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Jeff Beck on His Legendary Unreleased 1970 Motown Album  Why did you go to Motown to record? And what exactly did you do? My producer, Mickie Most, said, “We have to make an album.” I talked Mickie into going to Motown, the Hitsville house. It was one of the last sessions there. I was so privileged. We were more like tourists, kids in a candy shop. I took Cozy [British drummer Cozy Powell]. I said, “I gotta go to Motown, and you’re coming as well.” What the hell was I doing taking a rock drummer, with two huge Ludwig bass drums, into Motown? They hated us right away. They didn’t want to know. But we loved it there, and they sensed it after a few hours. the first day. When Cozy sat behind the Motown drum kit and started playing like the Meters, they all went, “Oh!” and came flooding back to the studio. It was James Jamerson on bass that day — no rhythm guitar — and Earl Van Dyke on keyboards. That was it, a stripped-down thing. They kept saying, “Where are the dots?” [Meaning sheet music] I said, “There ain’t no dots.” When Cozy started playing, it was great. James was locking up with Cozy’s drum pattern. Then I looked around — Cozy was wheeling the drum kit out of the studio. They’re going berserk. He has moved the sacred Motown drum kit out of the studio and wheeled this stupid double kit of Ludwigs in. The studio tech came up to me and said, “Didn’t you guys come in here for the Motown sound?” Yeah. “Well, it just went out the door.” [Laughs] How much did you ultimately record at Motown? We ended up with nine or 10 tracks — finished, not mixed. We ran out of time. There was one backing track for a song that was written by one of the chief writers, maybe Holland-Dozier-Holland. They were flogging songs at us. Every time you turned around, it was “Hey, Jeff, we got a song.” It was like a factory. We went downtown and met Berry Gordy in his inner sanctum. We had to go through three sets of locked doors. He said, “Welcome to Motown. I’ve got great faith in you. I know what you do. Maybe the session guys don’t know, but i know. You’ve got a great idea here.” Things started to loosen up a bit as Cozy played. I wish we had [Motown drummer] Benny Benjamin. I was trying to forge my style with a bit of Meters and flat-out rock. That would have worked, if we had done some ground work. You were doing Motown covers in early BBC Radio sessions with the Jeff Beck Group, songs like the Temptations’ “(I Know) I’m Losing You.” I wanted to make a band that understood the Motown feel, then give it more oomph. So you’ve got a Motown-record feel that was also edgy and almost bordering on metal. That’s what I was after on the [1968] Truth album — a Motown bass line and backbeat and huge Zeppelin-type drums. But at Motown, we got further and further away from the rock part, because they didn’t understand that. They’d heard the Meters. But they were hardly allowed out of that bloody studio. They probably got so sick of production-line playing they never listened to the radio. They just went down the snooker hall and got pissed. Some of them didn’t even go down. Bongo Eddie had a fifth of gin on him all the time, wrapped in a brown paper bag. And they all had their brown Cadillacs outside and golf clubs in the back. You have never released any of those tracks. I’ve still got the multi-track [tape], although I bet if you put that on the machine now, it will collapse into pieces. I made one copy onto cassette. That’s all there is. Talk about collector’s item, pal — if anybody got as hold of that. But I discovered what the real secret of Motown was. They were fantastic world-class players — best delivery, best drum sound. But if you take that Motown reverb away, you got nothing. It’s very nice, but it ain’t Motown. The whole thing was tuned to the vibe of that reverb. The same guy who said that thing about the drums? When we walked out of the studio on the last day with the master, he said, “You’re not going to mix here? You just shot yourself twice.” I knew. But we’d had enough. http://www.rollingstone.c...own-album/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Music for adventurous listeners tA  Tribal Records"Ya see, we're not interested in what you know...but what you are willing to learn. C'mon y'all." | |
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Nice read, I would love to hear this.
Cozy was wheeling the drum kit out of the studio. They’re going berserk. He has moved the sacred Motown drum kit out of the studio and wheeled this stupid double kit of Ludwigs in. The studio tech came up to me and said, Didn’t you guys come in here for the Motown sound? Yeah. Well, it just went out the door.    National Funk League✮✮ | |
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Boy! that would have been something, had he hooked up with Whitfield too. National Funk League✮✮ | |
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Wow! "We may deify or demonize them but not ignore them. And we call them genius, because they are the people who change the world." |
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StarMon said: Boy! that would have been something, had he hooked up with Whitfield too.
Now that would've been interesting  | |
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Thanks Aud. Lord I wish I could hear that LP. Never knew JB and Cozy went to Motown.
Glad he hooked up with Stevie though. | |
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cozy fucked it all up is what he did. | |
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It's good to hear him, albeit briefly, discuss this experience. I'd heard rumors about this not long after it happened.
Stuff like, "Jeff Beck went to Motown studios and played so loud, he ran the musicians out of the studio." Never knew that Cozy Powell was there with him and removed "the set". 
