There is as yet no thread discussing the Yardbirds

As for the band, I got an anthology out of the library once and decided that "For Your Love" was, in fact, their best song. Nothing against 'em, and the Beck/Clapton/Page pedigree is impressive -- but guitars aside, I'll take the Animals.

"for your love" and "shapes of things" are both really interesting, musically -- "fyl" for that harpsichord and the drums that sound almost middle-eastern or indian, then the chunky mid-section where jeff beck just riffs like a motherfucker, then back to the more delicate harpsichord-and-drums; "shapes of things" with its really pompous almost-martial beat -- and the "freak out" guitar in the middle and end (though it's marred by really clunky lyrics). both must have sounded really weird to people when they come out and compared to everything else on the radio (which may be why they have a reputation?) i also vaguely remember "you're a better man than i."

that's about it afa the yardbirds go.

No, it's not just you. Lester Bangs thought so, too.

I almost feel like I'm being kept out of an exclusive club. "How come everyone else likes it and I don't?" kind of thing...

That guitar break in "Happenings Ten Years Times Ago" is still amazing.

The Rhino 2cd collection called The Ultimate! is quite good. You can really tell when Page starts playing guitar in the band in the collection. The early blues tracks sound as much like the prototype for Nuggets garage rock as The Stones.

The Animals were great up until Alan Price left the band. The psychedelic Animals are pretty corny, you have to wonder what Burdon was thinking with those songs like "Monterrey" and "SF Nights".

Errrr...so what does it mean *exactly*?

i completely forgot that i inherited the "little games" single (b/w puzzles) from my mother and was digging around in my 7" collection today. this band rules. can someone tell me where to go from here?

everyone's been really helpful so far!

YIKES, sorry, no way. did you listen to their earlier pre-psych stuff as well. (not that i don't think s.f. & parachute and all the singles and b-sides from that period aren't plenty catchy/poppy and powerful as well, i do, but the early daze as beat/r&b powerhouse is when they truly made a name for themselves and were ripped off by everyone and their mother.)

Next: The Marmalade...

Hey Eddie, do you have this record? (I wrote it up on my blog after I bought it out in Oregon during the holidays):

Charley D. And Milo - S/T (Epic) Gentleman pot-farmers unite! This record is a warm breeze of a thing. And again, I must have missed the Mojo that hyped it cuz this is right up their King Parsons/Beechwood Sparks alley. Lovely harmonies, lotsa guitars, acidic baths of twang. Great cover of Richard & Mimi's "Pack Up Your Sorrows". It ends with the weary drug traveller's mantra "Om Sweet Om". Brain-fried C&W fans need this now.

is this anything like kraftwerk's "ohm sweet ohm"?!?

Not to mention the amazing Euro groups whose main influence was the PTs like the Dutch Outsiders.

The Yardbirds were let down by their management and record labels who probably didn't know exactly what to do with them. If their manager would have pushed them towards putting out LPs and playing up the acid guitar hero stuff, they might be looked at somewhat different.

That being said, I still can't figure why "You're A Better Man Than I" wasn't a big pop hit. I think that song had hooks out the yin yang and it wasn't even released as a single in most places.

Jeff Beck could never quite put and keep together a proper rock band. For such a great guitarist, he doesn't have too many good songs with his name attached other than some of the fusion mid 70s matierial. The first Jeff Beck Group album and parts of the second are really impressive. If he could have let Rod Stewart and Ron Wood write the tunes and just wail on top, that could have been the biggest band of the early 70s. Beck even got another chance with the Cactus/Vanilla Fudge rhythm section, but again no songs or singer of note. It's all listenable and interesting, but one has to wonder what could have been.

The Pretty Things' "Balloon Burning" is a great song. I love that one.

I say the Byrds too, but I also say Blue Cheer. And maybe The Shadows of Knight if only cuz they had an album called "Backdoor Men"

It means a lot.

And the Yardbirds weren't just good some of the time, they were THE BEST some of the time.

And yeah, hard to keep all the various permutations of the records straight.

Walter, I won't ask to see your list of fifty bands ...

Yardbirds discography is very confusing. I only have an appallingly mastered compilation CD. I have a few things on mp3 though and they sound much better, so I need to get some remasters I guess. My favourites are the hits really - For Your Love, Heart Full Of Soul, Evil Hearted You.

this thread is a good reminder to try and remember to look for some yardbirds..

theres a good description of the shooting of "Blow Up" in that kinda crappy "Ready Steady Go" book. 'course i can't recall what the story was exactly. ill look it over tonight and report back in the morning.

I can't think of any British bands from the '60s that I would place above the Yardbirds though.

