Track Listing

1. Shapes of Things
2. Let Me Love You
3. Morning Dew
4. You Shook Me
5. Ol' Man River
6. Greensleeves [Live]
7. Rock My Plimsoul
8. Beck's Bolero
9. Blues de Luxe
10. I Ain't Superstitious
11. I've Been Drinking [Stereo Mix][*]
12. You Shook Me [Take 1][*]
13. Rock My Plimsoul [Stereo Mix][*]
14. (Beck's) Bolero [Mono Single Version][*]
15. Blues de Luxe [Take 1][*]
16. Tallyman [*]
17. Love Is Blue [*]
18. Hi-Ho Silver Lining [Stereo Mix][*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2667 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2006-10-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Description
After leaving the Yardbirds as lead guitarist in 1967, Jeff Beck formed The Jeff Beck Group featuring Rod Stewart on vocals and Ron Wood on bass, releasing two albums 'Truth' in 1968 and 'Beck-Ola' in 1969. This long-awaited 24-bit digitally remastered version of 'Truth' is released with 8 bonus tracks. This album was Rod Stewart's first-ever album-length lead vocal showcase as an artist, and is regarded, along with 'Beck-Ola' as a musical touchstone for hard rockers in the years that followed. Collaborators on this album (and bonus tracks) include Keith Moon, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Nicky Hopkins, Aynsley Dunbar and Madeline Bell. Jeff Beck's three singles 'Tallyman' , 'Love Is Blue' and 'Hi Ho Silver Lining' (First Stereo Mix) have been added as bonus track along with 'I've Been Drinking' (New Stereo Mix), 'You Shook Me' (Take One Mix), 'Rock My Plimsoul' (Stereo Mix), 'Beck's Bolero' (Mono Single Version With Backwards Guitar), 'Blues Deluxe' (Take 1 Mix) plus the gorgeous ballad 'I've Been Drinking' (B-side on 'Love Is Blue') which was omitted from the original album. The liner notes have been upgraded by Charles Shaar Murray and feature an extensive interview with Jeff Beck. All tracks produced by Mickie Most. Remastered by Peter Mew at Abbey Road. EMI. 2005

Customer Reviews

The Edition to own:this one is definitive!
Jeff Beck's debut solo album has never sounded better in this mid-price expanded/remaster.As you know,this album was the first full-length recording of Rod Stewart.The group was a supergroup;guitarist Jeff Beck,vocalist Rod Stewart,bassist Ron Wood,Keyboardist Nicky Hopkins and drummer Micky Waller(who later played on some of Rod's best solo albums).For this release,EMI gives you all the expected bonus tracks and then some.You get previously unreleased outtake versions of "Blues DeLuxe" & "You Shook Me"(both remixed from the original multitracks),the original UK mono single version of "Beck's Bolero"(yes,as we're aware,there's no stereo mix of this track,which was recorded in 1966,shortly after Jeff's previous band The Yardbirds had completed their "Roger The Engineer" album,but the Uk single version has a backwards guitar coda which was edited off all album and previous CD releases of the song).Incidentally,"Beck's Bolero" was recorded with Keith Moon,John Paul Jones,Jimmy Page & Nicky Hopkins.Also,you get first-time-in stereo 2005 remixes of "I've Been Drinking","Hi Ho Silver Lining" & "Rock My Plimsoul"(the first version;the single take with Aynsley Dunbar on drums).The new remix of "I've Been Drinking" corrects a problem present on the original mono mix which caused a rejected,alternate lyric Rod Stewart vocal to leak through in the part of the song after the guitar solo.The unwanted vocal has now been 95% squelched.The stereo remix of "Rock My Plimsoul" is fine and musically identical to the mono single,however,it should be cautioned that due to some live-during-mono mixdown guitar & vocal overdubs on the original mono single mix of "Hi Ho Silver Lining",that the new stereo remix is missing one of the three lead guitar parts during the guitar solo,and the high vocal harmonies are missing during the song's choruses.The disc also includes the original mono single mixes of "Tallyman" & "Love is Blue".My guess is that either EMI couldn't find the multitracks for those two selections,or they did find them,but found a sitation similar to the situation on "Hi Ho Silver Lining";that musically identical(to the original single) stereo mixes weren't possible.There's long been talk that EMI funded further Jeff Beck recording sessions after Jeff's contract with EMI had ended,but before Jeff signed wih EPIC worldwide,but that there's uncertainty about whether EMI can legally release the recordings.When Jeff's manager has enquired about the recordings,EMI's Abbey Road Studios tape vault has denied holding them,though compilers who have done projects for EMI have said otherwise.I hope that someday that ownership issue will be resolved.Until then,EMI/UK's new expanded reissues of "Truth" & "Beck-Ola" give us more Jeff Beck outtakes than we'd ever thought we would hear.Jeff has always been anti-nostalgia & anti-outtakes,but his rigidness seems to be softening.He's even cooperated and been interviewed for the (fine) liner notes which accompany both discs.Highly recommended.

