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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Beck and Stewart reuniting?

The original Jeff Beck Group.
 (Left-to right) Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Mickey Waller, Ron Wood
Had not heard about this before and if it wasn't for the great Mike Lindley I might not know about it now, but, according to this, Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart, the core of the original Jeff Beck Group, may be reuniting in a London recording studio.

This could be a great shot in the arm for Stewart who went over to the Dark Side recently with his recordings of standards. Beck, meanwhile, completely and positively re-invented himself with his recent Les Paul tribute CD and tour.

I remember loving the Beck-Ola and Truth albums when they were released. Truth, released in August 1968, was, looking back on it now, the very first heavy metal album and it obviously influenced the work of Led Zeppelin and all the other metal bands that followed. Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience were working in the same areas as the Beck group, but Beck put it all together with his blistering lead quitar, Stewart's dramatic vocals and the thundering rhythm section of Ron Wood on bass and Mickey Waller on drums.

Beck-Ola, which followed in June 1969, was not nearly as strong (second albums rarely are). The sound was still the same but the material was incredibly weaker. Also, by this time, Led Zeppelin had released its first album. The album could have been, however, the one that marked the Jeff Beck Group as an equal to Zeppelin, but Beck was sidelined for a year, the result of an automobile accident. This caused the band to cancel its scheduled appearance at Woodstock and impatient Stewart and Wood bolted to form Faces.

I'm not going to expect anything to rival Truth or even Beck-Ola from this reunion, but I am expecting something positive.

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