Yardbirds '68 - The Yardbirds

Yardbirds '68

The Yardbirds

Jimmy Page  JPRLPBX3

2017

I appreciate the irony that, after many decades of blaming Jimmy Page for the suppression of Epic Records' album of the Yardbirds 1968 performance at the Anderson Theater in New York entitled "Live Yardbirds," I ended up buying a remastered version of the concert from the great man's own website.  I've always assumed that Page was embarrassed by it and perhaps even by his association with the band itself prior to his rise to superstardom with Led Zeppelin.  However this labor of love produced by Page himself shows otherwise.  It is a very lavish revision of the project with a wonderful booklet full of photos and memorabilia from Page's tenure in the Yardbirds as well as reminiscences from the three surviving band members, Page, Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty.  Page's comments demonstrate his pride in the band's work and his respect for the other members of the group.  I was deeply touched reading the booklet.  Then there is the record itself which is a dramatic improvement over the original Epic album.  Naturally the absence of the overdubbed crowd noise and applause is a big improvement although I can understand why the clowns at Epic decided to add it, much of the time the band sounds like they are playing in an empty auditorium and Dreja mentions in the booklet that the attendance at the show was poor.  Dreja attributes that to Vanilla Fudge playing down the street the same night although anyone who would pass up a Yardbirds show for Vanilla Fudge ought to have their rock fandom card revoked.  Page and his technicians have also done wonders with the sound itself.  "Live Yardbirds" sounds pretty good for a 1960s live album, but it is still kind of tinny and murky.  The new version sounds astonishingly good, almost as though it was recorded last week.  There is much better separation between instruments and the drums, harmonica and vocals in particular sound much clearer to me.  It is truly a joy to hear it with such clarity.  It literally jumps right out of the speakers.  I find this particularly noticeable on "Dazed and Confused" which sounds so much better that I wondered if it was a different recording.  "Shapes of Things" and "I'm a Man" also sound greatly improved.  The new mix brings out the robustness of Keith Relf's vocals which I've never appreciated before.  I would say he benefits the most from the new release although curiously most of his stage patter has been edited out.  He was not a big talker but I find his comments rather charming on "Live Yardbirds."  I can't believe they were overdubs added by Epic so I'm guessing Page likes his live albums streamlined.  I do not approve but I love this new version so much that I'm not going to complain.  Page even deletes the bit before "Shapes of Things" where Relf calls him "Jimmy Magic Fingers, Grand Sorcerer of the Magic Guitar" so I know he's not being petty or self-serving.  Page has already earned my eternal gratitude by this point for making such a great sounding record of one of my all time favorite concerts, but he doesn't stop there.  There is a second record documenting the Yardbirds' final recording sessions from 1968 in New York City.  Four of these tracks appeared on the CD "Cumular Limit" back in 2000 but I believe the rest have never been released before.  They give a tantalizing glimpse of what might have been the group's best studio album if they could have hung in there a little longer.  My favorite track is the hard rocking "Avron Knows" pumped along by McCarty's crisp drumming and some ferocious guitar work from Page.  It reminds me of  "Think About It" and it demonstrates the power that band packed even in their final days.  "Spanish Blood" is a moody ballad with lovely acoustic guitar work from Page.  It sounds a bit like "Only the Red Rose" on "Little Games" although in this case Relf recites the lyrics rather than singing.  "Knowing That I'm Losing You" will be familiar to Led Zeppelin fans because it is an early version of "Tangerine" from "Led Zeppelin III" although this version has no lyrics.  "Taking a Hold On Me" is a punchy rocker driven by a solid riff from the Grand Sorcerer.  The band revisits "Drinking Muddy Water" which they had done previously for the "Little Games" album.  I never had a problem with the earlier version and I don't think this one is any great improvement although it does have a rawer feel to it that I like.  The Mort Shuman/Jerry Ragovoy song "My Baby" that was popularized by Garnet Mimms in 1966 was a part of the Yardbirds' stage act during the Page era as demonstrated by the Anderson Theater show.  The band does a studio version here, but I don't think Relf can match Mimms as a vocalist.  In any case I prefer the live version.  The record concludes with instrumental versions of "Avron Knows" and "Spanish Blood" that are basically superfluous although I like both songs enough that I'm happy to hear them again.  Listening to this second record, it is so full of creativity and vitality that you would never guess the band was on its last legs.  It would have been so nice if like the Zombies, they could have gone out with a bang.  Belatedly Jimmy Page has finally made that happen.  This final statement from the band is in many ways definitive.  I think most people feel that the Jeff Beck era of the band was their high point and I agree with that, but the albums from that era are not all that satisfying.  I think if I could only have one Yardbirds album I would select this one.  The live album has some of the most exciting and exhilarating performances the band ever recorded and now they exist in pristine condition.  The studio stuff is interesting and very appealing.  The whole package is assembled with love and care - a far cry from the crass approach Epic Records took in assembling their Yardbirds albums.  I salute you James Patrick Page, you've done a magnificent job in creating what is destined to remain one of my favorite albums.  Recommended to anyone who has ever listened to "Live Yardbirds" and wished they could have been there.  This is the next best thing.

