Truth: The Debut Of Jeff Beck & Heavy Metal

With the release of Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland, Cream’s Wheels Of Fire, The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet and The Beatles’ White Album, 1968 was a watershed year for rock music.

On August 1, 1968, Truth, Jeff Beck's first solo album following his departure from the Yardbirds and the premiere of heavy metal, was released in the United Kingdom on Columbia Records and in the United States on Epic Records. Time has muted some of its daring, radical nature but Truth was almost as groundbreaking and influential a record as the first Beatles, Rolling Stones or Who albums.

Beck had established himself as a guitar player of the first degree on a quartet of bold and wickedly wonderful Yardbirds albums in 1965 and 1966 (For Your Love, Having A Rave Up With The Yardbirds, The Yardbirds [Roger The Engineer], Over Under Sideways Down) according to Louder.

Truth runs the gamut from electric blues and modified R&B to psychedelically influenced rock, classical and heavy metal instrumentalism. Released just months before Led Zeppelin’s debut and with songs and personnel in common, Jeff Beck, singer Rod Stewart, bassist Ronnie Wood and drummer Mickey Waller made an album that would become every guitar player’s bible and every hard rock band’s Holy Grail.

Beck uses his old Yardbirds hit "Shapes of Things" as a jumping-off point and ends with heavy treatment of Willie Dixon's "I Ain't Superstitious."

Track Listing

Side One

1. "Shapes of Things"

2."Let Me Love You"

3. "Morning Dew"

4. "You Shook Me"

5. "Ol' Man River"

Side Two

1. "Greensleeves"

2. "Rock My Plimsoul"

3. "Beck's Bolero"

4. "Blues De Luxe"