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Beck-Ola

Beck-Ola in Bloomington, MN
Current price: $9.99
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Size: CD
When it was originally released in June 1969,
Beck-Ola
,
the Jeff Beck Group
's second album, featured a famous sleeve note on its back cover: "Today, with all the hard competition in the music business, it's almost impossible to come up with anything totally original. So we haven't. However, this LP was made with the accent on heavy music. So sit back and listen and try and decide if you can find a small place in your heads for it."
Beck
was reacting to the success of peers and competitors like
Cream
and
Led Zeppelin
here, bands that had been all over the charts with a
hard rock
sound soon to be dubbed
heavy metal
, and indeed, his sound employs much the same brand of "heavy music" as theirs, with deliberate rhythms anchoring the beat, over which the guitar solos fiercely and the lead singer emotes. But he was also preparing listeners for the weakness of the material on an album that sounds somewhat thrown together. Two songs are rehauls of
Elvis Presley
standards (
"All Shook Up"
"Jailhouse Rock"
) and one is an
instrumental
interlude contributed by pianist
Nicky Hopkins
, promoted from sideman to group member, with the rest being band-written songs that basically serve as platforms for
's improvisations. But that doesn't detract from the album's overall quality, due both to the guitar work and the distinctive vocals of
Rod Stewart
, and
easily could have been the album to establish
as the equal of the other heavy bands of the day. Unfortunately, a series of misfortunes occurred.
canceled out of a scheduled appearance at Woodstock; he was in a car accident that sidelined him for over a year, and
Stewart
and bass player
Ron Wood
decamped to join
Faces
, breaking up the group. Nevertheless,
stands as a prime example of late-'60s
British blues-rock
and one of
's best records. ~ William Ruhlmann
Beck-Ola
,
the Jeff Beck Group
's second album, featured a famous sleeve note on its back cover: "Today, with all the hard competition in the music business, it's almost impossible to come up with anything totally original. So we haven't. However, this LP was made with the accent on heavy music. So sit back and listen and try and decide if you can find a small place in your heads for it."
Beck
was reacting to the success of peers and competitors like
Cream
and
Led Zeppelin
here, bands that had been all over the charts with a
hard rock
sound soon to be dubbed
heavy metal
, and indeed, his sound employs much the same brand of "heavy music" as theirs, with deliberate rhythms anchoring the beat, over which the guitar solos fiercely and the lead singer emotes. But he was also preparing listeners for the weakness of the material on an album that sounds somewhat thrown together. Two songs are rehauls of
Elvis Presley
standards (
"All Shook Up"
"Jailhouse Rock"
) and one is an
instrumental
interlude contributed by pianist
Nicky Hopkins
, promoted from sideman to group member, with the rest being band-written songs that basically serve as platforms for
's improvisations. But that doesn't detract from the album's overall quality, due both to the guitar work and the distinctive vocals of
Rod Stewart
, and
easily could have been the album to establish
as the equal of the other heavy bands of the day. Unfortunately, a series of misfortunes occurred.
canceled out of a scheduled appearance at Woodstock; he was in a car accident that sidelined him for over a year, and
Stewart
and bass player
Ron Wood
decamped to join
Faces
, breaking up the group. Nevertheless,
stands as a prime example of late-'60s
British blues-rock
and one of
's best records. ~ William Ruhlmann