Beck's Bolero

I was a fan of Jeff Beck early in my life. I stumbled upon him listening to Classic Rock radio like I always used to do. I knew I liked him because he was Eric Clapton's replacement in the Yardbirds. I also liked him because some of the solo stuff he played was great. The stuff that would make you boogie. So when it came to buy a tape or record of him at the record store I would leave with out any. I had no idea where to start and even what was his greatest work. I mean all the stuff I used to hear on the radio was from every part of his life. They would play stuff from Wired or Blow by Blow and I would say that's the one I want.

One day all that changed. I should just buy a greatest hits and get it over with. That would be too simple and I did not want to go that route. Smart enough for me there was no greatest hits at the time of my search. Even my uncle told me to go the route of buying the albums and the first one you should go with is Wired or Blow by Blow. The same stuff the radio station said. One morning though on the radio they did not play stuff from that album but an album called simply Truth. This was an album I never heard of. I listened to it closely with my good ears.

It was amazing I could hear the lush sounds of 12 string guitar who I found out later was Jimmy Page and I could hear the wild flaying of drums by Keith Moon. The cool organ sound of none other then John Paul Jones. It started to climb with the solo by Jeff Beck over all of that. I had no idea where it was going to go. I was waiting in anticipation, but not for long. It finally hit it's peak at just the right moment. The scream of Rod Stewart and then like an explosion it just killed. It was amazing the whole band making these heavy blues and hard rock sounds that sounded amazing.



It was that big sound that made make my decision. The announcer told me that it was off his very first solo album called Truth. It maybe hard to find, but well worth the effort. At 15 I set out to find this album. I went to my two record stores. They both did not have it. They would let me know if they did. It was an exhaustive search too. I decided while looking to get it on the album on cassette. Hey at least that was around and it was cheap too. I could put this in my tape player and listen to it. When I got the tape I quickly put it in the tape deck.

The album was quick enough to make me forget the Yardbirds version of "Shapes of Things" with a whole new fresh sound. Everything about the album was wonderful. The guitar playing was borderline Heavy Metal riffs. Adding to the mix was a very young Rod Stewart on vocals. It was quite fun to hear him sound so young, but with the maturity of an experienced voice. You can tell that even the song selection had catered to his voice with songs like "Ol' Man River" and "Morning Dew."



Jeff Beck is still one of my favorite guitar players. I have seen him twice and he puts on a really great show. He keeps his roots on one foot and kicks you in the ass with the other. He is a really great musician and experience as a rock and roll and fusion guitar player show in everything he does. Listen to how this album is compared to other guitar albums from back then. It is a quite impressive argument about his talent. Oh! Yeah! By the way six years after trying to find the album I was about to give up and found the LP at a tag sale for a buck. Enjoy!!