Jeff Beck ’68, Rolling Stones ’69 – Out Now!

Available from http://www.1960s.london

The Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart – Radio Broadcasts 1968

Side One

1. You Shook Me (Dixon, Lenoir)
2. Shapes Of Things (McCarty, Relf, Samwell-Smith)
3. Sweet Little Angel (Taub, King)
4. Rice Pudding (Newman, Wood, Beck, Stewart)
5. Rock My Plimsoul (Beck, Stewart)
6. Don’t Know Which Way To Go (Dixon, Perkins)

Side Two

1. You Shook Me (Dixon, Lenoir)
2. Let Me Love You (Beck, Stewart)
3. Morning Dew (Dobson)
4. Jeff’s Boogie (Dreja, McCarty, Beck, Relf, Samwell-Smith)
5. The Sun Is Shining (James)

Personnel

Jeff Beck  – Guitar

Rod Stewart – Vocals

Ron Wood – Bass

Tony Newman – Drums (Side One, Tracks 1-5)

Aynsley Dunbar – Drums (Side One, Track 6)

Micky Waller – Drums (Side Two)

Recording Details

Side One

Tracks 1-5 recorded live for BBC Top Gear 17.09.68 and broadcast on 29.09.68 except for Track 5, broadcast 03.11.68

Track 6 recorded live for BBC Saturday Club on 04.07.67 and broadcast on 08.07.67

Side Two

All tracks recorded live at the Fillmore West, San Francisco on July 24^th 1968 and broadcast on KSAN FM radio

Sleevenotes

Following on from the success of our previous release – Jeff Beck Radio Sessions 1967 (R&B 28) – this LP takes us into the following year through eleven well-recorded tracks, including four songs not included on the two studio LPs recorded by this incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group.

The talented but erratic Beck had found fame with the Yardbirds, where he replaced Eric Clapton and would in turn be replaced by Jimmy Page. After being fired from the Yardbirds in 1966 he tried a series of unsuccessful group line-ups until hitting on the winning formula of Rod Stewart on vocals and Ron Wood on bass plus a Spinal Tap-style succession of drummers.

By the summer of 1968 the UK and the US saw Beck very differently. In the UK Beck was known for a string of Mickie Most-produced pop singles. Most was not interested in the B-sides and as result tracks like Rock My Plimsoul, Beck’s Bolero and I’ve Been Drinking Again outshone the rather flimsy A sides. By contrast in the US the Yardbirds had toured extensively so there Beck already had a reputation, American audiences regarding the Jeff Beck Group as a logical successor to power trios such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream.

In session for the BBC the band’s blues roots were very much in evidence with impressive takes on B.B.King’s Little Angel and Buddy Guy’s Don’t Know Which Way To Go. Tracks from the debut Jeff Beck Group LP Truth (July 1968) included Muddy Water’s You Shook Me and a reworking of Shapes Of Things, which stemmed back to Beck’s time as a Yardbird. The instrumental jam Rice Pudding would not appear on record until the second Jeff Beck Group LP Beck-Ola (June 1969). These tracks display the instrumental dexterity of the band – Beck’s savage guitar finding a worthy adversary in Stewart’s call-and-response vocals whilst Ron Wood was a dextrous and melodic bass player and Tony Newman provided a heavy beat. Don’t Know Which Way To Go comes from an earlier session with Aynsley Dunbar drumming.

Rod Stewart places the breakthrough for the Jeff Beck Group as their first US tour. This commenced on June 14^th at the Fillmore East, New York where they blew headliners the Grateful Dead offstage. By the time the Jeff Beck Group supported Moby Grape at the Fillmore West the following month Stewart had lost his initial stage fright and Beck, Wood and Waller (another drummer) were operating at maximum r’n’b.  The set opens with a taste of You Shook Me before seguing into Let Me Love You. Next is Morning Dew, credited by Stewart to “your Tim Rose”: following a deceptively quiet introductionBeck lets rip with his wah wah pedal. Jeff’s Boogie is a Yardbirds era instrumental which includes a rare Wood bass solo and the theme from The Beverley Hillbillies. The final song is Elmore James’ The Sun Is Shining, also recorded by the Yardbirds and played here as a straight blues. On the night it was followed by Hi Ho Silver Lining, sung unenthusiastically by Beck: we have omitted this track partly because of lack of space and partly because it is a terrible song.

Beck’s skills as a guitarist were not matched by his abilities as a band leader. The day before a US tour in February 1969 Beck fired Wood and Waller claiming their playing had deteriorated. He was forced to rehire Wood when his replacement only lasted one gig but from then on Wood and Stewart were looking for another situation, eventually joining the Faces in October 1969. Watching all this very carefully was Jimmy Page. To Beck’s dismay Led Zeppelin’s debut LP (March 1969) also contained a version of You Shook Me and with strong management from Peter Grant they moved into the gap in the US market that the Jeff Beck Group had created but been unable to fulfil. Stewart resented Beck turning down Woodstock: they were offered the gig but instead went back to London as Beck had heard a rumour that his wife was having an affair with the gardener. Thus ended the first and best Jeff Beck Group: not with a bang but with a whimper. The music on this LP gives a tantalising glimpse of what might have been.