Shapes of Things - Jeff Beck and the Yardbirds

Shapes of Things

Jeff Beck and the Yardbirds

Springboard  SBD-4039

1972

I was very sad to learn of Jeff Beck's passing.  After Hendrix he was my favorite rock guitarist and I worshipped him like a god when I was a teenager and I still consider his music to be an important part of my life.  This is hardly the record to honor him by, I think "Yardbirds" or any Yardbirds comp would be more appropriate not to mention "Truth" by the Jeff Beck Group or "Blow by Blow."  However this is the album I've chosen and it was also the album I reached for when I heard he died even though it is a skimpy and shoddy record by a low budget record label that was slightly above bootleg level.  Cratediggers of my generation may recall seeing bargain priced albums by Springboard in the bins.  They put out records with obscure music by famous artists of the time generally from early in their careers and of dubious legality.  I think it highly unlikely they were paying royalties on this stuff.  To some degree you were getting what you paid for, as I recall the albums didn't even have inner sleeves to protect the vinyl.  They were rip-offs, but if you were a fan of the artist, the music was often quite interesting and hard to find.  I bought a bunch of them.  "Eric Clapton and the Yardbirds" was the first Yardbirds album I ever bought since all the Epic albums were out of print when I became interested in the band.  It is an abridged version of the show released as "Five Live Yardbirds" but it actually sounded better than that album (at least until it got remastered) and featured stage patter not on that album.  This was the second Yardbirds album I bought.  I picked it up in the mid-1970s shortly before Epic restored the band to its catalog with "The Yardbirds Great Hits" which is a better introduction to the group.  Nonetheless hearing this record for the first time blew my teenage mind.  Beck's guitar solos took my breath away.  Not having many records yet, I was accustomed to listening to mid-1970s AOR or top 40 on the radio which I largely regarded as bland, so Beck's explosive and frenetic guitar work combined with the Yardbirds' pop smarts was a revelation to me.  Only the Beatles with their superior songwriting excited me more.  There are a mere 9 tracks on the album and Beck only appears on 8 of them since "I Ain't Got You" was recorded when Clapton was the lead guitarist in the group although I love it and consider it one of his best Yardbirds tracks so I'm not complaining.  The record begins with the band's soaring 1966 single "Shapes of Things" written by band members Keith Relf, Jim McCarty and Paul Samwell-Smith.  It widely considered to be one of the first psychedelic songs although its swelling riff, driven by feedback and power chords, could also be seen as a heavy-metal prototype.  Beck's fiery solo embraces raga and jazz while fully rocking out and ends way too soon.  It is followed by an unreleased track that is a lively instrumental version of "What Do You Want?" which appeared in a vocal version on "Yardbirds."  McCarty's crisp drumming powers the song while Beck delivers a noisy smoking hot riff that culminates in a shrieking solo.  The song is far more exciting than the release track.  Relf's humorous "New York City Blues" was the b-side of "Shapes of Things."  It is a rare foray into straight blues for Beck but he delivers the goods big time.  His solo section is very compelling and majestic.  "Someone to Love" is an unreleased track that is essentially a punchier version of "Lost Woman" from "Yardbirds" with different lyrics.  Beck's solo is curiously subdued in comparison to the release version.  "For R.S.G." is actually Bo Diddley's "Here 'Tis" which the band had previously recorded live with Clapton on "Five Live Yardbirds."  This is a studio version that the band apparently recorded for the British tv show "Ready Steady Go" hence the odd title.  Both the studio and live versions are very exciting, but I give this version the edge for Beck's dazzling guitarwork.  He works all over the fret board and the call and response solo section is longer and more elaborate than the Clapton version.  This is one of the songs that impressed me the most when I was a kid and even now it still gets my heart racing.  Mike Hugg's "Mr. You're a Better Man Than I" had appeared on the American LP "Having a Rave Up with the Yardbirds" where it was one of my favorite tracks.  It is driven by a hypnotic riff and Beck's fuzz-toned solo is among his best with the Yardbirds and I would argue that it was the best rock guitar solo that had ever been recorded at that time.  It is followed by an unreleased instrumental version of "Someone to Love."  This elongated performance gives Beck plenty of room to operate and he responds with one of the most amazing guitar solos of that era or any era for that matter.  Beck begins riffing over a thunderous rhythm track driven by Samwell-Smith's throbbing bass line and McCarty's explosive drumming.  His riffing grows in strength and then erupts into orgasmic blasts of feedback and raw guitar noise.  I would say this is the greatest moment in the illustrious history of the Yardbirds.  I remember blasting this song wearing headphones as a teen and literally trembling afterwards.  This song alone justifies this record's existence.  The aforementioned "I Ain't Got You" appeared originally as a b-side and was on the U.S. album "For Your Love."  The album ends with "I Ain't Done Wrong" which also was on "For Your Love."  This is another one of Beck's best moments with the Yardbirds.  He handles the blues section and the rave-up with equal aplomb.  His soloing is so inspiring I can't resist breaking out my air guitar to play along.  So with this album you get five legitimately released songs presumably stolen without credit from Epic/EMI four of which are essential (and easily available on legitimate releases.)  You also get four unreleased songs which are extremely interesting and I would argue that "For R.S.G" and the second version of "Someone To Love" are also essential.  They have appeared on a modern CD, Sony's comp "Blues, Backtracks and Shapes of Things" and there are a bunch of foreign versions of this LP so you don't have to buy this stupid record necessarily to get this music.  However it is pretty easy to find and I love the cover picture and had it on display in my room when I was a teen.  If you are a fan of Jeff Beck or the Yardbirds this is a must-have in some form.  Maybe because I bought it so early it has an outsized importance in my mind, but it was the album that made me a fan of Beck and the Yardbirds and listening to it now about 48 years after I bought it it still sounds fresh and vital to me.  Rest in peace Jeff Beck and thank you for being such a big part of my musical life.  Recommended to people who prefer "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" over "For Your Love."  

