Beck-Ola | 
 enlarge | Artist: The Jeff Beck Group
Label: Sony
Category: Music
List Price: $11.98
Buy New: $6.79
You Save: $5.19 (43%)
New (35) Used (10) from $6.25
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 32554
Format: Extra Tracks, Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 77351
UPC: 828767735122
EAN: 0828767735122
ASIN: B000I0QKDI
Release Date: October 10, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new, factory sealed. Fast shipping!
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| Tracks:
| • | All Shook Up | | • | Spanish Boots | | • | Girl From Mill Valley | | • | Jailhouse Rck | | • | Plynth (Water Down The Drain) | | • | The Hangman's Knee | | • | Rice Pudding | | • | Bonus Track: Sweet Little Angel | | • | Bonus Track: Throw Down A Line | | • | Bonus Track: All Shook Up (Early Version) | | • | Bonus Track: Jailhouse Rock (Early Version) |
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| Customer Reviews:
Beck To The Future May 17, 2008
El Lagarto (Ambler, PA)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
If there is anyone who doubts Jeff Beck deserves a seat at the table with Hendrix and Clapton in the pantheon of rock-guitar deities, s/he should get a grip on this CD right quick - after putting on asbestos gloves. From his pile-driving days with the Yardbirds through the two Jeff Beck Group efforts, (this is the second), and various collaborations afterwards, Beck has been a fearless innovator, axe murderer, and prototypical rock and roll monster. Much has been made of the Yardbird guitar troika - Clapton, Beck, Page - and while it makes an interesting rock footnote, Beck was responsible for their highest highs, the Clapton/Page contributions were far less interesting. Beck was as much of a pioneer as he was technically overpowering.
The first Jeff Beck Group album, Truth, is an absolute essential. Rod Stewart's vocals suit the material perfectly, Nicky Hopkins on piano is ideal, Ron Wood holds down the bass, and Mick Waller kicks skins. Songs like Blues De Luxe and I Ain't Superstitious pretty much define the Brit-blues-band sound. (Beck-Ola has one song that would have fit there - a bonus track - Sweet Little Angel.) However, for the most part, Beck-Ola is an entirely different animal, a wild studio jam made in an atmosphere of rage. Wood, Waller, and Stewart were getting ready to break up TJBG by jumping ship to form Faces. Worse still, the least worthy guitarist to play with the Yardbirds, Jimmy Page, was stealing Beck's thunder as their mutual management helped assemble an absolutely awful group destined to pollute the airwaves for years under the name Led Zeppelin. Beck was furious, and you can hear it in the music.
Two Elvis hits, All Shook Up and Jailhouse Rock, are amped-up and slapped around so rudely as to be unrecognizable; both are highlights. Spanish Boots, Plynth, Hangman's Knee, and Rice Pudding are originals. All are rude enough to kick a hole in the barn, Hangman in particular grinds raw and hard. Stewart should get a Purple Heart for his ability to sing over this mayhem; his raspy, harsh insistence is superb. While everything here demands listening - even the oddly melancholic Nicky Hopkins number - Girl From Mill Valley - which seems to belong on a different album - Rice Pudding will actually change your life. The level of intensity and raw rock energy are at the point where you're quite certain your speakers - and head - will explode. It's as though Beck won't be satisfied until he has pushed his fellow musicians, and the music itself, right to the point of no return, the vanishing point.
After a particularly dazzling flute solo, Roland Kirk would sometimes say, "Try that Herbie Mann." Listen to this CD a few times and imagine Jeff Beck Saying, "Try that Jimmy Page." It's a quirky one, granted, but Beck-Ola is a must-have all the same.
Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart at their RAW BEST!! May 11, 2008
Kenneth R. Shaw (San Francisco)
Bless My Soul, What's Wrong With You???? If you never heard this, what a treat for you! Rod Stewart, early (1967?), cool, raw, balsy and with Jeff Beck getting down and dirty with energy and the absolute BEST "Jailhouse Rock" ever! Extras are great. Iconic, glorious, just plain, wow....!
4 1/2 * Good, but not Great Follow-Up Still Worth Getting February 29, 2008
M. Allen Greenbaum (California)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Beck-Ola has a very different sound than "Truth," the Jeff Beck Group's classic first album. On "BEck-Ola" the musicians sound more self-assured, the playing more uniformly aggressive. OF course, you expect that from Jeff Beck, who has the angriest sounding guitar in all rock, but Ron Woods (bass), Nicki Hopkins (keyboards), and the new percussionist play less tentaively, all of them have a certain cocky flair. Wood and Hopkis take more extended, showy solos: Beck is not the only flash this time around.
THe album is also more prototypically hard rock (closer to metal, though neither Truth or this album are its progenitors, as some journalists/publicists would like you to believe). The sound of each soloist is more foregrounded, though not nearly to the same extenet as Led Zep. This is still blue-based interplay, but there's more bravado here, and the engineering favors the upfront sound of each soloist.
