CoronaVinyl Day 27 (Blues): Truth by Jeff Beck

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is the blues.  While I have what I consider a formidable blues collection on CD, it turns out I don't have as much blues on vinyl as I thought.  But alas, this is CoronaVinyl, and not CoronaCompactDisc, so we'll make due with what we can spin on a turntable.

I decided on Jeff Beck's 1968 debut solo album, Truth.  Beck, of course, is one of the greatest guitarists of all-time, who followed Eric Clapton and then was succeeded by Jimmy Page as the lead guitarist of The Yardbirds.  After he left The Yardbirds in 1966, Beck released a few singles, handling vocals and guitars himself.  With Truth, he put together a band, introducing most of the world to his vocalist, Rod Stewart, as well as Ronnie Wood, who handled bass duties on most of Truth.  Rounded out by drummer Micky Waller, the band cranked out a great album with some rock, blues rock, and straight-up blues.

Truth starts out with a heavy, bluesy reworking of The Yardbirds' song "Shapes of Things."  There are a couple non-blues covers, like "Morning Dew" (originally by Bonnie Dobson and also covered by The Grateful Dead), a slow, soulful version "Ol' Man River" (originally from the musical Show Boat), and the traditional British instrumental "Greensleeves."  There's also the original instrumental, "Beck's Bolero," written by Jimmy Page and inspired by Ravel's Boléro.  Page plays 12-string guitar, John Paul Jones plays bass, Nicky Hopkins played piano, and Keith Moon plays drums on the track.  So that's pretty fucking awesome.  Beck and page played the song together at Beck's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2009.  

The rest of the album is all blues.  The band covered Muddy Waters's "You Shook Me" and Howlin' Wolf's "I Ain't Superstitious."  In addition, Beck and Stewart reworked several other blues classics, like "Let Me Love You" by Buddy Guy, "Rock My Plimsoul" -- a reworking of B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby" -- and "Blues De Luxe," based on B.B. King's "Gambler's Blues."

Favorite song from Side 1:  "You Shook Me"
Written by blues songwriting legend Willie Dixon and originally recorded by Muddy Waters in 1962, "You Shook Me" is an iconic blues song.  Before Led Zeppelin covered it on their debut album in 1969, Beck and Stewart -- and Nicky Hopkins on piano -- did a dynamite version of the song, showing that Rod had the pipes to sing the blues.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Rock My Plimsoul"
As I mentioned above, this is a reworking of B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby," and it's awesome. Stewart kills it on this one.  When I hear songs like this, I kind of get pissed that he turned into "Rod the Bod" because he truly was one of the best rock singers out there.  Anyway, this is a great blues song.