bitingly over-volumed, the singer was doing deep knee-bends holding the mike stand like a dumbbell (original, but so what.) It didn't make a hell of a lot of sense to me.

When his album came out, I expected to hear England's revenge for Blue Cheer or Jimi Hendrix and his Electric Period. Not a chance. This album is quite another story. It's called Truth.

I wonder what is the truth: the record or what I saw that night? This remains to be seen. However, this album is a classic, much the way the Clapton-Mayall album is. TRUTH is probably the current equivalent of that album.

The album opens with a considerably reworked version of "Shapes of Things" and it is more successful than the original except for Beck's solo. I believe the solo on the Yardbirds record (by Beck) to be one of the classic guitar solo on a pop record. I was hoping he would top it. The singing (Rod Stewart) is just great and many will now realize just how impotent a singer Keith Relf really was.

After a "Strange Brew"-ish opening, "Let Me Love You" gets into a Mayall-Clapton "Little Girl" structure with an honest and relaxed feel. Beck sounds really comfortable here. The bass line (Ron Wood) is as correct and tasteful as could be for this particular groove. The ending is beautiful.

Tim Rose's "Morning Dew" comes in for a good turn next. Most covers of this song have been quite good and it's probably a credit to Tim's original, which gave everyone a lot to work with. It sounds like they phased Becks "wah... wah" without moving the frequency to give it a close-up sound (like the vocal on "Punk's Dilemma" by Paul Simon). Bonnie Dobson would be proud of the occasionally faded in bagpipes on this cut. The piano playing by Nicky Hopkins is quite good.

On "You Shook Me," no credit is given the organist or the pianist, but the organ is up front and slows the groove down a great deal. Beck plays his our-de-force (sic) on this cut. The close of the first side and a highlight of the album is "Old Man River." A very orchestral beginning featuring tympani gives way to a Percy Sledgeish track and vocal. The tympani are a bit overbearing after a certain point, and you wish "you know who" hadn't gotten hung up with them at the session. The singing is gorgeous and actually in order not to repeat myself, the singing is first-rate throughout the album. It was not half as groovy in person however, whi