some verb in the mix and im using a bbbo7 lovepedal
to nail that boosted sound.

lovepedals rule.

[JRC4558Dude]

Love his tone on the middle slide breakdown on that...

Oh man, me too! Most gorgeous delay sound I've ever heard. I'll probably never be able to afford a real tape echo, but that's what I look for in a delay pedal. Anything that can get me close to that beautiful tone!

[66fs]

I was lucky enough to see the jeff beck group in chicago on their first us tour. Rod Stewart actually played the "rhythm" part while semi-kneeling on the stage for bolero. I must have been like 16 or 17. Talk about wanting a les paul and a marshall!

[ROKY]

Oh man, me too! Most gorgeous delay sound I've ever heard. I'll probably never be able to afford a real tape echo, but that's what I look for in a delay pedal. Anything that can get me close to that beautiful tone!

Andy Fuchs new tube delay sounds verrrry close to it .

[wntbtw]

I was lucky enough to see the jeff beck group in chicago on their first us tour. Rod Stewart actually played the "rhythm" part while semi-kneeling on the stage for bolero. I must have been like 16 or 17. Talk about wanting a les paul and a marshall!

Now that is definitely cool!

[GerryJ]

Jeff Beck on Moon's drumming - the spot in the song just before the middle riffing section-

You hear him scream, and at the same moment he screams, he knocks the microphone off the stand and then he disappears (Laughs) That was the most magical moment. That was Keith on the record, doing what he does on the record and it was scary to hear it on the multitrack.

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! By that time we were leaking into one another’s mikes anyway, but what does it say for Glyn Johns engineering when he says ‘that’s the best take you’ve done’ and there’s the Mike lying on the floor?!

http://www.ijamming.net/Moon/JeffBeck.html

[Steve_2020]

And according to the Beck bio Crazy Legs and interviews Beck has given in recent years- Bolero was recorded 2 years before it was relesed - in April or May 1966- while Beck was still in the Yardbirds and Page was still playing sessions - Pre- Hendrix! Pre-Cream...!!

Bolero was the first thing I heard off Truth on the radio when it came out, - WHAT A SONG. WHAT A SOUND. I soon had my copy.

I love the entire Truth album but was a little disappointed that more songs didn't sound like "Bolero." 35 years later I got the answer why. It wasn't recorded by the JBG during the Truth sessions. It was a one-off supersession booked by Beck to demo a supergroup he wanted to form with Moon and probably Page...Beck had mentally already left the Yardbirds.

After the 'secret' session - that many knew about, including probably Pete Townshend and the Who managers, who Moon was trying to piss off - Beck realized it was a great recording - and after the supergroup idea faded when Moon wouldnt quit the Who, he put it in the can for his solo/post Yardbirds career. The Yardbirds weren't getting 'Bolero', no way.

In spring 1966, a Jeff Beck session was booked with a plan for Moon and Enwhstle to be the rhythm section. Only Moon showed. JP Jones was quickly drafted to play bass. Head arrangement of the tune Beck and Page had worked up the night before and they cut this song Bolero and another unreleased tune in a typical for the times 4 hour session. Amazing.

My take on the songwriting: Page wrote the rhythm guitar part/changes, Beck definitely wrote the rave up in the middle and probably the main melody, certainly the varous solo licks - in the echo part and the endout. Page understood the value of music publishing and claimed full credit, which probably Beck didn't realize or care about till years later. Should have at least been a co-write.

THis was a ground breaking recording. Some say it was the first time the sound that would later be associated with Led Zeppelin was heard on a recording. Other than Beck's considerable guitar contribution and influence, the rest of the recording has a bit of an early zep sonic vibe to it....zep with Moon:).

Imo: as great as the rest of Truth is, it would have been a very different sounding album- and Jeff Beck may have become the superstar that he always just missed becoming - if Jimmy Page had produced Truth, not pop hack Mikey Most. Bolero sorta demonstrates this.

But Jimmy was busy with his own project by 1968.

imo, ymmv

[aeolian]

I think the liner notes (I only have this on vinyl and it's packed away at the moment) say something to the effect that this is the same recording as heard on the B side of [something else], we couldn't improve on it, so here it is.

Now I can't remember what that single was.

[Steve_2020]

I think the liner notes (I only have this on vinyl and it's packed away at the moment) say something to the effect that this is the same recording as heard on the B side of [something else], we couldn't improve on it, so here it is.

Now I can't remember what that single was.

Hi Ho Silver Lining (according to wiki-whatever). Jeff's solo artist single - where he actually 'sings' - produced by Beck's then-manager Mickey Most in 1967.

Mickey knew how to manange and produce pop singles for Herman's Hermits, Lulu and Donovan but he didn't know what to do with Jeff Beck.

Beck has said that Mickey strongly advised against Jeff going in the hard blues rock direction that Cream was having such success with on the emerging ballroom circuit and on 'underground' FM radio n the US circa 1967. Mickey thought it was all a passing fad.

When Beck pressed hard for the Jeff Beck Group formation and direction the two agreed to part ways, with Beck's management being taken over by Most's ertwhile partner, a thug named Peter Grant.

Grant kept the JBG on the road touring America and building their career in support of the (also Mickey Most produced) Beck-Ola, but the group imploded for a number of reasons.

At around this same time most of Grant's efforts were being directed toward launching Jimmy Page's New Yardbirds project. That group soon changed their name and fared (much) better.

[BadCat]

What about Blues DeLuxe from the same album? Has to be one of the craziest piano solos in rock, and the geetar solo is pretty damn cool, too!