While Stewat isn't nearly as playful as he was on "Truth," he and his mates have a gloriously good time on the over-the-top "Jailhouse Rock," and his slurring butchery of some the words on "Spanish Boots" is especially delightful. To some extent, however, this highlights what's missing from the album, the sort of playful, making it look easier than it is, more spontaneous feeling of Truth. You can almost feel them pushing hard on this album, and while this plays well on most songs, there's a kind of forced feeling to "The Hangman's Knee" and (I hate to say it, because it was an early fave song of mine), the long power song, Rice Pudding.
Hangman's Knee has a jerky start and stop rhythm to it probably intended as a contrast to Beck's playing, but it seems to get in the way of itself, and it becomes fairly boring after awhile (of course, this is all relative to the superb playing that precedes it). The arrangement bogs down the players, and the background riff--en importnat element of later metal music--doesn't satisfy. COnversely, RIc Pudding, while using a similar power riff--and doing it more effectively--languishes in it's own length. Two minutes cut off of the song (especially, the slower, quieter piano sections) would have reduced the dynamic and tempo contrasts but made for a more tightly constucted, compelling number. THe song has some great Beck guitar though, and hints of his later jazz and rock experiments cme through.
The song that best shows the band's strengths is the superb "Plynth (Water Down the Drain)." It also has a basic rock riff, but its funky sound meshes better with Beck's riffs, solos, distortions, and the snarling guitar sound that he commands better than anyone else. It has the complexity of a Jeff Beck song (as opposed to, say, Zepp's more single-minded sound and lyrics), but it's very powerful as well. BY the way, "Girl fom Mill valley" showcases Hopkins in a pretty gospel-influenced instrumental, heavy on the sustain but very sweet and realtively light. One begins to imagine that Jeff Beck, who included "Greensleeves" on "Truth" (ummm, we won't touch on the treacly, unexplainable, "Love is Blue") has a soft, romantic side, or perhaps early exposure to church or music hall sounds. At any rate, it's a nice change of pace after the very energetic opening two numbers.
Broadly speaking, you have 5 gems out of seven, with Jeff Beck playing as only he can, and a more forceful group nacking him up. Rice Pudding is excellent, but perhaps overly long, and cut 6, Hangman's Knee redundant. I'd throw down the extra change might be necessary and get the 2004 version of "Beck-Ola" with the 4 additional tracks (ASIN: B000I0QKDI), two of which are new, and alternate versions of "All Shook Up" and Jailhouse Rock." Then, if you haven't already, you must get "Truth," both because it's one of the top rock albums ever made, and to make your own comparisons with "Beck-Ola."
 Good, not Great. February 2, 2008
Scott Wallace (Noblesville, IN USA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
A cool, bluesy effort from Jeff Beck, though not quite so successful as his debut.
First Time Listener To Beck-Ola Here!! November 29, 2007
Andre S. Grindle (Brewer Maine)
I have been a longtime admirer of Jeff Beck's amazing ability as a guitarist and this is the very first time I've heard this classic. Just on musical terms 'Beck-Ola' is a reinvention and it starts off with one-a chunky gospelish funk-driven rocker version of "All Shook Up",featuring the wailing Rod Stewart on lead.The exact same thing applies to the next cut "Spanish Boots",although there it's more Rod's singing and not Jeff's guitar that stands out. On the instrumental "Girl From Mill Valley" Nicky Hopkins really puts his gospel drenched piano to the meddle with this soulful little piece. Then it's back to more grooving rock insanity as Rod again makes a pretty mess,this time along with Jeff's guitar fluttering on yet another Elvis cover in "Jailhouse Rock".The next two cuts also feature Rod Stewart but also explore Jeff's breadth as a guitarist but it's the 7 minute + instrumental closer "Rice Pudding" that really allows Jeff to let loose-his fluttering yet controlled solos are not only at the apicenter of psychedelic rock guitar but show a very strong jazz influence that would show up to even greater effect some years later. It's kind of hard to describe Jeff's playing to one whose never heard it-can't imagine anyone who hasn't but the best I can put to it is that,similar to his contemporary Jimi Hendrix Jeff Beck was able to express a wide range of emotions on his ax in a wide variety of colorful and unexpected ways and,quite often take them into a different world entirely. But Jeff is truely unique for his day in one important way-he has so much musical range that,often within one song he actually sounds like several different guitar players-each with his own style,timbre and mood but at the same time you always know it's him. And not to mention his excellent taste in musicians to play with him (never behind him-he gives each musician here there own space) and his choice to keep Rod Stewart front and center before his enevitable departure for solo stardom. So if your a 60's rock fan-especially in that period between Hendrix and Jimmy Page,not to mention if you like healthy helpings of funky grooves and jazz styled improvisation in your hard rock then 'Beck-Ola' is probably the perfect fit for your listening pleasure!
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