Golden Eggs - The Yardbirds

Golden Eggs
The Yardbirds
Trademark of Quality  TMQ-61001
1973

I often see this vintage bootleg selling for ridiculously high prices which, even as a Yardbirds collector myself, I think is absurd.  All of the tracks on here were originally commercially released and all of them have been easily obtainable on CD for many years.  I believe they are all available again on vinyl as well thanks to Repertoire Records' recent series of Yardbirds compilations (highly recommended by the way.)  Admittedly back in the mid-1970s a lot of this stuff was pretty hard to find although you could get most of it if you tried hard enough.  I bought this decades ago even though I already had most of it.  I bought it because I wanted to hear the two Keith Relf solo tracks.  I also liked the cover art and I got it at a bargain price.  I certainly don't need it any longer.  I keep it as a dumb collector thing even though it has a major flaw, namely all the stereo tracks were improperly recorded.  Only one of the two channels was dubbed on to the record and that channel comes out of both speakers when you play the album.  Thus either the vocals or some of the instruments are barely audible.  Fortunately only 8 of the 17 cuts are in stereo but it is still often annoying.  This reportedly is not true of all versions of this album, mine is apparently a bootleg of the bootleg.  The Eric Clapton era of the group is represented by two oddly chosen cuts from "For Your Love."  "Putty (In Your Hands)" is a minor song and "Sweet Music" is one of the worst songs they ever did.  "Putty" is in mono and sounds fine, but "Sweet Music" is the stereo version and Relf's vocal is buried deep in the mix so it sounds ridiculous.  The record jumps into the Jeff Beck era with "Steeled Blues" from 1965 which was originally the B-side on the "Heart Full Of Soul" single which is easy to find.  It is an instrumental credited to Beck but it is basically a generic blues given a lethargic treatment by the band although Beck and Relf (on harmonica) have their moments.  It jumps forward to the two songs from "Yardbirds" that Epic Records dropped for their version of the album "Over Under Sideways Down."  Both are in stereo so Beck's dazzling guitar work is generally too far down in the mix on "The Nazz Are Blue" and on "Rack My Mind" Relf's vocal is practically inaudible.  The Jeff Beck/Jimmy Page era of the band is represented by "Stroll On" from the "Blow-Up" soundtrack."  It is my all-time favorite Yardbirds track.  It is in mono so it sounds fine although I prefer the stereo version that I have on my copy of the soundtrack album.  The Jimmy Page era of the band makes up the bulk of the album which makes sense since it was the Yardbirds music that was hardest to find back in the 1970s.  There are four tracks from "Little Games" which are among my least favorite tracks on the album.  All are in stereo and suffer from the missing channel.  The jug band style "Stealing, Stealing" and the largely instrumental psychedelic song "Glimpses" both sound okay even with the missing channel.  On the poppy "Little Soldier Boy" Jim McCarty's vocal impersonation of a trumpet that runs throughout the song is buried deep in the mix which makes the song sound naked like a demo.  On the commercial sounding "No Excess Baggage" the lead guitar can barely be heard.  The album also features "Puzzles" which was the B-side of the "Little Games" single as well as the band's final singles "Ha Ha Said the Clown," "Ten Little Indians" and "Goodnight Sweet Josephine" along with the latter's B-side, "Think About It" written by Jimmy Page.  Relf wrote "Puzzles" which has a pop-psych sound and a sizzling Page solo and I think it is a lot better than many of the tracks that made it onto "Little Games."  "Ha Ha Said the Clown" was released in 1967 and features Relf with a bunch of studio musicians.  It sounds fine although it is not characteristic of the band's sound and I prefer the Manfred Mann recording of the song which this version closely copies.  "Ten Little Indians" was written by Harry Nilsson and also was released in 1967.  The album notes say that this is a stereo track but to me it sounds mono.  I like the way the song builds in strength and its slightly trippy arrangement, but it is far from essential.  "Goodnight Sweet Josephine" is bolstered by expansive use of phasing and is engaging but inane.  Its flip side is much superior, in fact "Think About It" is among the very best tracks the Yardbirds ever did, boasting a heavy riff and some smoking guitar work from Page that clearly anticipates his future work with Led Zeppelin.  Even though I generally disdain singles I paid five bucks to buy this 45 at Rather Ripped Records in Berkeley in 1980 and I still consider it one of my best scores.  The album also contains a 1966 single by Keith Relf.  The A-side is the moody "Mr. Zero" by Bob Lind which sounds nothing like the Yardbirds, but I still really like it.  Its B-side is a Relf composition entitled "Knowing" which is a chamber pop track that sounds a bit like the Zombies.  Despite all of this record's many flaws, the Relf single makes it worthwhile (although you can easily find it elsewhere on better albums.)  I can't recommended my version of this album because of its recording defect but even a properly recorded version is a dubious purchase.  The selections from "For Your Love" and "Little Games" are poorly chosen and frankly the inclusion of only legitimately released music as opposed to unreleased tracks or concert recordings makes this bootleg even more ethically questionable than a normal bootleg.  "Stroll On," "Think About It," "The Nazz are Blue" and "Rack My Mind" are essential tracks that every Yardbirds fan should own, but you should look for them elsewhere.  Not recommended to anyone but fanatics.