It's not you...it really is. It's that good.

For me it's the Beck period by a longshot but I'm curious to see what others say.

ts: "the train kept a-rollin'" vs "stroll on"!

Nobody has yet mentioned the Yardbirds hidden strength, Graham Gouldman! What a brilliant songwriter.

I *still* haven't picked up Cumular Limit or that Sundazed live thing. thread revival serves as a good reminded that i need that stuff.

when I get back from the bar I can ysi that Page live album.

Is _Cumular Limit_ still out there? IIRC it was a grey-area release to begin with. . .

The other great post-Beck tracks are "Puzzles," the B-side of "Little Games," and "Think About It," a classic sounding Yardbirds track with a total fucking proto-"Communication Breakdown" guitar solo. It was the B-side of their last single. I agree, of course, that Beck-era Yardbirds had more good material, but Page was a more radical player. Total ferocity - sounding like he's about to rip the string off the guitar.

"what did the Pretty Things invent?"

They invented the style of music on which the Dutch Outsiders based practically their whole sound on and which was hugely influential.

but yeah, "Think About It" = "Dazed and Confused" solo .. also, Aerosmith covered "Think About It" on the pretty putrid NIght In the Ruts lp!

Ah, I see. I knew I was missing some bit of context somewhere.

Well, For Your Love if you count that as an album.

BTW this DVD is worth watching for Yardbirds fans.

Don't forget Top Topham! Only joking..

Tim OTM re: Puzzles and Think about it. Not much to add to the debate that hasn't been said really - Beck and Page eras both fantastic. I'd say that Beck edges it for the magnificence of the BIG singles - 'Shapes..' and 'Heart Full Of Soul', although some of the blues workouts were a bit dull. I think the reason that the likes of the Yardbirds pretty much disappeared into the ether after the 60's was a combination of factors : a) no canonical album b) reputation of band itself overshadowed by the status of Page/Beck/Clapham c) uncharismatic Relf/Dreja/McCarty d)the big hits were pretty primitive sounding to fit into 70's radio playlists, so got forgotten about. The Stones, even though equally primitive sounding, were allowed in because they were the Stones.

Much of this applies to the Pretty Things too. Personally I rate them a bit higher than the Yardbirds, and 'Talkin About The Good Times'/'Walking Thru My Dreams' is THE BEST pop-psych single of the 60's from either side of the pond. 'Defecting Grey'/'Mr. Evasion' is nearly as good. The early stuff is totally punk and Midnight To Six Man a quite brilliant mod-pop development of that early snot. Great band.

Weird. I think Mr. Evasion > Defecting Grey > Talkin' > Walking but Happenings 10 Years Time Ago, Mr. You're A Better Man Than I, and other Yardbirds tunes trump them all.

I love the way Phil sneers that "day"

No, I was genuinely confused! I've never heard the Outsiders and I thought "But the Pretty Things invented it." was a comment on the Yardbirds.

From the Wikipedia Yardbirds page:

Unfortunately, the Beck-Page lineup recorded little else in the studio, and no live recordings (save a scratchy cover of the Velvet Underground's "Waiting for the Man") of the dual-lead guitar lineup have surfaced.

I'd be pretty interested in hearing that - is it readily available anywhere?

IIRC, it's on one of the "Afterhours" bootleg tapes.

Afterhours: legendary Velvet Underground bootleg tape series.

This is a pretty horrible recording, but cool to hear nonetheless ...

Now that just kills. It also should be said that McCarty is pretty underrated drummer. Great no-frills stuff.

Thanks for the info and thanks for posting the song. Cool stuff! Makes them sound like the MC5.

I love the Yardbirds but when they crap out they really go all out. "Pafff...BUM that's a sound called LUUUV!"

damn that velvets cover rocks

i think there's some story about the Velvets and the Yardbirds playing on the same bill ... Jeff Beck carrying a gun around or something ...

Are we sure that's really the Yardbirds? This seems too good to be true.

Definitely sounds like the Yardbirds right at the end of the song, wouldn't have known otherwise.

