The Jeff Beck Cover That Had Jimmy Page “Terrified” To Listen

English rock bands in the ’60s were like revolving doors. These outfits shared members, broke down completely, and rebooted with completely different lineups. This kept things interesting for the artists, but as a fan, it proved slightly confusing.

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This network of musicians also meant that bands weren’t just competing with other bands for listeners who made the same genre of music; they were competing with friends and former collaborators. One ’60s band, The Yardbirds, served as a launching pad for several iconic musicians, including Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. After that brief yet iconic group called it quits, Page and Beck went on parallel journeys with their respective groups. Page once recalled a cover both guitarists did after the breakup that “terrified” him to listen to. Find out why below.

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The Jeff Beck Cover That Made Jimmy Page Nervous

Both Page and Beck came up in the scene with blues influences. The Yardbirds featured this influence, and so did their efforts after that group ended.

Led Zeppelin was heavily blues-influenced, as seen in their early cover of Willie Dixon and J.B. Lenoir’s “You Shook Me.” Their rendition of the song was the perfect blend of Zeppelin’s late ’60s rock and earlier ’60s blues. However, Page’s celebration of roots music was slightly dampened by the fact that Beck also covered this track.

Two Covers of “You Shook Me”

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“Beck and I came from the same sort of roots,” Page once said of Beck choosing also to cover “You Shook Me.” “If you’ve got things you enjoy, then you want to do them…to the horrifying point where we’d done our first LP with ‘You Shook Me,’ and then I heard he’d done ‘You Shook Me.’”

“I was terrified because I thought they’d be the same,” he added. “But I hadn’t even known he’d done it, and he hadn’t known that we had.”

In the end, both versions proved distinct from one another and equally meritable. Moreover, Beck and Page are both considered iconic guitarists in their own right, despite (or perhaps because of) coming up together. Revisit both covers of “You Shook Me” from Led Zeppelin and Jeff Beck below.

(Photo by Robert Knight Archive/Redferns)