Fresh from a reputation-making run with the Yardbirds, in early 1968 Jeff Beck was eager to establish himself as a bandleader. The guitarist\u2019s restless talent and exuberant flair demanded as much, and to help him achieve his goals he assembled a virtual all-star team: a core band of Rod Stewart on vocals, Ronnie Wood on bass, and Mickey Waller on drums, with\u2014in the studio, at least\u2014Nicky Hopkins on piano and John Paul Jones on organ.<\/p>\n
I mean, damn<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The remarkable group Beck assembled ended up only holding together for a brief two-album run\u2014just enough time to invent an entire new genre of music that would feature prominently for decades to come. The band\u2019s smashing debut Truth<\/i>, a showcase for Beck\u2019s experimentation with the perceived outer limits of the electric guitar, would end serving as ground zero for heavy metal.<\/p>\n
It did so from the foundation of the blues. Truth<\/i> is, in essence, an electric blues album with the amps turned up to 11 and Beck throwing everything he has at his instrument; most of the time the rest of the band is just trying to keep up. It\u2019s also a showcase for everything that was groundbreaking about Beck\u2019s playing at the time, as well as everything that would keep him a niche performer\u2014a universally revered Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, but a niche performer all the same\u2014for the rest of his career.<\/p>\n
Opener \u201cShapes Of Things\u201d transforms the old Yardbirds hit into a rampaging anthem, with Stewart wailing like the blues singer it seemed he was born to be, and Beck\u2019s dirty, dirty guitar double- and sometimes triple-tracked. \u201cLet Me Love You,\u201d one of just three original Stewart-Beck compositions on the album, is a big, chugging, aggressive Buddy Guy-styled blues rocker, with Stewart pleading \u201cLet me love you baby \/ You\u2019re drivin\u2019 my poor heart crazy\u201d as Beck essays exclamatory little runs between each couplet; it\u2019s traditional blues reimagined by a virtuoso.<\/p>\n
\u201cMorning Dew\u201d is an airier blues with Stewart crooning as Beck unleashes a series of wild, distorted peals and notes and runs that are somewhat related to the song, but really it\u2019s just Jeff being Jeff. \u201cYou Shook Me\u201d is the down and dirty Willie Dixon blues standard done extra slow with tinkly piano, thrumming organ and a grinding rhythm that Beck uses as a platform for some of the most explosive, emphatic, feedback-laced soloing that had ever been put to tape in 1968.<\/p>\n
For the next pair, Stewart and Beck take turns in the spotlight. \u201cOl\u2019 Man River\u201d reimagines the 1927 Kern-Hammerstein showtune as a traditional blues starring Stewart, while the traditional \u201cGreensleeves\u201d features Beck solo on acoustic for a tight, gorgeous 1:47.<\/p>\n
\u201cRock My Plimsoul\u201d returns the group to grinding blues, a B.B. King-styled Stewart-Beck original with the pair trading phrases back and forth like the born showmen they were. Next up, \u201cBeck\u2019s Bolero\u201d is of course one of the great rock instrumentals of all time, penned by his friend Jimmy Page but made famous by Beck, a sharp classical-rock stylistic mind-meld that works beautifully and showcases the lyricism of Beck\u2019s playing. <\/p>\n
The group finishes up with another pair of big-boned blues numbers. First the Stewart-Beck original \u201cBlues Deluxe\u201d delivers another slow, pumping, relentless number, featuring an especially emphatic Beck solo at around 4:50, and fake crowd noise to lend that late-night club atmosphere. Closer \u201cAin\u2019t Superstitious\u201d\u2014another Dixon classic\u2014is a playful blues featuring big, flangy notes and that familiar boom-boom rhythm pattern. A hundred guitarists would proceed to imitate and amplify every slide, wah-wah, and delay effect deployed here by Beck.<\/p>\n
The 2006 CD release of Truth<\/i> includes a sparkling remaster plus eight bonus tracks of dubious value for anyone other than the most dedicated completist. \u201cI\u2019ve Been Drinking\u201d is the most worthwhile, a B-side original with Stewart and Beck again trading phrases. From there you get four shrug-worthy alternate versions of album tracks, plus a trio of pre-Truth<\/i> singles, all rather disjointed British Invasion numbers, two of them featuring Beck on lead vocals. The liner notes reveal Beck\u2019s own disdain for the latter trio, and it\u2019s hard to disagree.<\/p>\n
Jeff Beck\u2019s career was one long voyage of discovery, a never-ending search for new sounds, new voicings, new ways to make his instrument sing. He would impress, influence, and awe a stadium\u2019s worth of fellow guitarists along the way, but Truth<\/i> is the album that had the greatest single impact on the musical landscape. Six months later Led Zeppelin would debut, but even Page himself would tell you: Beck did it first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5952],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46721","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jeff-beck","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46721"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}