Jeff Beck "Truth"

Friday, June 17, 2022

I was 13 years old when Jeff Beck’s Truth came out. I knew of Beck due to the Yardbirds, who were, at the time, my favorite band. Primarily due to the double A-sided single, I’m a Man/Still, I’m Sad, which may be the highlight of my music listening experience. With such a degree of love for The Yardbirds, how could I not be, at the very least, curious about a solo Jeff Beck album? I remember looking at the cover, then the back cover, reading Beck’s liner notes, and noting that there is a version of another fave Yardbirds song, Shapes of Things. In my mind, I imagine this to be even more of a psychedelic blow-out. I looked at the musicians listed, and I didn’t know the others at all. Ron Wood and Rod Stewart, although known in music circles in the UK, they were unknown in the States.

What was confusing about the album package was its cover. To my eyes and 13-year-old brain, it looked like a middle-of-the-road and very adult-like record cover. The model looked like someone from a Jackie Gleason album made in the late 1950s. Then contrasts the record's backside with an excellent, moody image of Jeff Beck. I knew he recorded songs like Love is Blue before this album, which, to be honest, is very much a shocker because of its hack-like approach to reaching the adult pop market. No teenager is going to go wild on Love is Blue. So yeah, with the combination of that song (although not on the album, thank God) and the cover, it looks like it would have Love is Blue on it. Then again, Mickie Most produced the record, and he did Donovan and Herman’s Hermits records, so how bad can it possibly be? I bought the album at a young age and on a budget. It’s a hell of an adventure.

When I got home, there were surprises. No Love is Blue type of songs, but there was a respectful Greensleeves, a hit from 1580! At the time, I felt the album didn’t make much sense. His version of Shapes of Things is a blues-rocker, but it didn’t have the psych touches which made the original great. What sounded like to me was a band that got together and then made a recording as soon as possible. It didn’t sound fresh, but it sounded like a group who didn’t know what to do vision-wise with the material on hand. As you can gather, I was a bright young teenager!

Listening to Truth in 2022, and it still sounds the same. I used to listen to many records, and once I revisit them, I notice time has changed, or my knowledge has expanded (or not!). Looking back, even though Truth was successful then, the big winners were Ron Wood and Rod, who went on to join or re-start the Faces, and Rod’s extraordinary early solo career. Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, who played on Beck’s Bolero, eventually went off to do Led Zeppelin. Jeff Beck and company should have been Led Zeppelin. Page must have made notes, noticed the mistakes, went off with the blueprint and made the Zeppelin. Beck had a rough idea of what he wanted to do, but two things were missing. One is that he’s not a songwriter, and two, the vision was limited. Page picked up on the blueprint, but he had the more significant and solid concept, and although one can argue if Page is genuinely a composer of note, he had, at the very least, with the assistance of John-Paul, a vital arrangement skill.

Truth failed, but still an enjoyable listening experience due to Beck’s talent over the guitar and the wonderful introduction to Rod’s voice and presence. Beck, at the very least, has kept going with what seems to be an open mind about who to work and play with. Rod started high in quality but ended up like a music hall showman, which is very much part of his character, but led him to mediocre recordings. I don’t know if he can tell the difference between his early recordings and later material. I suspect that he doesn’t obsess over the art or entertainment - both are the same to him. And unlike Page’s type of obsession and focus, Beck values the journey more than the destination.

On a side note, looking at the cover, I now see something different than what I saw when I was a teenager. Instead of a middle-of-the-road album cover image, I now see what looks like death. A woman tinted in blood-red ink with her eyes closed—almost a proto-type image of Twin Peaks’ Laura Palmer. Life is always mysterious.