Before he was a midnight vulture or a guero preaching the gospel of Latin groove music, Beck was a subversive folkie, inspired equally by Sonic Youth and Mississippi John Hurt. He cut this 16-track set of acoustic folk and country-blues for the label K just before his 1994 breakthrough, Mellow Gold, and its crudely recorded ballads and occasional bursts of gnarly distortion are clear precursors to the beats-based folk-hop of "Loser." Two of its songs remain early Beck classics: the self-deprecating "Asshole" and the haunting "Hollow Log." This expanded reissue features 16 additional tracks: outtakes like the a cappella ballad "Sweet Satan" and an early recording of Sea Change's "It's All in Your Mind."

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."