Jeff Beck, "Truth" (Epic, 1968)

Name this band: Late-'60s Britain; blues-based, hyperamplified repertoire; ex-Yardbirds guitarist; raspy-voiced singer who was relatively unknown at the time; and guy playing the bass who wasn't really a bass player.

If you answered Led Zeppelin ... well, that's one of two possibilities.

The other is the first incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group, a band that raised the bar on rock music's sonic possibilities and helped lay the groundwork for what eventually took shape as heavy metal.

Beck had joined the Yardbirds at age 20 (replacing the even-younger Eric Clapton), just in time for the band's biggest commercial successes. Along the way, he developed hitherto unheard techniques for electric guitar playing, especially the intentional use of feedback. His solo on the hit "Shapes of Things" - actually three of his guitar parts overdubbed on top of one another - is regarded as a landmark in the evolution of hard rock.

He had been in the Yardbirds for about a year when bass player Paul Samwell-Smith decided he'd like to get into record production. To replace him, the band hired a much-in-demand London session guitarist named Jimmy Page. After a short stint on bass, Page switched instruments, doubling with Beck for one of the most formidable twin-guitar attacks in history. But that lineup was short-lived, as Beck decided to leave the Yardbirds for a solo career in late 1966.

Over the course of the next year or so, he released three singles that did moderately well in the U.K., although the first two - "Hi-Ho Silver Lining" and "Tallyman" - tended to emphasize his voice, not his strongest suit. The third single, a version of the easy-listening standard "Love Is Blue," was recorded intentionally off-key.

With all that out of his system, Beck went into the recording studio with his core band, which also included Rod Stewart on vocals, Ron Wood on bass and Mick Waller on drums. With the help of some guests - including the ubiquitous Nicky Hopkins on piano, future Led Zeppelin member John Paul Jones on organ and the inimitable Keith Moon on percussion - the band came up with a milestone album.

For one thing, "Truth" introduced the general listening public to the talents of Stewart, who had seen minimal success thus far as a solo artist and member of such little-known groups as Steampacket and Shotgun Express. Before his delving into disco and MOR crooning, Stewart showed himself to be quite the blues-rock singer, especially his workouts on "Let Me Love You" and Willie Dixon's "You Shook Me." His most scintillating performance is probably on "Ol' Man River," a reworking of the favorite from the musical "Showboat."

"Truth" also puts Beck's masterful fretwork on full display, even more than the considerable space he was given within the Yardbirds. He even pulls out the acoustic guitar for a pastoral rendition of the Christmas song "Greensleeves," one of two instrumentals on the album. The other is "Beck's Bolero," a rousing jam with songwriting credited to Page and with Moon delivering one of Rock's great screams right smack in the middle. "Bolero" actually came from a Yardbirds session and is one of just a handful of recordings to features both Beck and Page.

In a historical context, "Truth" is considered as the template by which Page went about constructing the sound of Led Zeppelin. Perhaps the latter band turned up the volume compared with Beck and the boys; perhaps Page's guitar playing and Robert Plant's singing/bellowing took everything a bit more over the top. But the formula for the success that Zeppelin enjoys to this day got its start elsewhere.

Perhaps the Jeff Beck Group would have been right up there, too, had it not imploded shortly after the release of its second album, "Truth" in the summer of 1969. Beck, Stewart, Wood and Waller were supposed to play at an American rock festival in upstate New York, but instead decided to go their separate ways. The guess is that if they would have been part of the Woodstock extravaganza, they'd have achieved superstar status as a unit.

As it happened, Stewart and Wood (switching to guitar) replaced Steve Marriott in the Small Faces, which subsequently became known as Faces, while Beck eventually formed a new version of his group, which pretty much paled in comparison with the original. Waller teamed up with former Blue Cheer guitarist Leigh Stephens on a couple of very obscure projects that nonetheless sound interesting.

Today, Jeff Beck is the least known of the triumvirate of Yardbirds guitarists, but he continues to have a strong following among fans who appreciate the twists and turns his career has taken over the years. And as they listen to his work with Rod Stewart, they can imagine what could have been.