BECK, PAGE, MOON & THE BIRTH OF Led Zeppelin

In a small London studio, two Yardbirds, one member of the Who and a pair of passing session maestros united to record a spontaneous instrumental track. This is the story of "Beck's Bolero." 

- JOHNNY BLACK

IN MAY 1966, Melody Maker announced that Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker had joined forces to form what would arguably become the world’s first “supergroup,” the as-yet-unnamed Cream. Just a few days later, on May 16, five moonlighting musicians slipped into London’s IBC Studios to form their own impromptu supergroup. There, Yardbirds guitarists JeffBeck and Jimmy Page, Who drummer Keith Moon, renowned session bassist John Paul Jones and keyboard player Nicky Hopkins recorded “Beck’s Bolero,” the guitarist’s intended solo debut that would precipitate his departure from the Yardbirds and sow the seeds for Led Zeppelin. Here’s what went down on May 16 and 17, in the participants’ own words.

JIM McCARTY (Yardbirds’ drummer) JeffBeck was our guitarist at that point, but it had always been the four of us and him. Musically, Jeff was separate from us. Even during recording some times, he would just come in after we’d completed a backing track and lay his bit down on top of it. So he frequently wasn’t with us when we did the track. I think our manager, Simon Napier-Bell, was pushing Jeff to make a name for himself.

SIMON NAPIER-BELL (Yardbirds’ manager) Jeff felt somewhat unfulfilled with the Yardbirds. There was a fair amount of friction with them, especially when we’d recorded Roger the Engineer. He’d felt they weren’t making use of his soloing abilities as well as they might. Of course, he was right.