Search - Jeff Beck :: Shape of Things: 60's Groups & Sessions

Jeff Beck's 60's Resume' On 26 Tracks

SirGeorgeMartini | Chihuahua Legs, Wyoming | 01/13/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This IMPORT collection on Castle/Sanctuary is essential for Jeff Beck fanatics, but the average fan will probably prefer Rhino's "The Yardbirds Ultimate!" compilation. Beck played on sessions before, during, and after he was in the Yardbirds, including Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages, The Smoke, John's Children, and Nightshift. Although there are a few really horrible tracks (Stormy Monday for example), the rarities more than make up for them. The Jeff Beck Group backs up Donovan on two decent tracks from "Barabajagal", and and also performs on three strange songs with the GTOs from their "Permanent Damage" album. In case you didn't know, the GTO's were very well-known groupies discovered and recorded by Frank Zappa on his Bizarre Label. "And the Sun Will Shine", written by the Bee Gees, is tearfully sung by former Manfred Man singer Paul Jones, with Paul McCartney on drums and Paul Samwell Smith on bass guitar. If you don't already have "Beck's Bolero" produced by Jimmy Page, I recommend buying it for that reason alone."

Rare spotlight

Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 03/11/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Best known for his pioneering work with the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck was one of the iconic faces of the swinging sixties, as exemplified in the film Blow Up, where the band perform a thinly disguised version of Train Kept-A Rollin'. He was exploring with feedback on homemade amps as early as 1960, and was a student of blues, rock and roll and country artists like Buddy Guy, Earl Hooker, Johnny Burnette and James Burton; and he played live with a variety of bands in the early sixties. Yet his recordings have not been poured over and anthologized as fellow guitar gods Clapton and Page have been, a circumstance which Shapes Of Things - 60s Groups And Sessions attempts to put right. This seems to be one of the first to contextualize his earlier and later sixties work with his two years in the Yardbirds.



As one would expect, sonically adventurous key singles like Heart Full Of Soul (his debut single with the Yardbirds), Still I'm Sad/Evil Hearted You and the majestic Shapes Of Things are included, as is his solo pop single Hi Ho Silver Lining, a rare vocal outing which introduced him to a new vast audience via Top Of The Pops and the like. Beck's Bolero, recorded while he was in the Yardbirds, is also featured. A slightly different mix of this instrumental was on the B-side of Hi Ho Silver Lining. It has Beck in July 1966 grouped with present and future luminaries Jimmy Page, Nicky Hopkins, John Paul Jones and Keith Moon.



The Jeff Beck Group, the band he formed in 1968, is represented by Rock My Plimsoul (a rewrite of Rock Me Baby featuring Rod Stewart), from the Truth album (not the single version as stated). They are also featured as support on Donovan's excellent single Barabajagal/Bed With Me (Trudi) and the three out-there tracks they made for Girls Together Outrageously, a collection of self-styled groupies including Miss Pamela Des Barres, who were indulged in an album by Frank Zappa for his Bizarre label. Although their best talents probably lay elsewhere, the tracks have a light-hearted quality and are quite fun.



There are some surprising omissions. We can probably be grateful for the absence of Love Is Blue, his version of the song that Vicky Leandros had taken to fourth place in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest, which marked the end of his career as a solo performer, but the lack of his previous Top Thirty hit single Tallyman, written by Graham Gouldman (who had supplied several of the Yardbirds' hits) is surprising, and speaking of the Yardbirds, why no hit singles Over Under Sideways Down or the wonderful and psychedelic Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, which opened up a new direction for the band, together with its flip-side, on which he sings, Psycho Daisies?



It would have been nice also to hear The Yardbirds' The Nazz Are Blue, his first lead vocal, on which he sounds far more confident than on Hi Ho Silver Lining, and which inspired the name of Todd Rundgren's band, rather than the earlier and paler instrumental demo, Jeff's Blues, which is included instead.



His pre-Yardbird work is represented by both sides of three singles by Screaming Lord Sutch (an early outing of Jeff's fuzzbox guitar), the Manchester duo The Fitz and Startz, a band called the Nightshifts, and on a couple of duets where he jammed with Jimmy Page and Nicky Hopkins over Christmas 1964. His regular band prior to the Yardbirds, the Tridents, are not featured although it seems they were left largely unrecorded. He also did some session work after leaving the Yardbirds to develop his own career, and this is represented by a fascinating B-side by John's Children (shortly before Marc Bolan joined the band) and both sides of a Paul Jones single.



There is a problem, though, in that four of the 26 tracks included may well have nothing to do with Jeff Beck, as is recognised in the liner notes. Jeff Beck left the Nightshift in 1962, and although he did occasionally appear with them as late as 1964, there is nothing more than unsubstantiated rumour to suggest he played on their 1965 single, That's My Story. This was the first Tim Rice song to be recorded, after Beck had joined the Yardbirds, and was written that same year. Whoever the guitarist was, he had a choppier style, more like a Mick Green or Mickey Jupp approach. He certainly did play on the Paul Jones B-side, The Dog Presides, but there is no guitar present on the A-side, needlessly included.



Most tenuous is the inclusion of the Smoke's version of the Dave Mason song Utterly Simple, to represent Jeff Beck as a producer. Apparently some Beck fans believe he co-produced the track with Dave Mason, but the notes stress that two members of the band have clearly stated that he was not involved. It seems strange that these four tracks have been chosen in preference to records he was known to have played on such as singles by Chris Andrews and Sandie Shaw, or the Yardbirds singles mentioned earlier. Nevertheless, this collection neatly takes Jeff Beck's sixties work out of the shadows and shines a spotlight into some of its darker corners."