“The ultimate test for any self-respecting guitar player is: could you play ‘Jeff’s Boogie–which you could not. You could fake your way through ‘Jeff’s Boogie’, but you couldn’t actually play it.” –Bruce Springsteen, Little Steven’s Underground Garage, April 8, 2011
No kidding. The B-side to The Yardbirds’ 1996 hit single “Over Under Sideways Down” is jaw-droppingly impressive enough to intimidate even the most accomplished guitar players.
In 2011, Bruce and Little Steven reminisced about unsuccessfully trying to learn how to play Jeff Beck’s ultimate challenge, only to settle for faking their way through it.
What does it sound like when you fake your way through “Jeff’s Boogie?” We’re about to find out–because not only was Bruce Springsteen brave enough to try it in public, he did it at the age of seventeen.
And someone recorded it.
On the night of September 16, 1967, Bruce’s very first band played a show at The Left Foot in Freehold. The Castiles were in their third year as a band, and Bruce was already garnering a reputation as a hot-shot guitar player. So of course he was going to take a run at “Jeff’s Boogie.”
How did he do? Listen for yourself:
Maybe Jeff Beck didn’t need to sweat the competition at the moment, but for a teenager fronting a high school band, that was pretty good.
Bruce would try “Jeff’s Boogie” again on at least one other occasion in 1971, but no recording from that performance circulates. By that point, though, Bruce had more than proven himself as an accomplished guitarist and was focusing on his original material.
“Jeff’s Boogie” is probably a lot more challenging for 71-year-old fingers than it is for 17-year-old ones, so odds are awfully long against us hearing Bruce try it ever again.
But thankfully we have that 1967 recording of an aspiring rock star full of spit and fire and nothing at all to fear.
Jeff’s Boogie
First performed: September 16, 1967 (Freehold, NJ)
Last performed: November 23, 1971 (Linden, NJ)
