He’s got some great tunes with Faces, most notably “Stay With Me.”
Rod HAS done a lot of covers, often brilliantly, but he wrote or co-wrote (sometimes with Ron Wood) a lot of his best solo material in the early Seventies. He has sole or shared credit for the best songs on “Every Picture Tells a Story” and “Gasoline Alley,” two superb albums.
Okay, I stand corrected on the songwriting thing – but the first few songs I thought of for him (“Reason to Believe,” “Handbags and Gladrags,” “The First Cut Is the Deepest”) are all covers.
“Truth” and “Beck-Ola” are two of my favorite albums. I like nearly everything on both, especially “I Ain’t Superstitious” and “Spanish Boots.” (I could do without “Old Man River”). There aren’t enough superlatives to describe the playing and singing on these tracks. But are they “I Can’t Quit You Babe” or “What Is And What Should Never Be” or “Ramble On”? No, those are a different kind of animal. I can’t really find a comparison to make between the Jeff Beck Group and Led Zeppelin. I like one becaue it’s everything the other isn’t.
Well, I just listened to both albums again, and I still prefer Led Zeppelin I, although I like Truth more than I remember liking it, especially “Shapes of Things,” “Morning Dew,” “Rock My Plimsoul,” and “I Ain’t Superstitious.”
However, LZ1 just blows my mind. “Good Times Bad Times” is perhaps my favorite Led Zeppelin song and one of my favorite all-time album intros. That forceful two-chord stab by Page immediately grabs your attention, alerting you that there’s some awesome rocking to come. And the way Bonham builds on this, from a simple quarters on the high hat pedal the first time, to eighth notes the second time around, then adding sycopated sticking before disappearing in a flurry of triplets. That intro somehow reminds me of an oncoming train. Bonham’s drumming on that is nothing short of inspired, and his footwork is crazy without sounding overly technical. I love the spaces in the music and the stop-and-go nature of the guitars. And I need not comment on JPJ’s melodic bass work.
There’s not a single song I don’t like on LZ1. My least favorite is perhaps “I Can’t Quit You Baby.” It also strikes me that Led Zeppelin’s sound was better produced than Jeff Beck’s, while still sounding dirty and soulful. And Zep still sounds more experimental and playful, song-structure wise, than Jeff Beck.
But, in the end, it comes down to how the music sounds and feels to me. Both LZ1 and Truth are great albums. I just don’t get the tickle in my belly with Truth that LZ1 gives me.
I guess another thing that strikes me with LZ1 is that it’s full of rock riffage in a way that Truth isn’t. The songwriting on Truth seems more chord-based, with a more straight-ahead blues feel, while Zeppelin songs are written around guitar riffs, and I respond as a listener more to that.
Can I choose Cream instead of either one of them?
I love 'em both, but haven’t listened to Beck since the old days. Thanks for the heads up on the remastered albums, I’m ordering them now!