{"id":203280,"date":"2025-12-26T21:10:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T21:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/203280\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T21:10:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T21:10:14","slug":"jeff-beck-and-jimmy-page-disagreed-about-who-wrote-this-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/203280\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page disagreed about who wrote this song"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guitar Player is closing out 2025 by republishing 25 of your favorite stories from the past year. We thank you for spending the past year with us and look forward to bringing you more of the stories you want in 2026. <\/p>\n

Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page had been close friends ever since they met in their teens. It was Page who recommended Beck as Eric Clapton’s replacement in the Yardbirds in 1965, after Clapton flew the nest to join John Mayall\u2019s Bluesbreakers. Beck and Page would even work together in the Yardbirds <\/a>for a brief period, before the former departed and began to build his solo career.<\/p>\n

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Despite being as close as brothers, the two never saw eye to eye on one thing: who should get writing credit for “Beck’s Bolero,” the 1966 instrumental featuring Beck, Page, Who drummer Keith Moon, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins and future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. .<\/p>\n

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Beck’s decision to create a group was inspired in part by the guitarist he replaced in the Yardbirds \u2014 Eric Clapton. Following his brief spell with the Bluesbreakers, Clapton departed in mid 1966 to form the supergroup, Cream<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although Beck was invited to take Clapton’s place in the Bluesbreakers<\/a>, he opted instead to follow the guitarist’s lead and form his own supergroup, doing so just days after Cream<\/a> was formed.<\/p>\n

With Page’s help, Beck put together his ad hoc group to record \u201cBeck\u2019s Bolero,\u201d a riff-driven instrumental inspired by French composer Maurice Ravel’s 1928 orchestral piece, Bol\u00e9ro. The final result was considerably heavier than Ravel’s, thanks to the pair\u2019s electric guitar talents<\/a> \u2014 featuring Page slashing away at the chords on a Fender Electric XII 12-string \u2014 and proto-heavy metal panache.<\/p>\n

In the years after, Beck would say of “Beck’s Bolero” featured \u201cthe first heavy metal riff ever written,\u201d<\/a> and I wrote it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Page disagreed and said so in his 1977 cover story with Guitar Player.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though he says he wrote it, I wrote it,” the guitarist insisted. “I\u2019m playing the 12-string on it. Beck\u2019s doing the slide bits, and I\u2019m basically playing around the chords.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got a lot of drama to it,\u201d Page added. \u201cIt came off right. It was a good lineup too, with Keith Moon and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Beck’s Bolero (Remastered) – YouTube
\n\"Beck's<\/p>\n

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Of course, Page has been involved in other, more famous disputes over songwriting credits. In 2020, he won a long-running lawsuit alleging his famous 1971 Led Zeppelin track “Stairway to Heaven” infringed on the copyright of the 1968 instrumental “Taurus,” composed by Randy California and recorded by his band Spirit. This past May he faced a fresh lawsuit over “Dazed and Confused” from its songwriter, Jake Holmes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, he handily won authorship of “Beck’s Bolero” without litigation, much to Beck’s dismay. Although he believed he had changed Page’s core ideas enough to earn at least a co-writing credit, Beck stepped aside and let Page take the honors.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I didn\u2019t get a songwriting credit,\u201d the guitarist conceded, \u201cbut you win some and lose some down the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was likewise unlucky with the formation of his supergroup. Despite the promising results of “Beck’s Bolero,” the band never gelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it would have worked or not, but it sounded so great in the studio,\u201d Beck once said (via Far Out<\/a>). \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it when we went back and listened to it in the control room. We were going: \u2018This is amazing. What can we do with it?\u2019<\/p>\n

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\"The\n<\/p>\n

Jeff Beck (far left) and Jimmy Page (second from right) during their brief time together in the Yardbirds. (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can hear Moon screaming in the middle of the record over the drum break. If you listen, you can only hear the cymbal afterwards ’cause he knocked the mic over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the band disintegrated once recording wrapped.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next thing we know, Keith is back with the Who, and the whole thing never got off the ground,\u201d Beck sighed. \u201cBut all we needed was a singer.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were even disputes over the production credits, perhaps given the song’s success when it was eventually released. During his GP chat, Page said producer Simon Napier-Bell ghosted the band during its recording.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe producer just disappeared,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was never seen again; he simply didn\u2019t come back. He just sort of left me and Jeff to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conversely, Mickie Most, who Beck later employed for his debut solo album Truth and 1969 follow-up, Beck-Ola, claimed he was the man behind the desk.<\/p>\n

It was the only amp I had, and it was covered with beer! Actually, I think it was the beer that gave it its sound!\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Jeff Beck<\/p>\n

“Beck’s Bolero” wouldn’t see the light of day for another year, when it became the B-side to Beck’s U.K. debut solo single, “Hi Ho Silver Lining.” The guitarist handled the bulk of the vocals, with Rod Stewart, who would go on to front the Jeff Beck Group, providing backing vocals. When John Paul Jones left to form Led Zeppelin with Page, Ronnie Wood took his place, and Beck finally got his supergroup of sorts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was using a Les Paul for the lead guitar and for the backwards slide guitar<\/a> through a Vox AC30,\u201d Beck says of his gear on the track. \u201cIt was the only amp I had, and it was covered with beer! Actually, I think it was the beer that gave it its sound!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guitar Player is closing out 2025 by republishing 25 of your favorite stories from the past year. We…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-203280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}