Personnel: Jeff Beck (guitar); Rod Stewart (vocals); Nicky Hopkins (piano); Ron Wood (bass); Tony Newman (drums). 1969's BECK-OLA would prove to be the last Jeff Beck album featuring the vocal talents of Rod Stewart and future Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood (although Wood plays bass here). An all-time '60s heavy rock classic, BECK-OLA proves that this Beck lineup could have ruled the hard-rock roost had it remained together just a bit longer (the group split up right before a scheduled appearance at the Woodstock festival). Still, you can't go wrong with a pair of turbo-charged, radically reworked Elvis Presley covers ("All Shook Up" and "Jailhouse Rock") or the Led Zeppelin-worthy stomp of "Spanish Boots."
Reviews
Uncut (p.106) - 4 stars out of 5 - "BECK-OLA signified an ability to fuse guitar heroics with post-British blues boom vitality, plus a side order of West Coast whimsy..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.133) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[A] riffy '69 outing."