This refers to the UK expanded version
I highly recommend this version with the extra tracks. The sound is excellent. I hear a lot more than on the Remastered Epic version. And I really like the bonus cuts. I think I prefer the alternate versions than the ones used for the record, especially Blues DeLuxe. The definitive version!! A must have for your collection.

You Must Buy This!
With a sound that could slice through steel, a mod haircut framing his slightly surly face, and a thorough immersion into the Yardbirds' blue-based rock, Beck was one tough muthuh, and he wasn't shy about letting us know that he could play "flash." His pyrotechnical effects on "Truth" would be distracting if they weren't so spot on, almost always lifting the song to new, dazzling heights. It's a dazzling, exhilarating display of power, speed, showmanship, electronic effects, and simple good taste.

This new reissue has all the core elements of the original "Truth," (and here I diverge from the majority of reviewers), some mostly unnessary alternative versions--as well as songs not on the original. For example, it has the sublimely ridiculous, commercial, and pandering "Love is Blue" -Not even JEFF BECK can salvage this syrupy mosh. I believe that record producers were more powerful back then. You get two pretty awful tracks at the end of the album, and two good additons, "The Drinking Song," (later popularized by Bette Midler), and a version of "Beck's Bolero" where the bubbling background guitar contrasts superbly with what today we would call "power chords." It's both more evanescent and straightforward than the original, and worth a couple of dollars extra (though the "complete" Truth sells at about the same price as the 12-song original).

Face it, though, this album is a classic on the basis of three rock classics, a re-working of the Yardies' "Shapes of Things" (Bowie does a more pop, but excellent version on "Pin-Ups"), with Rod Stewart's imaginative pronunciation and Beck's powerfully electric, piercing lead; "Morning Dew," an apocalyptic number applicable to your choice of atom bombs, naplam, or greenhouse gases (Wikipedia will tell you that, indeed, it was a Bomb-inspired song written by Canadian Bonnie Dobson) with its combination of melodic and tempo-dissonant guitar licks as well as Stewart's best singing; and Beck's version of the great Howlin' Wolf's "I Ain't Superstitious," a Beck-fest of wa-wa laden special effects that has never been equaled, with a bass run by the uncredited Ron Wood that was quite influential over the years. These are the standouts, and they're why this album is cherished and being picked up by a new generation.

That popularity is NOT because this is the "Birth of Metal," as some critics, anxious to sell something that doesn't need selling, will claim. This is the high point of blues-based rock, and the glorious, glorified guitar solo (is it only Prince these days who keeps that tradition alive?). The album is too blues-laden to fit the "metal" category, and the playing blows away most metal bands anyway. Besides, "Truth" includes "Greensleeves" and "Old Man River"; the former is a sweet, but not necessary, and the latter is a showboat (pun intended) for Rod Stewart's intense and generally very effective singing.

If you can get past later associations with Stewart (for example, the sickenly Playboy juvenalia of the "French girl" murmurs on his much later and much worse "Tonight's the Night") and his smug self-absorption, you can appreciate the raspy voice and confident swagger that make him a rich man's Joe Cocker. He shows nice restraint during the solos, adding a well-timed exclamation or improv here and there (e,g, "Listen!") which adds to the spontaneity. Stewart shows his R and B chops (and strong influences) on "Rock My Plimsoul" and his solid performances on Howlin's Wolf's "You Shook Me" and 'Ain't Superstitious" are solid performances that appropriately lay out for Beck's insane guitar.

One of my favorite moments occurs during Beck's solo during the live performance of "Blues De Luxe." THe audience politely applauds him at first, but after he tears into an incredibly tight and intense solo, they lose whatever reserve they had and give him the frenzied appreciation he deserves. It's an electirc guitar analogy to John Mayall's harp solo on "Room to Move."

Maybe you need an ego like Beck to play so well for so long. He states that Superstitious was stolen from a Howlin Wolf "riff" (with, we are told, Wolf's explicit permission). Well, really, he pretty much stole the whole song, although it's definitely a Jeff Beck treatment. He implores us to play the longs loudly "for maximum effect," perhaps while having the "Vicar over for tea." The boy is rude--I once heard a story about him screaming at an airplane steward for amother screwdriver (it might even be true), and he rocks like no one else. I'll take Hendrix as my favorite (and the best) rock guitarist, but flashy, stylish, slashing Jeff Beck is not too far behind. Definitely in my top ten rock albums ever; one I play nearly every day at work.