Having a Rave Up with the Yardbirds - The Yardbirds

Having a Rave Up with the Yardbirds
The Yardbirds 
Epic BN 26177
1965

This was the Yardbirds' second American album and has no British equivalent being cobbled together from singles, unreleased tracks as well as four cuts from their British debut album "Five Live Yardbirds."  It was probably puzzling to the original buyers.  There are two versions of "I'm a Man" and side one sounds very different from side two, almost as if they were recorded by different bands, and in a sense they were since side two features an uncredited Eric Clapton on lead guitar and side one features Jeff Beck instead.  The liner notes don't even mention that side two is a live recording from the previous year.  Despite this shoddy packaging the record is fantastic, full of essential music.  It opens with "You're a Better Man Than I" written by Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann.  It has long been one of my favorite Yardbirds songs.  It is a social protest song with a folk rock sound driven by a propulsive bass riff and jangly guitar lines until Jeff Beck's explosive fuzzed out guitar solo that goes from raga to psychedelic in a thrilling manner.  His solo is a hard rock landmark and shows that Beck was the most creative rock guitarist of his era prior to the rise of Jimi Hendrix.  "Evil Hearted You" was written by Graham Gouldman and displays his typical gift for a well-crafted catchy pop song.  It was deservedly a hit single in England.  The song is punctuated by loud slashing guitar chords that emphasize its gloomy nature until the surprisingly upbeat bridge section.  Beck delivers a subdued but powerful solo.  Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man" was essentially the Yardbirds' unofficial theme song.  The song stayed in their repertoire for the entire history of the band and was released in versions by all three lead guitarists for the band.  Beck delivers the studio version here, Clapton was on the live version from "Five Live Yardbirds" on side two of this album and Jimmy Page performed on the expanded version the band developed late in their career as heard on "Live Yardbirds."  The Beck version is easily my favorite.  The song is driven by the familiar Bo Diddley shuffling beat that gradually builds in force to the most amazing rave up the band ever did.  Beck and Keith Relf on harmonica trade licks until Beck goes berserk.  He races down his guitar neck and until he runs out of room and starts striking his strings percussively.  It is tremendously exciting.  I've listened to it hundreds of times and it still floors me.  "Still I'm Sad" was written by the group's bassist Paul Samwell-Smith and drummer Jim McCarty.  It was the flip side of the "Evil Hearted You" single in Britain and was a hit in its own right there.  It is a complete change of direction from the rest of the album.  It is slow and despondent with Relf's vocal supported by a quasi-Gregorian chant background vocal.  I like it but I'm glad the rest of the album is different.  "Heart Full of Soul" is another terrific Gouldman contribution and the band's second most successful American single after "For Your Love."  It is a compelling song bolstered by raga-style fuzz guitar runs from Beck.  Side one concludes with the band's searing workout on Tiny Bradshaw's "The Train Kept A-Rollin'.'"  I mentioned in an earlier post on the "Blow-Up" soundtrack that I thought the version of this song the band performed in that film (under the title "Stroll On") was the greatest hard rock song the band ever did, but this version is equally impressive.  It opens with Beck imitating a train whistle on his guitar and then explodes.  The guitar riff that drives this song is relentless and overwhelming.  Just when it seems like the song can't get any hotter Beck unleashes his second solo which is completely incendiary.  This remains the most irresistible hard rock I've ever heard, an absolute masterpiece.  Side one of this album is an incredible side of vinyl, the pinnacle of mid-1960s hard rock.  There was nothing like this before in rock history and it established the foundation for decades of hard rock to come.  Side two is old-fashioned in comparison.  It was recorded only a year earlier but it feels more like a decade.  I'm fond of "Five Live Yardbirds" but the band's approach to rhythm and blues, while exciting, was not all that far removed from the original songs.  The style is similar, they just played faster.  I think Epic largely made the right choices in the four songs they selected for this album although I would have substituted "Too Much Monkey Business" for "I'm a Man" since it already appeared on side one in a superior performance.  Vocalist Keith Relf was not up to the challenge poised by Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning" but the band makes up for it with the energy of their performance.  Relf's harmonica blowing is engaging and the song features two dynamic rave ups.  This was my favorite track on "Five Live Yardbirds."  Relf and the group can't match the vocal firepower of the Isley Brothers on "Respectable" but instrumentally it is ferocious with the band noisily attacking the song at a breathless tempo concluding with a manic rave up performed at phenomenal speed.  The Clapton version of "I'm a Man" has a similar arrangement to Beck's studio version but is less highly charged.  Relf's fine harmonica work dominates the first portion of the song as well as the first rave up.  Clapton takes charge in the second rave up but does not have much of a solo and the call and response with Relf that helps drive the Beck version is largely lacking in this version.  Side two finishes with another Bo Diddley song "Here 'Tis."  This is another fast tempo song which features some of Clapton's finest guitar work with the Yardbirds as he lays down some blistering licks.  There is an excellent studio version of this song with Jeff Beck that the band cut for the TV show "Ready Steady Go!" which I slightly prefer although it is not as energetic as this one.  I'm generally hostile to American record companies monkeying around with a band's catalog and crafting phony albums out of it, but in this case I can't deny that I really love this album.  I think it is easily the best of the four Epic albums (excluding comps and live records) and although you can get the best songs here on just about any Yardbirds comp, I think fans might still want to seek out this record which is not hard to find and generally less expensive than the other Epic albums.  I feel it has historical significance and even has a bit of an aura to it.  Recommended to Jeff Beck fans.