His affection for the Motown R&B feel was always pretty evident based on certain songs he covered. (I Can't Give Back the Love I Feel For You, Cause We've Ended As Lovers, etc) You can hear where he's trying go on these tunes from his 1st and 2nd solo albums... ...Let Me Love You (Truth - 1968) ...Plynth (Water Down The Drain) (Beck-Ola - 1969) After the exit of bassist Ron Wood (replaced by Clive Chaman), pianist Nicky Hopkins (replaced by Max Middleton), drummers Mickey Waller & Tony Newman (replaced by Cozy Powell) and vocalist Rod Stewart (replaced by Bob Tench), the band took on a more Rockin' R&B vibe. ...New Ways Train Train (Rough & Ready - 1971) ...Highways (Jeff Beck Group - 1972) 3 years and a few new rhythm sections later he comes back with two of the definitive albums of his career. He also made the decision to drop vocalists and go instrumental. From Blow By Blow (1975) ...Scatterbrain ...Diamond Dust (Both tunes featuring the string arrangements of George Martin) From Wired (1976) ...Led Boots ...Goodbye Pork Pie Hat Subsequent albums would follow with no 2 being in the exact same vein as prior releases. Even though all of them didn't necessarily appeal to me, I appreciated his willingness to take chances and experiment. Never one to chase celebrity, he plays what he wants when he wants. You gotta love that. Maybe those Motown tracks will surface one day. Music for adventurous listeners tA Tribal Records[Edited 3/20/10 12:18pm] "Ya see, we're not interested in what you know...but what you are willing to learn. C'mon y'all." | |
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Good stuff  | |
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theAudience said: Maybe those Motown tracks will surface one day.
Certainly would be an interesting piece of musical history but I kinda nodded my head when Jeff mentioned that the masters would likely self destruct if played. And the fabled single casssette? Probably the same fate. I've got some that have been tucked away for 15 years and I've found they're good for maybe one play if I'm lucky. The magnetism that holds the iron particles to the tape has weakened and it all winds up stuck to the pinch rollers on the machine. Sigh... so much good stuff I'll probably never hear again. Great article tA. Thanks for posting. | |
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DakutiusMaximus said: theAudience said: Maybe those Motown tracks will surface one day.
Certainly would be an interesting piece of musical history but I kinda nodded my head when Jeff mentioned that the masters would likely self destruct if played. And the fabled single casssette? Probably the same fate. I've got some that have been tucked away for 15 years and I've found they're good for maybe one play if I'm lucky. The magnetism that holds the iron particles to the tape has weakened and it all winds up stuck to the pinch rollers on the machine. Sigh... so much good stuff I'll probably never hear again. Great article tA. Thanks for posting. You're welcome. A good friend of mine, Eddie Ciletti (who writes the Tech Files column for MIX magazine) has a solution for this on his website: http://www.tangible-technology.com/ His article If I Knew You Were Coming I’d Have Baked A Tape! A Recipe for Tape Restoration explains "tape breakdown" over time in technical terms. There's also a technique for getting open reel tapes back into playing shape. Not sure if there's something similar for cassettes. I'll ask him the next time we speak as I also have a ton of them that need to be digitized. Music for adventurous listeners tA Tribal Records[Edited 3/21/10 9:36am] "Ya see, we're not interested in what you know...but what you are willing to learn. C'mon y'all." | |
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theAudience said: It's good to hear him, albeit briefly, discuss this experience. I'd heard rumors about this not long after it happened.
Stuff like, "Jeff Beck went to Motown studios and played so loud, he ran the musicians out of the studio." Never knew that Cozy Powell was there with him and removed "the set".
His affection for the Motown R&B feel was always pretty evident based on certain songs he covered. (I Can't Give Back the Love I Feel For You, Cause We've Ended As Lovers, etc) You can hear where he's trying go on these tunes from his 1st and 2nd solo albums... ...Let Me Love You (Truth - 1968) ...Plynth (Water Down The Drain) (Beck-Ola - 1969) After the exit of bassist Ron Wood (replaced by Clive Chaman), pianist Nicky Hopkins (replaced by Max Middleton), drummers Mickey Waller & Tony Newman (replaced by Cozy Powell) and vocalist Rod Stewart (replaced by Bob Tench), the band took on a more Rockin' R&B vibe. ...New Ways Train Train (Rough & Ready - 1971) ...Highways (Jeff Beck Group - 1972) 3 years and a few new rhythm sections later he comes back with two of the definitive albums of his career. He also made the decision to drop vocalists and go instrumental. From Blow By Blow (1975) ...Scatterbrain ...Diamond Dust (Both tunes featuring the string arrangements of George Martin) From Wired (1976) ...Led Boots ...Goodbye Pork Pie Hat Subsequent albums would follow with no 2 being in the exact same vein as prior releases. Even though all of them didn't necessarily appeal to me, I appreciated his willingness to take chances and experiment. Never one to chase celebrity, he plays what he wants when he wants. You gotta love that. Maybe those Motown tracks will surface one day. Music for adventurous listeners tA Tribal Records
[Edited 3/20/10 12:18pm] Actually Nicky Hopkins had exited the group long before they disbanded right around the Woodstock Festival date (where they cancelled at the last minute). The reason Beck chose Chaman was because he sounded so much like Jamerson. Music Royalty in Motion | |
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I love reading stories about unreleased albums.This is interesting stuff | |
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SoulAlive said: I love reading stories about unreleased albums.This is interesting stuff
Well Jeff Beck has a plenty of projects in the can. Two Beck, Bogert and Appice albums (one live and one studio); an unreleased project with Steve Lukather producing; three unreleased tracks with the same crew that recorded "Beck's Bolero" in 1966 (Jimmy Page, Keith Moon, John Paul Jones and Nicky Hopkins); tracks with B.B. King; a session with Stevie Ray Vaughn and Buddy Guy; a track with Eric Johnson; sessions with Pino Palladino and Tony Hymas around the time of the WHO ELSE! album; and many tracks recorded with Vinnie Colaiuta and Tal Wilkenfeld. Music Royalty in Motion | |
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funkpill said: Good stuff
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Wow this is cool info, would love to here his Motown album but fro what I gather the unique motown reverb ain't there cuz they mixed it elsewhere. But that Jamerson bassline, I hope they restore and release the tapes one day Did Prince ever deny he had sex with his sister? I believe not. So there U have it..
http://prince.org/msg/8/327790?&pg=2 | |
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