- Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp’s new album ’18’ will be released on July 15th.
- One of two songs written by Depp is a tribute to cinema siren Hedy Lamarr.
- The duo are promoting it with a video for a Depp-penned original song.
Johnny Depp sings in the song, which appears to portray the cinema actress of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s as a victim of fame and expectations, “This is a song for Miss Hedy Lamarr / Erased by the world that made her a star I won’t believe in humans anymore.”
He’d performed the song with Beck at gigs since 2019.
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Depp sings lead vocals on the Velvet Underground’s ‘Venus In Furs,’ the Everly Brothers’ ‘Let It Be Me,’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ for the ’18’ album.
Two songs from the Beach Boys’ iconic ‘Pet Sounds,’ ‘Caroline, No,’ and ‘Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder),’ are featured as instrumentals on the album.
John Lennon’s “Isolation” is among the album’s other covers, as are songs by Killing Joke, Dennis Wilson, the Miracles, Janis Ian, and Davy Spillane.
“I haven’t had another creative partner like him for ages,” Beck stated in a statement announcing the album’s release.
“He was a major force on this record. I just hope people will take him seriously as a musician because it’s a hard thing for some people to accept that Johnny Depp can sing rock ‘n’ roll.”
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“It’s an extraordinary honor to play and write music with Jeff, one of the true greats and someone I am now privileged enough to call my brother.”
The ’18’ album cover art, a drawing of Beck and Depp as they would have appeared as 18-year-olds, appearing like a youthful David Bowie and Elvis Presley, was also presented on Thursday. Sandra Beck, Beck’s wife, designed the cover.
Depp and Beck met in 2016 and soon formed a relationship, according to the album release, which led to them working together on the ’18’ recording in 2019. They’d released a studio video of one of the album’s covers, ‘Isolation,’ before knowledge of the complete album project came out.
