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Each month we will be checkin what we feel is an album that
definitky may be worth revisiting. Sometimes it is easy to forget how great
some of these releases were. Many of them went on to have signifigant influence
on the music of today. When going back and checking them out again you will
often find forgotten brilliance and just maybe it will give you a new spark
of inspiration for creating something awesome on your own. (-: Thanks to Wikapedia
Truth is the debut album by the Jeff Beck Group, released in 1968 in the United
Kingdom on Columbia Records and in the United States on Epic Records. It introduced
the talents of Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood to a larger audience, and peaked
at number 15 on the Billboard 200.
Content and background
After leaving The Yardbirds in late 1966, Jeff
Beck had released three commercial singles, two in 1967 featuring Beck on lead
vocals, and one without vocals in 1968. All had been hits on the British singles
chart, and all were characterized by songs aimed at the pop chart on the
A-side at the behest of producer Mickie Most. Harder rock and blues-based
numbers were featured on the b-sides, and for music on the album, Beck opted
to pursue the latter course.
Recording sessions for the album took
place over four days, 14-15 May and 25-26 May 1968. Nine eclectic tracks
were taken from these sessions, including covers of "Ol' Man River" by Jerome Kern,
the Tudor period melody "Greensleeves," and Bonnie Dobson's "Morning
Dew," a 1966 hit single for Tim Rose. Beck acknowledged two giants
of Chicago blues in songs by Willie Dixon — Muddy Waters' "You
Shook Me" and Howlin' Wolf's "I Ain't Superstitious". The
album started with a song from Beck's old band, "Shapes of Things." Three
originals were credited to "Jeffrey Rod", a pseudonym for Beck
and Stewart, all reworkings of previous blues songs: "Let Me Love
You" the song of the same title by Buddy Guy; "Rock My Plimsoul" from "Rock
Me Baby" by B.B. King; and "Blues Deluxe" similar to another
song by B.B. King, "Gambler's Blues." "Plimsoul" had
already been recorded for the b-side to the 1967 single "Tallyman," and
the tenth track, an instrumental featuring Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones,
Keith Moon, and future Beck group pianist Nicky Hopkins, "Beck's Bolero," had
been edited and remixed for stereo from the earlier b-side to "Hi
Ho Silver Lining." Due to contractual conflicts, Moon had been credited
on the original album as "You Know Who." |
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Truth is regarded as a seminal work of heavy metal because of its use of blues
toward a hard rock approach. Tom Scholz of Boston has listed it as his favorite
album on Gibson's online magazine, stating, "I knew Jeff Beck's Truth
album inside out..." The album's title inspired the name of Iowa band
Truth and Janey. Blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa recorded a studio version
of "Blues Deluxe" on his eponymous 2003 album Blues Deluxe and recorded
live versions on Live at Rockpalast (2005), and Live from the Royal Albert
Hall (2009).
On 10 October 2006, Legacy Records remastered and reissued the album for compact
disc with eight bonus tracks. Included were two earlier takes of "You
Shook Me" and "Blues Deluxe," the latter without the overdubbed
applause, and the six tracks making up the three singles by Beck. The b-side
to the 1968 single "Love Is Blue," "I've Been Drinking," was
another "Jeffrey Rod" special, this time reconfiguring the Johnny
Mercer song "Drinking Again."
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