128. Jeff Beck - Truth (1968)



















Track Listing

1. Shapes Of Things
2. Let Me Love You
3. Morning Dew
4. You Shook Me
5. Ol' Man River
6. Greensleeves
7. Rock My Plimsoul
8. Beck's Bolero
9. Blues Deluxe
10. I Ain't Superstitious

Review

This is a great album, but it unfortuantely suffers from a plague, the Rod Stewart. The album is under Jeff Beck's name, and he is indeed the star, the Guitar Hero in the album, and it is all about him, but the vocals are provided by the then unknown Rod Stewart. Of course audiences of the time had no Rod Stewart associations, because it was the beginning of his carrer. And frankly he does not do the album a disservice, he is not a bad singer and he interprets the songs quite well, but it is hard to distance yourself from the fact that it's Rod "Do You Think I'm Sexy" fucking Stewart.

Ok let's be logical about this, I love Stevie Wonder, but I Just Called To Say I Love You makes e retch, but he was once not only a good but a great artist. Let's try to apply the same brush to Rod Stewart and not make the later impressions that he has made destroy what is a really good album.

The guitar playing is of course amazing, Jeff Beck was a really talented guy, and you've got a lot of the elements of later metal and bands like Led Zeppelin poking their head out here. In fact no song in the album is really bad. There is an unnecessary Greensleeves in the middle of it, which is just a bit tacky, but expertly played, and if you really hate Rod Stewart you can appreciate a truly great instrumental track, Beck's Bolero. Jeff Beck basically took a lot of elements and songs from his previous band (the Yardbirds) and made something heavier and cooler with them, good going.

Yuo can stream this from Napster or buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Shapes of Things
2. Beck's Bolero
3. Blues Deluxe
4. You Shook Me

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

Wow, a clogged sink to the sound of Beck's Bolero:



From Wikipedia:

"Shapes of Things" is a song originally performed by The Yardbirds when Jeff Beck was the guitar player. It is probably one of their best known songs and features a solo from Jeff Beck. The song was covered in this form by the band Rush on their 2004 EP Feedback. The song was also re-worked by Jeff Beck and is the leadoff track to his 1968 album Truth. Gary Moore covered the Jeff Beck Group version on his 1983 album Victims of the Future. Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes later covered it in concert on their 2000 live album Live at the Greek. Though Page still played the solo from the original version.

David Bowie recorded a version of this song for his Pin Ups album in 1973.

The song was also recorded by The British Invasion All-Stars which includes Yardbirds founding member Jim McCarty (also one of the co-writers of the song) 'Shapes of Things' appears on the 'Yardbirds Family Tree' album (Mooreland St Records, released July 4, 2006).

The Allman Joys recorded a demo version of this song at Bradley's Barn in Nashville in 1966.

In March 2005, Q magazine placed "Shapes of Things" at number 61 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.

Black Stone Cherry's first album, Black Stone Cherry (released July 18, 2006) , featured a version of Shapes of Things as well.