Jeff Beck

The second album from the Jeff Beck Group shows why Beck was one of the holy trinity of Brit guitarists along with Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. Never heralded for his speed or flashy technique, he was recognized for musical imagination and sinewy, lyrical tones, which help turn the two Presley covers here into flights of psychedelic fancy. The original songs are dense and intricate in texture and one can see why this was the advance guard for the heavy metal movement. The album features a young Rod Stewart as "vocalist extraordinaire" and Ron Wood on very able bass. A swaggering high point in the ascendancy of '60s British blues rock.