Of all the millions of songs that have been written since the dawn of time, only one can claim to have laid the foundations for what would become Led Zeppelin.
Beck’s Bolero was recorded in 1966 as Jeff Beck’s first solo outing after the guitarist had made a name for himself as Eric Clapton’s replacement in The Yardbirds.
Clocking in at just 2min 53 secs, Beck’s Bolero featured an all-star cast with Beck and Jimmy Page on guitars, Keith Moon on drums, John Paul Jones on bass and Nicky Hopkins on keyboards.
The sessions went well and the plan was for the quintet to find a singer and continue as a supergroup like Cream – who had been formed by Eric Clapton only a handful of days earlier.
This suggestion resulted in the famous quip from either Keith Moon or John Entwistle, depending on who you ask, stating that the new project would go down “like a lead zeppelin”.
However, it was not meant to be. Page and Jones would form Led Zeppelin two years later with Robert Plant and John Bonham.
Beck said of Page: “I fell in love with Jim’s playing 'cause we spoke the same language. We were out to get the most out of the studio, bending the rules, like using slap echo – doing all the things you weren’t allowed to.”
The rhythms in Beck’s Bolero were inspired by 1928 orchestral piece Boléro by French composer Maurice Ravel, though Beck chose to bastardise the concept into his own overture of wailing bends, psychedelic slide and thunderous riffs.
In doing so, he created a sound that would help shape the early hard rock and heavy metal movement of the following decade, thanks to its mind-bending cacophony of meatier and thicker distorted guitars, aggressive strumming and crashing cymbals. Beck himself even once stated the song contained “the first heavy metal riff ever written and I wrote it”, though if you look a little deeper, its origins aren’t quite as simple as that.
The original writing credits were assigned to Beck, but this is something Page immediately contested, resulting in his name being recorded as the sole author.
Both guitarists agreed it was Page who came up with the chords and rhythms, but Beck felt he’d also made enough of his own significant contributions to the arrangement.
Page’s recollection in a 1977 interview with Guitar Player magazine, however, was somewhat different.
“On the Beck’s Bolero thing… the track was done, and then the producer just disappeared,” he explained. “He [Simon Napier-Bell] was never seen again; he simply didn’t come back, he just sort of left me and Jeff to it.”
Page went on to reveal how the track came to be and who performed what part.
“Jeff was playing and I was in the box. And even though he says he wrote it, I wrote it. I’m playing the [Fender Electric XII] 12-string on it. Beck’s doing the slide bits, and I’m basically playing around the chords.”
He added: “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 line-up too, with Keith Moon and everything.”
Beck later admitted: “No, I didn’t get a songwriting credit, but you win some and lose some down the years."
Thankfully, the guitarists were able to put water under the bridge and remain friends in the years that followed.
Although Beck’s Bolero was recorded during sessions that took place at London’s IBC Studios on 16 and 17 May 1966, the track was not released until the following year, as the B-side to Beck’s debut single Hi Ho Silver Lining.
Beck’s Bolero was also included on Beck’s first solo album Truth, released in 1968, which saw the guitarist partnered with Rod Stewart on lead vocals, Ronnie Wood on bass and Micky Waller on drums.
The sessions took place before Beck had made the jump from Gibsons to Fenders.
“I was using a Les Paul for the lead guitar and for the backwards slide guitar through a Vox AC30,” Beck once explained. “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!”
He also noted how an accident while the tape was rolling ended up making rock ’n’ roll history.
“You can hear Moon screaming in the middle of the record over the drum break,” Beck revealed. “If you listen after the drum break you can only hear the cymbal afterwards 'cause he knocked the mic over! Wonderful!”
For Page, this was undoubtedly one of the more memorable moments of the recording process. “You can hear him scream, then hit the mic, and from there all you hear are the cymbals,” he said. “The song just continues. It was sort of funny.”
The composition itself is divided into three sections – starting with the opening Ravel-inspired rhythms underneath Beck’s soaring guitar leads, with the guitar shifting between major and minor to create haunting atmospheres.
Things calm down for Beck’s heavily ambience-effected slide solo, which explores more of a psychedelic feel before reverting back to the intro idea.
Then it all explodes with a fuzzed-up single-note riff that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut, released some three years later.
The last minute of the song revisits the original motif but in a much more chaotic manner, with all of its elements fighting each other for space in a remarkably forceful way.
It all ends abruptly, closing with some reversed leads from Beck, using a similar concept to the title track of Jimi Hendrix’s debut album Are You Experienced, released just two months later.
It was Page who suggested using the technique on Beck’s recording.
“The phasing was Jimmy’s idea,” Beck admitted. “I played a load of waffle and he reversed it.”
While Hi Ho Silver Lining ended up becoming Beck’s biggest hit, being embraced by football crowds up and down the country, its B-side was infinitely more groundbreaking.
Beck’s Bolero laid down the blueprint for the heavier guitar music that arrived in the following decade and, of course, gave the world its first taste of what would soon become Led Zeppelin.
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