Did a search and turned up this bootleg:

(Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 31/05/68)

1. The Train Kept A Rollin'
2. Mr. You're A Better Man Than I
3. Heart Full Of Soul
4. Dazed And Confused
5. Shapes Of Things
6. I'm A Man
7. Smokestack Lightning
8. Beck's Bolero
9. I'm Waiting For The Man
-Bye Bye Bird
-Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
-Drinking Muddy Water
-New York City Blues
10. I Wish You Would
11. Hey Gyp

The Yardbirds Featuring Jimmy Page Live At The Shrine - Another show featuring Jimmy Page with The Yardbirds. This show, a bit more complete has an over exuberant taper in spots however, the sound quality get's pretty good in places. Another nice document of Jimmy Page

yeah, dunno if these links will still work, but that show is over here: http://musictravellerstwo.blogspot.com/2008/12/yardbirds-with-jimmy-page.html

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kTObUFWzaKA/ST_5z5hQo4I/AAAAAAAABs4/w5fcygnxfsc/s1600-h/Fillmore+Poster.jpg

^ I'm liking the look of that gig.

Oops, no picture. The one with Cecil Taylor and It's A Beautiful Day anyhow.

Bumping this for Tom D. The idea of that Velvets is still amazing me. Know anything about it?

oops, should read 'that Velvets cover'

They might have played with them!

Also, Page something of an aficionado of US underground music, yes?

Yeah, I guess he was. Wasn't he a big Spirit fan or something?

And Kaleidoscope, and Buffalo Springfield et al

Not to go all off-topic, but: "Psycho Daisies"!

Kinda like that engineer album. Not too keen on the early blues stuff.

Yeah, Roger the Engineer is great. And Psycho Daisies too! B-side of Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, what an amazing single.

Not a big fan of the Yardbirds, beyond the famous songs

Somewhere I have an old Rolling Stone wherein it says, in the Random Notes section, that The Yardbirds changed their name to Led Zepplin, which in hindsight, is a pretty terrible name for a band.

The hook that follows the chorus of "Heart Full of Soul" always (still) gets me.

Full circle for this thread: the VU book Uptight says the Velvets were originally slated to be the band in Blow-Up, but it went to the Yardbirds instead.

Anyhow, Yardbirds are classic. Clapton never topped his work with them, by my reckoning.

always thought the riff @ 2:35 of this stooges track

sounded like happenings ten years time ago

made me a edit recently. loop madness.
yardbirds-train kepta rollin (ettiem kepta editin)

Eman, Iggy was a big Yardbirds fan, so you are probably onto something.
In some interview he talks about listening to "Heart Full of Soul" and thought to himself "Well, what's my heart full of?" (Napalm, obv)

I guess I mean he IS a big YB fan.
I love their psych shit, some of the early "rave up" stuff is great, too.
Especially "Here Tis"

also "i'm not talking" and "i got a right"

For that matter, the MC5 version of I'm A Man on '66 Breakout owes more to the Yardbirds than to Bo Diddley.

Woah! Never saw the Stooges link before!

The archetypal Freakbeat band. I really need to upgrade from my crappy beat-up Vinyl greatest hits.

Sundazed dropped the news on Facebook today that they'll be putting out the Little Games lp in mono on cd & vinyl in December. Only two bonus tracks tho: "Puzzles" & "I Remember The Night".

are there any bootlegs of the brief beck & page lineup? paging tyler

not that i know of? this one is tricky -- http://vivalesbootlegs.blogspot.com/2009/02/yardbirds-feat-jimmy-page-jeff-beck.html
i think there are two shows though, one w/ beck, one w/ page.

in case anyone missed it, i wrote a little something about the VU/Yardbirds thang (along with mp3) here: http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2013/01/15/the-yardbirds-im-waiting-for-the-man-vu-cover-live-1968/

here's the high point of the beck/page y-birds recorded output
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S47NPJQq8h8

actually a pretty rockin' milkshake commercial tbh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpcyWKKY9-s
and here they are playing in 1966 -- page on bass, I think?

jim mccarty + whoever is playing as yardbirds in my town but tickets are like 40 or 50 bucks so screw that. i got ghostface tickets and they were only 30! anyway, i fuckin' love yardbirds and i have listened to their (post-clapton) records a TON in the last 5 years or so. hoo boy, so addicted. so great. i could rave about them all night.

This, from last year, is really awesome, especially the live disc: https://www.discogs.com/Yardbirds-Yardbirds-68/master/1269951

I would skip the McCarty-birds and get that killer Yardbirds '68 comp. I think it's my fave reissue from last year.

Roger the Engineer was pretty much the shape of hard rock to come.

Reviews say Yardbirds '68 has the Anderson Theater set that's been available before, but it's fixed up to sound clearer. Question: does it sound *that* much better to justify the premium price?

Sounds quite good, finally heard it yesterday. But not compared it with anything. Just been shared on torrent sites. But I'm still thinking of buying it.

Haven't heard it yet, but the original issue had overdubbed crowd noise (from bullfights), so presumably this reissue sounds better.

