![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/jeff_beck_truth.jpg\")
Many years ago, a rock critic whose name escapes me put forth the argument (I\u2019m paraphrasing here) that the Kinks were the band to which one could point if and when making the assertion that the Beatles weren\u2019t all that special. Merits of that point of view aside, a similar argument can be made, provoking Led Zeppelin fans by citing the music made by the early lineup of the Jeff Beck Group.<\/p>\n
By the late 1960s, Beck had established a reputation as one of the era\u2019s finest guitarists. As one of three superstar axemen to come from among the ranks of the Yardbirds (the other two being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page), Beck initially embarked on a solo career in the form of a couple of singles. But as the poppy single \u201cHi Ho Silver Lining\u201d demonstrated, his prowess on guitar was all but offset by his unremarkable singing voice. Wisely, he opted to assemble a group with a strong vocal front man.<\/p>\n
For that role, he turned to former Steampacket singer Rod Stewart. Today Stewart is known as a crooner of standards who appeals to a decidedly middle-of-the-road audience. And in 1979 he was memorably skewered by critic Greil Marcus as \u201ca rich Engelbert Humperdinck.\u201d Marcus also wrote this: \u201cRarely has a singer had as full and unique a talent as Rod Stewart; rarely has anyone betrayed his talent so completely.\u201d But in the Jeff Beck Group days, Stewart was a formidable singer whose fire and intensity was nearly unrivaled in the rock world.<\/p>\n
The band\u2019s rhythm section featured Ron Wood from the Birds on bass, and Stewart\u2019s Steampacket band mate Mickey Waller on drums. The band entered a succession of London studios in spring 1968 to record its debut, released in August as Truth<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Designed to explore a wide variety of styles, Truth<\/i> is nonetheless \u2014 for most of its run time \u2014 an uncompromisingly heavy album. The record opens with a radical reinvention of the Yardbirds hit \u201cShapes of Things,\u201d slowed down considerably to create space for both Beck\u2019s twisting leads and Stewart\u2019s near-histrionic (but impassioned) vocals.<\/p>\n
Presaging Led Zeppelin\u2019s unfortunate predilection for unattributed musical appropriation, several of the songs on Truth<\/i> are credited to one \u201cJeffrey Rod,\u201d a thinly-veiled pseudonym for Beck and Stewart. But the songs bearing that credit \u2014 \u201cLet Me Love You,\u201d \u201cRock My Plimsoul\u201d and \u201cBlues De Luxe\u201d \u2014 are simply new arrangements of songs already written by Buddy Guy and B.B. King. Issues of plagiarism aside, those recordings display the tension and occasional release that was key to the Jeff Beck Group\u2019s effectiveness.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet Me Love You\u201d in particular features incendiary playing from Beck, and the song\u2019s thunderous rhythm section rivals (some would say surpasses) the Cream rhythm section of Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. The Jeff Beck Group manages at once to hold true to the blues form while simultaneously pushing its boundaries. (And into that newly-created space soon came Led Zeppelin.)<\/p>\n
\u201cRock My Plimsoul\u201d is a shade less inventive, but Waller\u2019s constantly shifting meter provides interest to underpin Beck\u2019s multiple guitar overdubs. And while the superb, lengthy slow blues of \u201cBlues Deluxe\u201d is made slightly less appealing by its overdubbed crowd reaction, it\u2019s saved by Beck\u2019s searing solos and playful call-and-response with Stewart. Session hero Nicky Hopkins provides a memorable piano solo.<\/p>\n
The group was more forthright in crediting the original composers of Truth<\/i>\u2019s remaining tracks: the chestnut \u201cMorning Dew\u201d had already been recorded by many acts, but Beck and his cohorts take the song in a radically different, hard-rocking direction. It provides many of Truth<\/i>\u2019s finest moments.<\/p>\n
Jerome Kern\u2019s \u201cOl\u2019 Man River\u201d might have seemed \u2014 and really was \u2014 an odd choice for the Jeff Beck Group to take on. But thanks to Waller\u2019s faraway-sounding loose-skinned drumming and Hopkins\u2019 soulful gospel-flavored organ work, it succeeds. Fans of the much later Beck-Stewart collaboration on \u201cPeople Get Ready\u201d can find much of that song\u2019s roots within the arrangement here. Until near the song\u2019s end, Beck lays back, leaving space for the other players and Stewart. (He makes up for his absence with a solo acoustic track, a faithful reading of \u201cGreensleeves.\u201d)<\/p>\n
The curiously (and misleadingly) named \u201cBeck\u2019s Bolero\u201d is a scintillating instrumental. The first section is loosely based on Ravel\u2019s monotonous classical piece, but Beck adds dive-bombing guitar runs to the arrangement. And 90 seconds in, a gloriously cacophonous full-band approach takes over. (The word \u201cband\u201d is a misnomer, though: the lineup on this recording features Beck, Hopkins and the Who\u2019s Keith Moon.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI Ain\u2019t Superstitious\u201d closes Truth<\/i>, and it showcases the musical approach that Jimmy Page would explore on Led Zeppelin\u2019s debut album, recorded eight months after Jeff Beck Group\u2019s first record. Waller\u2019s stop-and-start drum provides openings for Beck to insert inventive fills, choosing variously from among his bag of tricks (slide techniques, effects pedals and whatnot). As with most of the album, what Stewart is singing is of less consequence than how he sings it. But he sings it quite fine indeed.<\/p>\n
Waller would be gone from the group by the time it re-entered a studio in June 1969 to begin work on a follow-up, Beck-Ola<\/i>. And for the second album, Hopkins had become a full member. Beck-Ola<\/i> leavens Truth\u2019s reliance on blues with an added focus on early rock \u2018n\u2018 roll, but today Truth<\/i> and Beck-Ola<\/i> (the only Jeff Beck Group albums to feature Rod Stewart) are often thought of as a paired set of superb releases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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