Narada Michael Walden couldn’t have known that touring with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the mid 1970s would lead to a long friendship and association with Jeff Beck.
And now that, in turn, may lead to the release of a Beck album that’s sitting in the drummer and producer’s vaults.
The Michigan-born, San Rafael, California–based Walden is a Grammy award winner for his hit-making work for artists like Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Starship and others. His rock résumé includes not only Mahavishnu and Beck but also Tommy Bolin, Santana, Robert Fripp and even a brief membership in Journey.
Mahavishnu was his first big gig — he was with the band for three years and played on three albums, starting with 1974’s Apocalypse. It was while touring for its follow-up, 1975’s Visions of Emerald Beyond, that Walden met Beck.
“Jeff had just done Blow by Blow and was hotter than pancakes,” Walden tells Guitar Player. “Both bands toured together across America, so I had a chance to watch Jeff firsthand and realized what his sound was that people were going crazy for. It was funky on the bottom, with sweet melodies on top, and he could break into blues-rock whenever he wanted to. Both bands would jam together every night, which was really great.”
In late 1975, as he was wrapping up Inner Worlds with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Narada heard from Beck.
He only had the song, ‘Led Boots.’ We sat in the basement. He showed it to me, and we played and recorded it on cassette.”
— Narada Michael Walden
“I got a call: Would I come to London to make an album with him?” The album was Wired, Beck’s celebrated follow-up to Blow by Blow.
“He only had the song, ‘Led Boots,’” Narada recalls. “We sat in the basement. He showed it to me, and we played and recorded it on cassette.”
Narada says that, while McLaughlin continued to mix Inner Worlds, “I’m down on the piano, banging out compositions for Jeff. ‘Come Dancing,’ ‘Sophie,’ ‘Play With Me.’ I already had ‘Love Is Green,’ which was called ‘Mother’s Love.’ I showed that material to Jeff and he loved it.”
Like Blow by Blow, Wired was cut with producer George Martin. “It was just a magical time in my life,” the drummer says.
After years of playing with McLaughlin, Walden found working with Beck a welcome change.
“Playing with Jeff was like high school,” he says. “John McLaughlin is professorial; Jeff was more of the blues-rock Hendrix thing that I love so much, mixed in with what I love about fusion. It was like kissing a girl in the back seat of a car; you get sexy on it.
“With Jeff, the blues always came through, and it was so easy to play with him because of that. It wasn’t as taxing as Mahavishnu was. With Vishnu, you were not sure what he was gonna do, and with Jeff you had a pretty good idea where he was going, and I enjoyed playing with him because of that. It was almost like peanut butter and jam.”
Walden was surprised, however, by what came next.
“I went to his house after we made Wired to make another album, and he wouldn’t touch the guitar.”
An avid collector of vintage hot rods — and a skilled mechanic as well — Beck was more interested in tinkering with his race cars than picking up an electric guitar.
“He came out and his hands were full of car grease,” Narada recalls. “He wanted nothing to do with the guitar.”
Later on I asked him what happened. He said, ‘I lost confidence.’ You can’t imagine Jeff Beck losing his confidence — y’know, the kind of guy he is, just high on life.”
— Narada Michael Walden
“Later on I asked him what happened. He said, ‘I lost confidence.’ You can’t imagine Jeff Beck losing his confidence — y’know, the kind of guy he is, just high on life. But way back then, ’75 or ’76, he could lose his confidence.”
That wasn’t the case 35 years later, however, when Walden toured as part of Beck’s band between 2010 and ’12 on the Emotion & Commotion tour.
“I realized Jeff had grown,” he says. “Jeff, toward the end of his life, was consistent. Every show he’d go to 10 and the Marshall would be screaming. He’d come to life in the show, and I learned I could lean on him. It wasn’t like earlier in his life, where I wasn’t sure how consistent he would be. Now he was on fire every show, and it was a great thing to do, to be with him.
“I really loved that people love Jeff and can open their hearts to that cat. Even John McLaughlin would say he was his favorite guitarist.”
Through their music, Narada says, he and Beck got closer and connected.
“Jeff and I became good friends,” he explains. “He would tell me things people didn’t hear about — like he almost died fixing a car. A car fell down on him and he barely got out in time. And he loved Sandra, his wife, so much it made him shake in his boots.
“He was very sentimental, too. He’d hear a song like ‘The Long and Winding Road’ on the tour bus and get teary-eyed, sentimental. You’d hang out with him at his house and he’d be playing old ’40s swing band stuff. He was just a sentimental cat. I don’t think people really know that about him.”
And in a revelation that will certainly whet fans’ appetites, Walden says Beck “came to my studio and recorded things that are in my vault — a blues album he wanted to make. It’s an album’s worth of stuff, just playing some blues parts, things he loved from a parts standpoint.
“It’s great, as you’d expect. There’s a version of ‘Little Wing’ that I sang on. I think it would be nice to get Rod Stewart to be on one of the songs. I’ll work on it this year. I’d love to get it out. It’s all up to Sandra. I always want to respect Sandra.”
