Jeff Beck’s Golden Moment With Silver
They said it would never happen. We said it would never happen. He said it would never happen. Well, it happened.
At London’s Royal Albert on Saturday night Jeff Beck did something he hasn’t done (as far as we know) for more than 40 years when he actually played his evergreen 1967 hit Hi-Ho Silver Lining on stage.
Having virtually disowned the pop ditty almost since the day he recorded it, only three or four years ago Classic Rock asked Beck how much physical pain or how much dosh it would take to force him into playing Hi-Ho Silver lining live.
His reply was a dismissive: “You haven’t got enough money!”
So who twisted his arm? Probably Beck’s guest on the night, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, who joined Beck and his band on stage for the encore of a rousing instrumental Jerusalem (You know, ‘And did those feet, in ancient time, Walk upon England’s mountains green’, that you probably sung at school) followed by Hi-Ho Silver Lining.
And if Beck just playing that song wasn’t enough of a shock, then hearing this jazz-rock instrumentalist giant actually singing it, trading verses with Gilmour, was almost simply bizarre.
Himself hardly able to believe he was singing the, frankly, unfathomable verse, ‘Flies are in your pea soup baby, they’re waving at me/Anything you want is yours now, only nothing is for free/Lies are gonna get you some day, just wait and see/So open up your beach umbrella, while you are watching TV’, Beck just about managed to supress his laughter and seemingly excruciating embarrassment just enough to get through it.
“It’ll never happen”? If jeff Beck can sing Hi-Ho Silver Lining on satge, then anything’s possible. Even the Jeff Beck Group getting back together? Don’t count it out.
It’s a funny old world.
* A little bird tells us Beck may have also played Hi-Ho Silver Lining while on tour in Japan recently. Post a comment if you are able to confirm!
Chaps, I’m not sure you’re right here. Didn’t he play it as an encore at the gig he did with the White Stripes about five years ago at the RFH? And isn’t there a version on the Ronnie Lane tribute tour from around 1984?
Yes he played it at the RFH on the night I went when the guests included the White Stripes and Roger Waters but he never sang any of it himself that time. The suprise on saturday was the singing!
He actually played it at the ARMS concert at the RAH in 1983 (I think it was ‘83). Check out your old ARMS concert video. He actually introduces it by saying ‘OK, just because it’s a special occassion’.
In fact, Beck played “Hi-Ho Silver Lining” during the 1983 ARMS tour (the guitar summit of Beck, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton) at the Royal Albert Hall in 1983. Steve Winwood helped out on vocals. The show is available on DVD, but here’s the YouTube version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3A8KfavKjk
he finally threw the “millstone” off his neck once and for all !!!
jeff beck group??
rod steward?ronnie wood?cozy(never to be heard again)!!/drums then???
back play in gigs in western canada??
stranger things have happened!