For Your Love - The Yardbirds

For Your Love
The Yardbirds
Epic BN 26167/LN 24167
1965

The top picture depicts a counterfeit copy of this album that I bought in Berkeley in the early 1980s.  I was pretty green back then, but I could tell it wasn't an original copy because of the sleeve which was thin and without paper slicks like a 1980s sleeve.  Also it was far less expensive than what originals normally sold for.  However the record had what appeared to be an authentic Epic label so I assumed it was some sort of reissue.  I had seen plenty of bootlegs by then but they were always shoddy looking, so it never occurred to me that this was a bootleg.  Years later I acquired a mono original.  It is a little worn but it still sounds better than the counterfeit which is an inferior pressing.  I probably ought to just get rid of the fake one but it amuses me to be reminded of my youthful folly.  This was the Yardbirds' debut album in the United States.  It has no U.K. equivalent being cobbled together from singles, an EP and a couple of unreleased tracks.  Although Jeff Beck is depicted on the album cover and discussed in the liner notes, he only appears on 3 tracks (from the EP.)  The rest of the tracks feature Eric Clapton on lead guitar.  He left the band when they shifted from blues to a more commercial pop-oriented sound as represented by the Graham Gouldman penned title track which was the group's first hit single.  I am a big fan of that song, it was the song that made me fall for the band when I heard it on an oldies radio station as a young teenager.  It is extremely catchy, driven by typically crisp drumming from Jim McCarty with a dramatic shift in tempo in the middle.  It is augmented by bongos and Brian Auger on harpsichord which expands its instrumental texture.  It is a brilliantly produced, classic single.  My two favorite tracks both feature Jeff Beck.  The band's cover of Mose Allison's "I'm Not Talking" is breathtaking.  Beck practically invents hard rock guitar in the song with a devastating riff and two smoking hot solos that leave me saying "Eric who?"  The interplay between Beck and the rhythm section is thrilling and gets me going big time.  I think this was the most exciting rock song ever recorded at that point and it still sounds fantastic fifty years later.  The band employs the same formula for Keith Relf's bluesy "I Ain't Done Wrong" which has more dazzling guitar work from Beck including a spectacular solo and a dynamic duet with Relf's harmonica.  Nobody in rock was making music like this before Beck joined the Yardbirds.  You can literally hear a new style of rock being created.  Nothing else on the album comes close to these three tracks.  The best of the remaining songs is a cover of Calvin Carter's "I Ain't Got You" which features what I consider Clapton's best studio solo with the Yardbirds.  It is a hard driving performance and my favorite version of this much covered song.  It was originally the B-side of the group's "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" single which is also on this album, but it should have been the A-side since it is a much better record.  "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" is too slick and poppy for my taste, I prefer the rawer live version of this song on "Five Live Yardbirds."  The song only comes to life during Clapton's all too brief Chuck Berry-style guitar solo.  Billy Boy Arnold's "I Wish You Would" was the band's first single.  It was a flop but I think it deserved a better fate.  It is an energetic song driven by an urgent guitar riff with a frenetic harmonica solo from Relf in the instrumental rave-up.  The B-side of that first single was "A Certain Girl" which is not particularly memorable although I enjoy its call and response structure as well as Clapton's noisy guitar solo.  "Got to Hurry" was the B-side to "For Your Love."  It is a lumbering blues instrumental dominated by Clapton's sterling guitar work that foreshadows his future work with John Mayall.  "My Girl Sloopy" would later be a massive hit for the McCoys under the title "Hang On Sloopy."  The song doesn't sound like a Yardbirds song and their version isn't very convincing, particularly in Relf's awkward vocal.  Jeff Beck's guitar runs make the song listenable and the group does manage to cram four rave-ups into the song.  The group's cover of the Shirelles' "Putty (In Your Hands)" isn't a Yardbirds style song either.  I've read that Jim McCarty claimed that the group recorded this song and the cover of Major Lance's "Sweet Music" to appease Clapton who thought they would be better singles than "For Your Love."  I find it hard to believe that Clapton had such bad taste and in any case both songs were recorded before "For Your Love."  Neither song was originally released in England which is hardly surprising.  "Sweet Music" was one of the worst recordings the group ever made and it severely exposes Relf's limitations as a vocalist.  It was produced by Manfred Mann and it would have been better suited to his own group.  I love nearly every Yardbirds album that I own and this one is no exception but I'm hesitant to recommend it.  You can get all the essential tracks here on compilation albums and not have to suffer through "Sweet Music."  On the other hand the record is historic and I love the cover.  I'm so fond of it that I can't even bring myself to get rid of my counterfeit copy.  The record has an aura to it that you don't find on most comps for which I recommend it to passionate Yardbirds fans.