Sleevenotes: “You Know Who”

Let The Airwaves Flow Volume 6:  London & Detroit 1969

The Rolling Stones

SIDE ONE

1. Down Home Girl (Leiber/Butler)
2. Give Me A Drink (Jagger/Richards)
3. Street Fighting Man (Jagger/Richards)
4. Backstage Rehearsal with Mick Jagger (interview)
5. Gimme Shelter (Jagger /Richards)

SIDE TWO

1. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Jagger/Richards)
2. Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Jagger/Richards)
3. Carol (Chuck Berry)
4. Sympathy For The Devil (Jagger/Richards)
5. Stray Cat Blues (Jagger/Richards)
6. Little Queenie (Chuck Berry

Recording Details

Side 1

Tracks 1 – 4 recorded live in Hyde Park, London July 5th 1969 broadcast on Dutch Radio Veronica, July 15th 1969

Track 5 broadcast Pop Goes Sixties December 12^th 1969

Side 2

Tracks 1 – 3 1st show, Saville Theatre, London December 14^th 1969 broadcast US TV as “Supernight of Rock’n’Roll”

Tracks 4 – 6 recorded live at the Olympia Stadium, Detroit  on November 24^th 1969 and broadcast on Detroit Tube Works WSU

Personnel

Mick Jagger – vocals

Keith Richards – guitar, vocals

Mick Taylor – guitar

Bill Wyman – bass

Charlie Watts – drums

Sleevenotes

The July 5^th 1969 free concert in Hyde Park came at a crucial time for the Stones. Brian Jones had died three days previously, making Hyde Park both a memorial for Brian and a public introduction to Mick Taylor. It was the Stones first live gig in for over a year and it took place in front of at least 250,000 fans. Under the circumstances the band can be forgiven a little rustiness. The concert was recorded by Granada Television and extracts were broadcast as The Stones InThe Park. Subsequent DVD releases featured up to ten of the thirteen tracks played, this release documents the remaining three songs. Down Home Girl received a rarelive outing as did a track called Give Me A Drink, later to be known as Loving Cup.This was another number unfamiliar to the audience as it would not be released until May 1972 on Exile On Main St. Street Fighting Man made its live debut at Hyde Park: over the next six months the Stones would hone this track into a devastating set closer but this is a creditable first attempt.  The bonus track here is a guitar duet recorded backstage plus some words of wisdom from Mick Jagger just prior to his taking the stage. 

Having introduced Taylor to their home audience next up was a tour of the USA.  Brian Jones unreliability had prevented the Stones from touring this most lucrative market for three long years,  a lifetime in 60’s rock’n’roll. Rolling Stones magazine for December 28^th was enthusiastic about their performances. “The band got better and better the more they performed. That was clear to anyone who heard them on the West Coast, in San Francisco or Los Angeles, and then, later, in New York or West Palm Beach.” Mick Jagger was quoted: “Compared to the way we sounded later along, we were terrible in San Francisco. Ragged. By the time we were in Detroit, I’d say, it was like a one hundred percent improvement.” Or in the title of a contemporary bootleg “We Never Really Got It On ‘til Detroit”. Thankfully a local cable TV station recorded three numbers, providing fierce soundboard versions of Sympathy For The Devil, Stray Cat Blues, and Little Queenie. Local resident Iggy Pop was at the show and nominated it as his all-time most memorable gig “because of the brazen audacity with which the beat was unhurried and the guitar sound was entirely unsweetened. It was like a heroin pie in your face.”

By the time the Stones played London just before Christmas 1969 their re-invention was complete. They had triumphantly conquered the USA, giving some of the finest performances of their lives with Taylor completely integrated into the band. So expecting a heroes’ welcome they booked two shows at the (modest) Saville Theatre, now the Covent Garden Odeon cinema.  Supporting acts were Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets and Mighty Baby, plus DJ Jeff Dexter and the David Bergas Magic Show. Talking to Chris Welch in the Melody Maker for December 20 Jagger complained that “the first show was a bore: full of fucking journalists and totally lacking in energy”. Not a criticism you can level at the snarling guitars of Satisfaction, Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Carol, although Jagger’s onstage frustration is audible. Still for most Stones fans their final glimpse of the band in 1969 would have been a version of Gimme Shelter performed for the Pop Goes Sixties TV programme. Peace and love was over, replaced by fear and dread. Here come the seventies…

Sleevenotes: Arfur Math