EVERY live album should have overdubbed bullfight noises.

the new ugly things claims that they are not actual bullfight noises, the myth beginning with a misinterpreted jimmy page quote.

It was actually Jake Holmes who said it had bullfight noises.

(and Scott otm)

and it wasn't even released on matador

What's the deal with "Knowing That I'm Losing You" being released without the vocals (as they'd already been on Cumular Limit)? Is Pagey afraid of being sued by Relf's estate for not acknowledging Keith wrote the lyrics to the second verse?

FWIW, I have the original issue of the Anderson Bullfight show and the new remaster completely smokes it.

Fun stories about the Anderson:

http://bedfordandbowery.com/2018/01/the-anderson-theater-forgotten-forerunner-of-the-fillmore-east/

that was the anderson, huh? i was actually in there! when it was the "cbgb theater" in the late 70s. saw the jam. mick jagger was in the house that night w/ jerry hall.

this is a group i could be a completist of from their beginning till their end!

Watching through some interviews, picked up a nugget from Angus that him and Malcolm saw the Yardbirds live with Jimmy Page and were quite impressed.

Seeing the Yardbirds live seems to be a pretty formative thing for many of the old rock and rollers - I've seen this stated in various interviews with Nugent, Iggy, Wayne Kramer and both Stephen Tyler and Joe Perry.

It's pretty easy to snag the more or less 'Complete' Yardbirds: the Yardbirds By Giorgio Gomelsky box on Charly for everything from the beginning up 'til early '66; a good reissue of Roger The Engineer for the rest of '66; and an expanded Little Games and that Yardbirds '68 thing for everything Page. There's also a BBC set, but IMHO those recordings (Beck & Page eras, nothing together) aren't that revelatory.

Yardbirds discography has generally always been a bit of a basket case.

ultimate covers all their albums best songs and more and the ones it misses is no great loss!

Oh yeah, drag with taht yardbirds Giorgio gomelski thing is that it has loads of tyakes of several songs following each other. Which I think is probably not the best way to listen to them. I think I have a copy.
Shame the Ultimate set is so compressed.

& wish I could get that Roger The Engineer expanded as cd only. Or at least without Stereo following mono version which is a drag on a 3changer.

the expanded for your love, having a rave up and little games might be interesting to hear anyone have these?

I had an (the?) expanded Little Games years ago (mid-'90s) and was extremely disappointed. I was expecting more things along the lines of "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," but it's mostly (as I recall, it's been years since I listened to it) Mickie Most trying to smother all of the band's strengths in awful arrangements.

There's been a least a few different Little Games reissues with different extras. I've got the Tarfumes has, the '90s EMI double, which gets bogged down a bit in the bonuses mostly being alt. mixes and backing tracks. There's a newer edition on Spotify that has a bunch of Page-era BBC recordings added on instead.

The Little Games album itself is a mixed bag, as Mickie Most really wasn't the producer that lineup needed, although there is a neat friction at times with Page throwing out these wild solos on Pop ready-mades foisted onto the band.

Another problem is that some of that era's best stuff was on singles (like "Think About It", "Puzzles", and their scary version of Nilsson's "Ten Little Indians"), so make sure that the version you're checking out has extras.

I think the Yardbirds producers and management really failed to realize that the pop rock business was changing. The hot thing was big loud guitar bands and they had a band with hits that happened to have one of the most imaginative guitar players that could have made big waves in that scene, but rather had them doing these pop tunes.

I've been listening to quite a bit of the Yardbirds and Pretty Things the last couple of weeks.

"I'm Not Talking" is a jam. It's got a groove that ACDC would use quite a bit.

Both Beck & Page (& Terry Reid) have gone on record saying that Mickie Most (both the last Yardbirds producer & first one Jeff Beck Group) did not 'get' Heavy Rock. It seems like most of the Brit Rock producers were only concerned about hitting the Pop charts despite whatever their acts actual strong suits were.

That was one of the interesting things about that ABC (aust) documentary on Vanda Young. Those guys mentored obviously AC/DC and some of the other big Australian hard rock groups, but had quite a bit of luck at least in Australia with other types of musical acts.

i've probably said this before but i think their biggest weakness was keith relf, who just kind of sucked at singing.

Keith Relf is pretty much the original indie rock vocalist. I kinda like his voice as it is just different than the blues shouters.

^this

This is with a deep sadness that i have to announce that my brother-in-law Chris Dreja, former member of legendary band The Yardbirds, rhythm guitarist and also bass player has passed away after years of health problems...I share the pain with my sister Kate who took care of him during all thoses years and his daughter Jackie...May he RIP ❤️

Source: levymuriel903

RIP :(