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
11. I've Been Drinking
12. You Shook Me
13. Rock My Plimsoul
14. Beck's Bolero
15. Blues Deluxe
16. Tallyman
17. Love Is Blue (L'Amour Est Bleu)
18. Hi Ho Silver Lining

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8276 in Music
• Released on: 2005-05-09
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording remastered, Extra tracks

CD Description
The Jeff Beck Group's debut, 1968's TRUTH remains a stunner, probably the best work of the guitarist's long career. Perhaps energized by the bust-up of the Yardbirds, Beck is positively overflowing with ideas throughout the entire album, which pointedly starts with a completely different recasting of the Yardbirds hit "Shapes of Things". TRUTH then continues through an impressively varied set of tunes, ranging from an achingly slow, bluesy version of the Broadway standard "Ol' Man River" to a technically astounding acoustic solo version of "Greensleeves" and a killer pair of Willie Dixon covers including a take on "You Shook Me" that shreds Led Zeppelin's contemporaneous version. Throughout, the then-unknown Rod Stewart sings his heart out; he's as important to the album as Beck himself, and it's unsurprising that when Stewart and bassist Ron Wood left to form the Faces, the Jeff Beck Group never recovered.

Customer Reviews

More than classic rock
Although everything that has been said in the other reviews is absolutely true, what hasn't been mentioned is the degree of light and shade within the album. Ol' Man River is not an obvious choice for a heavy rock band, yet the performance is surperb, with masterful vocals and some tasty slide playing from Beck. The canned applause on Blues Deluxe is a little irritating, but the execution is excellent once again. Beck's acoustic performance of Greensleaves is a nice change of pace, while Beck's Bolero shows the sheer musicality of the band and their collaborators (Jimmy Page and Keith Moon on this particular track). There's good stuff in the bonus tracks especially I've Been Drinking. It's worth pointing out that this should probably be seen as a band album, with Beck first among equals. Rod Stewart's contribution is just to important to be ignored, and his phenomenal singing throughout just goes to show that he wasn't always naff. An excellent album, with some worthwhile bonus tracks.

With Bonus Tracks Galore!
The woman in our local corner shop often has her Rod Stewart T-shirts on.
"Have you got the Jeff Beck albums yet?" I ask.
She smiles benignly as if to say; "Idiot! What would my Roddy be doing on a Jeff Beck album, I do wish he'd stop asking me that!"
Jeff Beck's first album after leaving The Yardbirds, and after enjoying (?) 2 or 3 chart singles on which HE took the lead vocals this album was an absolute blessing to hear; this was what we expected from a band fronted by him! And yes, regardless of my disbelieveing corner shop lady, her Roddy sings on all the original album tracks, and makes an especially fine job on every one of them, and would surprise quite a few of those disbeliever's in the process with 'Ol Man River' for starters.
And as if the first 10 tracks were not enough for a more than satisfying first album from The Jeff Beck Group, here we have 8 bonus tracks consisting of B-sides, mono mixes, AND Jeff's 3 chart singles in 'Hi-Ho Silver Lining,' 'Tallyman' and the totally instrumental 'Love Is Blue.'
We must be grateful that we had TWO albums from this band before Rod and Ron Wood split to join up with The Faces, but it was their destiny as much as it was Jeff Beck's to do his jazz-rock thing; though for most of his fans, his blues is far more to our taste and it's where he belongs.

Classic hard rock
Jeff Beck is inventive, fluid and more than a little odd, Rod Stewart is relaxed and sounds great, Ronnie Wood is an excellent bassist (surprise, surprise) and Mick Waller sounds like Mitch Mitchell's long-lost twin. It's an old, old album now and the production is rough and varies from track to track, but this is a great classic album. As you may have read somewhere, there is quite a similarity between it and Led Zeppelin I, although the latter has a drama and grandeur that Beck's more ragged mob can't match (well, nor could even Zep themselves). But you should have this album if you want to own all the original blueprints of the hard/heavy rock world. It ranks alongside Black Sabbath's first, Deep Purple In Rock, Cream's Wheels of Fire and Are You Experienced? in that nobody really influenced these guys. They were out front ploughing a new furrow.