[aeolian]

Something about the timeline bothers me. The first time I heard a wah pedal was Ain't Superstitious from Truth. I had no idea what he was doing. It was almost a year before I heard White Room, and by knew what a wah pedal was from Guitar Player articles. LZ came along sometime after that.

'68-'69 was only a short time span, but boy did things happen in a hurry in music. We went from pop to acid/hard rock in a real hurry. That was also when I first heard the BBB and Mike Bloomfield. I think the first GFR album came out around the end of that period.

[Steve_2020]

Things moved very fast back then. It was a crazy but great time for music.

The first time a wah wah registered for me was on 'Tales of Brave Ulyssess' from Cream's Disraeli Gears. I wasn't all over this record but some friends were so I heard it a bunch. It came out in Dec 67.

Hendrix also used a wah wah on a track or two on 'Axis' which came out a month later in Jan 1968. I loved 'Are You Experienced' and owned it, but wasn't much of a fan of Hendrix's other stuff back in my high school days, so I probably didn't 'hear' wah wah from him until 'All Along The Watch Tower' or maybe 'Voodoo Chile' - which came out on Electric Ladyland - 9 months later ( !!) in mid Oct 1968.

Meanwhile Cream had released Wheels of Fire in July 68- only 8 months after Disraeli Gears ( !!)
And we wonder why these guys/bands burned out so fast..

In any case, in the fall/winter of 1968-69 I was dialed in to wah sounds from Hendrix's Watchtower single and Cream's White Room single, both of which got a lot of airplay on t-40, so you couldn't miss em.

Jeff Beck's Truth came out in Aug 1968 - a legendary (to Beck/60s rock fans/guitarists) record released in the middle of these other huge/classic albums.

I was a major Yardbirds fan and got this record as soon it came into the one record store in my small hometown. You couldn't miss the wah on 'Ain't Superstious" on that one. But it wasn't a single, not on t-40 radio, so mainly Beck fans - there were a few at my school- and folks who were able to pick up Bay Area FM statons 100 miles away...heard that wah.,,at least when Truth first came out. It's become on of the great wah tunes down the years since, fun jam tune back in the day etc..

So for me, wah wah was definitely first up on Tales of Brave Ulysses, then Ain't Superstious (which I eventulally bought my first wah wah pedal specifically to play) then the Watchtower/White Room singles...

But it all happend Very fast. A blur.

In early 1969, Zep 1 dropped and it was ALL Over:) Almost too much ground-breaking good stuff to enjoy....And if you weren't a fan of echo and wah and leslies and other things on the Hendrix records, Page took his shot at reeling you in with his own bag of effects and studio tricks on Zep 1 and II..

And around then Bloomfield and Kooper did the Super Session record, which I think had a wah (played by Steve Stills) on it. And Sly Stone was getting ready to funk everything up around then as well.

So much good stuff.

Recently one of the music mags had a special issue on just the music of 1969 and it was simply amazing, How many landmark albums, singles came out that year.. Career records for some artists, groups.

You can sorta figure out 'what happened when' by looking at record release dates - to try to track which records/artists featured what first, but part of it - maybe a big part -of when you were first exposed to something depended on You. What you where up to, who you were hanging with, what radio stations - and records - you were listening to..at home or going over to friends to listen to tunes. For a whole bunch of kids at my high school, 1968-69 were all about Crimson and Clover, Three Dog Night and Creedence and Bayou Country...Not a bad thing, just a different focus from what my guitar playing friends and I were up to..

Fun times. Exciting times.

And Beck's Bolero -recorded in 1966- was heard by most of us Beick fans a couple years later on Truth, which came out right in the middle of this fantastic streak of late 60s great rock guitar records..

imo, ymmv..

[barryg_nyc]

Saw Beck last night as part of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary.
Was hoping he'd play Bolero, but he didn't.
Not too shabby a set, though, including People Get Ready (with guest vocalist Sting), Freeway Jam, Because We've Parted as Lovers, then Buddy Guy joined him for Let Me Love You Baby.
http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss300/bgraubart/Rock%20n%20Roll%20HoF%2025th%20Anniversary%20Conce rt/JeffBeckwithBuddyGuy.jpg
next, Billy Gibbons came up for a couple of songs including Foxey Lady.
http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss300/bgraubart/Rock%20n%20Roll%20HoF%2025th%20Anniversary%20Conce rt/JeffBeckwithBillyGibbons2.jpg
He closed with the Beatles A Day in the Life.
http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss300/bgraubart/Rock%20n%20Roll%20HoF%2025th%20Anniversary%20Conce rt/JeffBeckGroup-ADayintheLife.jpg

Amazing night.

[Brooks]

That section when the drums really kick in, and it gets reallll rocking, is as heavy or heavier than anything put out by Zeppelin, Sabbath, or Deep Purple.

its heavy. but NOT heavier than zep/sabs/purple, c'mon.

[Ginglymus]

Check James Gang 'The Bomber' for something that must be Bolero-inspired.

Joe Walsh threw in snippets from Ravel's Boléro and Vince Gauraldi's "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" in that song.
Cool solo.:aok

[itkindaworks]

Great song. I dont know how he plays what he does.

[Pete Faragher]

Love Beck's Bolero.......Love Truth.......Love Beck

I got that record when I was in grade 8. It took till just a few years ago to talk any band I was in to play Bolero.

Yes The Bomber has a similar feel in the Bolero section. Another band in the same era that had a section like that in a tune was Blodwyn Pig in "See My Way".
Then of course there was also SRC who did, "Hall of The Mountain King/Bolero"