Yardbirds/Over Under Sideways Down - The Yardbirds

Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
Columbia SCX 6063
1966

Over Under Sideways Down
The Yardbirds
Epic LN 24210
1966

Depending on your opinion of "Little Games," this was arguably the only legitimate studio album the Yardbirds ever produced which is surprising considering how many years the band was around and how influential they were.  I have both the British version and its inferior American counterpart.  The British one is sometimes referred to as "Roger the Engineer" because of the caption of rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja's cover drawing.  Dreja's drawings also appear on the back cover along with humorous liner notes by drummer Jim McCarty - my favorite is "It has often been said that Jeff Beck is one of the leading guitarists in the country, and I'm inclined to agree with him."  The Epic release dropped the drawings and the liner notes in favor of the silly picture of the band on the cover and a dull publicity blurb on the reverse.  They also dropped two songs, "Rack My Mind" and "The Nazz Are Blue" which are definitely not superfluous tunes on the original release.  So why do I have the Epic album?  Partly as a stupid collector thing - the Yardbirds are one of my favorite bands.  Mostly though because the mono version of the album has some different mixes of the songs.  It is an impressive album, entirely self-penned by Dreja, McCarty, Beck, vocalist Keith Relf and bassist Paul Samwell-Smith who also doubled as producer on the album (with Simon Napier Bell.)  From an instrumental standpoint the Yardbirds were one of the most progressive and exciting groups to come out of the British Invasion, but early in their career they were completely dependent on outside songwriters for their material.  Assuming songwriting duties for their records was a step forward although no one is going to mistake these guys for Lennon and McCartney or Ray Davies.  The record opens with "Lost Women" ("Lost Woman" on the U.S. release) which is one of the best songs on the album.  Although the band takes songwriting credit, the song is actually a slightly reworked version of the Snooky Pryor song "Someone To Love Me" which had been in the live repertoire of the band when Eric Clapton was in the group.  The lyrics have been changed into a banal diatribe against a woman, which is all too typical of the band's oeuvre - when it comes to misogyny they are almost as bad as the Rolling Stones.  Musically though, it is extraordinary with Beck playing slashing chords over a dynamic bass riff - a blueprint for a decade of hard rock and heavy metal to follow.  There is a rave up with Relf on harmonica and Beck on guitar doing a call and response segment followed by a great feedback riddled guitar solo with Relf blowing like crazy on top that is unlike any rock record of its time.  There is an exciting outtake of this song released under the title "Someone to Love" that features an even longer instrumental solo where Beck essentially invents psychedelic guitar playing.  Truly a landmark in hard rock history.  "Over, Under, Sideways, Down" was the single off the album.  It is a highly propulsive tune with Beck's frenzied fuzzed out riffing capturing the confusion and mania described by the lyrics.  The rave up at the end is wonderful.  "The Nazz are Blue" is lifted from Elmore James' "Dust My Broom" and features Beck on lead vocal demonstrating that he should stick to guitar playing.  His guitar work on the song is smoking hot - some of his best work with the band.  It is outrageous that Epic omitted this from the album.  Beck plays some stinging licks on "I Can't Make Your Way" as well, unfortunately they are buried too deep in the mix to make their full impact.  The mono version on the U.S. album has a drum beat at the beginning of the song that is missing from my U.K. stereo version.  "Rack My Mind" is derived from Slim Harpo's "Baby Scratch My Back", when it comes to ripping off old bluesmen, the Yardbirds were practically as bad as Led Zeppelin.  Thanks to Beck's stinging guitar lines, the Yardbirds' version is more exciting than Harpo's cut.  "Farewell" is an arty song with mildly pretentious lyrics describing a depressing vision of life culminating with the narrator's withdrawal from the world and suicide.  It features a child-like tune plunked out on piano by Dreja.  If poetic lyrics aren't your cup of tea, then "Hot House of Omagararshid" is the song for you.  It is arguably the stupidest song the band ever did, consisting of the phrase "ya ya ya" endlessly repeated over a bubbly musical background.  The song becomes a little more interesting at the end when Beck starts playing.  The mono version on the U.S. album features a completely different guitar solo that is more impressive than the one on the U.K. album.  The instrumental "Jeff's Boogie" is based on Chuck Berry's "Guitar Boogie" but Beck completely shreds the original.  It is one of my all-time favorite Yardbirds cuts.  "He Always There" is a catchy rocker driven by Beck's fuzz guitar which goes wild at the end.  The U.S. mono version has a longer fade out so you get to hear more of Beck's howling solo.  Like "Farewell," "Turn Into Earth" is another slow gloomy track with pretentious lyrics poetically describing the narrator's depressed state.  The song would be better if Beck's guitar playing wasn't buried so far down in the mix as to be practically inaudible.  On the mono version, the drum pattern that introduces the song goes on a few seconds longer than on the U.K. stereo version.  "What Do You Want" is a powerful rocker with more fiery Beck guitar playing throughout and a feedback drenched rave-up at the end that ends way too soon.  It another one of the best cuts on the album.  "Ever Since the World Began" starts out slow and gloomy like a retread of "Still I'm Sad" lamenting human greed, then it abruptly shifts gears to become a jaunty rocker with a driving bass line and a repeated chorus of "you don't need money" - an apt motto for this hard luck band that never got their due.  I think during his tenure with the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck was the best guitarist in rock something that is amply demonstrated with his brilliant work on this album.  Through his playing Beck transforms these mildly interesting songs into some of the most extraordinary music to come out in 1966 - and there was a heck of a lot of great music that came out that year.  I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that the Yardbirds with Jeff Beck were at the forefront of the invention of heavy metal and psychedelic rock.  I suppose that after nearly 50 years since its original release, the kids might find this record kind of tame, but I think it sounds terrific.  I remember hearing it for the first time back in the late 1970s and being blown away.  I found it infinitely preferable to Aerosmith or Blue Oyster Cult or any of the other hard rock bands that followed in its wake.  It still sounds fresh and exciting to me.  Recommended to people who think "The Train Kept a-Rollin" is a better song than "Welcome to the Jungle."  

