Beck's Bolero

"Beck's Bolero" is a short, rock-based instrumental piece heavily influenced by Maurice Ravel's Boléro, recorded on 1966.05.16-17 by Jeff Beck with Jimmy Page (then a prolific session musician) on guitar, John Paul Jones on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano, and Keith Moon on drums. Jeff had long been the lead guitarist with the Yardbirds, whose management was encouraging the individual band members to bring attention to the band through success in solo projects. The song wasn't released until 1967.03.24 (04.03 in the U.S.), though, by which time Jeff was long gone from the Yardbirds--and it was "hidden" as the B-side of the Beck single "Hi Ho Silver Lining," at that. (The single charted at Number 14 on the UK charts, 123 in the U.S.) "Beck's Bolero" was released much later on the Jeff Beck Group album Truth (1968.07.29 in the U.S., where the album reached #15; 1968.10.04 in Britain, where it failed to chart).

Song structure

The song is roughly divided into three parts. The first part features two lead guitars playing separate melodies over a bolero rhythm modelled after Ravel's: the first a rock lead in a moderately overdriven tone, the other playing a slide piece in a cleaner tone resembling a steel guitar. A simultaneous drum break and vocal scream is heard roughly halfway through the recording (courtesy of Moon, who knocked over his...
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