October 7th, 2016 - A Hoppy Slice Of Guitar Boogie

Good afternoon!  The Meista here rockin' and rollin' with "Guitar Boogie" by Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page along with a Hop Slice Session IPA from Deschutes Brewery!

Album Info:

• Artist: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page
• Title: "Guitar Boogie"
• Recorded: 1971
• Release date: 1971 (2016-09-09) (1969-04-16)
• Record company: RCA Records
• Production:Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page?
• Album cover art: ?
• Personnel: Jeff Beck (guitars), Eric Clapton (guitars), and Jimmy Page (guitars)
• Additional musicians: Nicky Hopkins (piano), Mick Jagger (harp), Ian Stewart (piano), Charlie Watts (drums), and Bill Wyman (bass)
• Musical style: Rock and roll, blues rock
• Sound: This is classic, straight-forward bluesy rock and roll baby... played by the masters!!  What more can I say??
• Major themes: Instrumental blues rock numbers... so themes are the blues and rock and roll?
• Note: Of the album, Jimmy Page said the following: "That was a real tragedy for me. I got involved with Immediate, producing various things, including John Mayall's "Witchdoctor", "Telephone Blues" and a couple of others (around late 1965) and Eric and I got friendly and he came down and we did some recording at home, and Immediate found out that I had tapes of it and said they belonged to them, because I was employed by them. I argued that they couldn't put them out because they were just variations of blues structures, and in the end we dubbed some other instruments over some of them and they came out- with liner notes attributed to me (on earlier copies) though I didn't have anything to do with writing them. I didn't get a penny out of it anyway... Stu from the Stones was on piano, Mick Jagger did some harp, Bill Wyman played bass and Charlie Watts was on drums.  They were tapes Immediate had from a long time before. It was in fact the Cyril Davies All Stars without their guitarist, and they were just tracks we had done for fun after the real session was over."
• Tracks:   

1. "Choker"
2. "Snake Drive"
3. "Draggin' My Tail"
4. "Steelin'"
5. "Freight Loader"
6. "West Coast Idea"
7. "L.A. Breakdown"
8. "Down in the Boots"
9. "Chuckles"
10. "Tribute to Elmore"

Brew Info:

• Brewery: Deschutes Brewery (Portland, Oregon)
• Website: deschutesbrewery.com   
• Brew: Hop Slice Session IPA
• Style: American Session India Pale Ale (IPA)
• Serving: 12 ounce bottle
• ABV: 4.5%
• IBUs: 45
• Ingredients: Pale, Carapils, Honey Malt, Munich, and Crystal malts with Centennial, Galaxy, Cascade, Azacca, and Amarillo hops, and Meyer lemons
• Pour: It pours a murky caramel-brown amber with a frothy, white 2-finger head with great sustain and intricate spider web lacing.
• Nose: The nose is citrusy, herbal, bready, and soapy.  There are aromas of lemon zest and juice, black tea, tangerine, orange, sourdough bread, and floral soap.
• Taste: The taste of the Hop Slice is citrusy, bready, herbal, and sweet.  There are notes of lemon zest, pink grapefruit, tangerine, orange, fresh bread, light caramel malt, and floral hops.
• Mouthfeel: Light to medium-bodied with moderate carbonation, the mouthfeel is very crisp, slightly tart, and very refreshing with a clean, slightly dry and bitter finish.

Overall pairing: The very crisp, very citrusy, very refreshing drinkability of the Hop Slice Session IPA from Deschutes Brewery is such a great beer to kick back with on a sunny afternoon with the guitar wizardry of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page from the early 1970s! 

Cheers!!