Blow-Up - Original Soundtrack

Blow-Up
Original Soundtrack
MGM SE-4447
1966

I've been reading about this new music service, Spotify, which gives subscribers access to a giant library of music, allegedly making CDs and records obsolete (unless you are a Beatles fan - they aren't on it yet.)  I doubt that I will ever be a subscriber, I have enough music in my own collection to last the rest of my life and besides I'm too into records to ever accept any substitute.  But if I were my son's age, I'd probably think it was a great idea, you could hear anything you want and it takes up no space, what's not to like?  Maybe music shouldn't be something you collect, it should just be something you experience when you feel like it.  I've always enjoyed the hunt, the effort it took to learn about music and to acquire it.  To me that is part of the music experience, leafing through the bins, examining album artwork and liner notes, reading record reviews, listening to favorite radio stations.  It seems dull to just type in a name and get the music, or worse to let someone curate my listening experience with their own playlists.  My record collection is the product of my tastes and interests and it required effort from me to acquire it and represents an abundance of experiences.  The nice thing about records as opposed to MP3s is that they have histories.  When I look at this record it brings back all kinds of memories.  I bought it in 1979.  I had a summer job in San Francisco and it was my first chance to spend a lot of time in the City since infancy.  Often I would skip lunch and explore downtown.  Back then before the invasion of chain stores, there were lots of odd shops downtown - book stores, boutiques and even a few used record stores.  Once when I was in the Theater District of the City around Geary Street I happened upon a basement record shop.  As I leafed through the bins I realized all the records were soundtracks or original cast albums and all the patrons were middle-aged men.  Not my scene at all.  Before I beat it on out of there, I stumbled across this album, still sealed and not too expensive.  I jumped on it.  You might think I just wanted it for the Yardbirds' song, "Stroll On" and you'd be partially right.  Actually though, my main interest in it was that I was a giant Michelangelo Antonioni fan.  It was admittedly a weird passion for a teenager.  I came across a book about him when I was 16 and I was fascinated by the descriptions of his films.  I saw "L'Avventura" on TV and "Zabriskie Point" with "Blow-Up" at my local revival theater and I was blown away.  As a pretentious teen I ate up his depictions of ennui and alienation.  He was my favorite filmmaker until I discovered Jean-Luc Godard in college.  Whenever I glance at the record all those memories come back to me.  You just can't get that with a download.  I'm not particularly interested in soundtrack records, but this is essentially a Herbie Hancock record with a bonus Yardbirds track.  Hancock's music doesn't sound much like his jazz records and even less like the music he was doing with Miles Davis, much of it really isn't jazz at all, more like rhythm and blues.  You can dance to the funky "Bring Down the Birds," "Main Title" and "The Thief" which are basically organ-driven rock with brief jazz interludes.  "Verushka (Part One)" is a blues that reminds me of Booker T and the MGs.  "Verushka (Part Two)" is also a blues but it is more conventionally jazzy in its sound.  "Jane's Theme" and "The Kiss" sound like cocktail lounge jazz not that there is anything wrong with that.  "The Bed" reminds me of Vince Guaraldi, I can almost imagine it in a "Peanuts" cartoon.  "The Naked Camera" sounds most like progressive jazz and it is my favorite of the Hancock compositions.  There are some compelling solos building off a hypnotic bass riff.  I like "Curiosity" and "Thomas Studies Photos" as well although they are quite brief.  For me though the best musical track on here is the Yardbirds' "Stroll On."  It is essentially "The Train Kept-A-Rollin'" (which the group had recorded before) with new lyrics.  I regard "Stroll On" as the greatest hard rock song the Yardbirds ever did, maybe even the best hard rock song of all time.  With Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck trading licks there is a ton of guitar firepower unleashed over a relentless driving beat.  It is fairly easy to get nowadays, but back when I bought this record, this album was the only way to get it (aside from bootlegs) and it was more than worth the trouble.  I've played this record quite a bit over the years but I have to admit from a musical standpoint it is really minor, little more than a footnote in Hancock's distinguished career.  Recommended for Jimmy Smith fans and Yardbirds completists.   

Live Yardbirds - The Yardbirds

Live Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
Epic E30615
1971

I bought this record sealed for $25 in the early 1980s at my favorite record store ever, Rather Ripped Records in Berkeley.  It seems like a bargain now, it was actually a bargain then too, but for me, a starving student at the time, it was a princely sum.  I had to skip a few meals to pay for it.  It was worth it though.  The Yardbirds, or more specifically Jimmy Page, had this album withdrawn supposedly because he didn't approve of the dubbed crowd noises or more likely the attempt to cash in on the fame of Led Zeppelin.  There was no reason to be embarrassed by this album though, if anything Page ought to be embarrassed by Led Zeppelin's live album "The Song Remains the Same" which is a far worse record.  Yes the crowd noise is a little irritating, but the performance is awesome and the recording quality is pretty decent for a 1960s era live recording.  The group's performance of "Over, Under, Sideways, Down" is the best I've heard and they also deliver blistering takes of "Mr. You're a Better Man than I," "Heart Full of Soul," "Train Kept A-Rollin'" and "Drinking Muddy Water."  If you are a Yardbirds fan you are probably familiar with the extended psychedelic version of "I'm a Man" that the group developed with Page which has been featured on various archival reissues.  I admire the effort to breathe new life into the song, but I greatly prefer the version the group recorded with Jeff Beck or even the earlier live version with Eric Clapton.  The group also offers up an epic version of Jake Holmes' "Dazed and Confused" (here entitled "I'm Confused") which Led Zeppelin essentially copied for the version they put out on their debut album, which might be another reason why Mr. Page has been so reluctant to allow this record to be released.  Much of this record is like a blueprint for the early Led Zeppelin sound.  Like any good live record, this performance is a little rough, a little sloppy perhaps, but full of energy and excitement.  Tracking down a reasonably priced vinyl original may be difficult at this stage, but it has been widely bootlegged and was also issued on CD a few years back.  If you have any interest in the Yardbirds you definitely should check it out.  Recommended for people who think Led Zeppelin invented heavy metal.