In this segment, titled "In The Producer's Chair" I'd like to highlight one are where Jimmy Page has received scant credit, and that was for his work as a producer. For the first installment I'm going to examine his work as the producer for Jeff Beck on the song "Beck's Bolero".
In 1966, while Jimmy was still working as a session guitarist, he got a call from his buddy, Yardbird's lead guitarist Jeff Beck, inviting him to work as the producer of an instrumental number as a sort of side project from his band; Jimmy readily agreed. The session took place on May 16th, 1966 with Beck on lead guitar, playing a Gibson Les Paul, and Jimmy Page playing rhythm with a Fender XII; a 12 string guitar. John Entwistle had been scheduled to play bass, but was unable to make it to the session, so a talented and illustrious session bassist by the name of John Paul Jones was called in to take his place. On drums, Beck had managed to enlist the services of The Who's Keith Moon, who arrived to the session wearing a disguise in order to avoid being seen.
There is minor dispute between Beck and Page over who actually wrote the piece, with both sides claiming credit. Beck gave his side of the story in an interview with Guitar Magazine:
"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."
Jimmy told his side of the story to Steven Rosen in 1977:
"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."
And later in an interview with that same year with Dave Schulps:
"[I] wrote it, played on it, produced it... and I don't give a damn what [Beck] says. That's the truth."
Mickie Most would go on to take credit as the track's producer, despite the fact that Jimmy Page was the man running the session, and Most wasn't even present. It was at the session, according to legend and conjecture, everyone involved became excited at the way things were going and contemplated forming a new group, to which Keith Moon responded rather tongue in cheek, "Yeah, that'll go over like a lead balloon!" or words to that effect. The tale is apocryphal at best, nevertheless, it is said to be the beginnings of the name of Jimmy Page's future group, Led Zeppelin.
It was from this session that Jimmy Page hit upon a technique to use backward echo on a guitar solo, a trick that he employed later with Led Zeppelin: "Later, when we recorded "You Shook Me", I told the engineer, Glyn Johns, that I wanted to used backward echo on the end. He said, "Jimmy, it can't be done." I said "Yes it can. I've already done it." Then he began arguiing, so I said, "Look, I'm the producer. I'm going to tell you what to do, and just do it." It was from working on sessions like "Beck's Bolero", that made Jimmy confident enough to step into the void as the producer of his own band further into the future.
Despite the fact the song was recorded in May of 1966, it didn't see a release until March in 1967, and then only as a B-Side to Jeff Beck's individual effort, "Hi Ho Silver Lining". The song was also released on the 1968 Jeff Beck Group Album "Truth". Though the two disagreed on who could lay the rightful claim to writing the song, Beck and Page didn't let it stand in the way of their friendship, and in April 2009, Jimmy Page inducted Jeff Beck into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, followed by a duet between the two men of, you guessed it, "Beck's Bolero".
In 1966, while Jimmy was still working as a session guitarist, he got a call from his buddy, Yardbird's lead guitarist Jeff Beck, inviting him to work as the producer of an instrumental number as a sort of side project from his band; Jimmy readily agreed. The session took place on May 16th, 1966 with Beck on lead guitar, playing a Gibson Les Paul, and Jimmy Page playing rhythm with a Fender XII; a 12 string guitar. John Entwistle had been scheduled to play bass, but was unable to make it to the session, so a talented and illustrious session bassist by the name of John Paul Jones was called in to take his place. On drums, Beck had managed to enlist the services of The Who's Keith Moon, who arrived to the session wearing a disguise in order to avoid being seen.
There is minor dispute between Beck and Page over who actually wrote the piece, with both sides claiming credit. Beck gave his side of the story in an interview with Guitar Magazine:
"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."
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| Jeff Beck |
"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."
And later in an interview with that same year with Dave Schulps:
"[I] wrote it, played on it, produced it... and I don't give a damn what [Beck] says. That's the truth."
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| Jimmy Page around the time of recording "Beck's Bolero |
It was from this session that Jimmy Page hit upon a technique to use backward echo on a guitar solo, a trick that he employed later with Led Zeppelin: "Later, when we recorded "You Shook Me", I told the engineer, Glyn Johns, that I wanted to used backward echo on the end. He said, "Jimmy, it can't be done." I said "Yes it can. I've already done it." Then he began arguiing, so I said, "Look, I'm the producer. I'm going to tell you what to do, and just do it." It was from working on sessions like "Beck's Bolero", that made Jimmy confident enough to step into the void as the producer of his own band further into the future.
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| He knows what he's doing! |
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| Jimmy Page & Jeff Beck at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2009 |
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