I was going to collect individual Yardbirds CDs but can't find For Your Love for a price I'm willing to pay. There's a 4-disc set called Yardbirds Story. Is that all music or is there narration?
I was going to collect individual Yardbirds CDs but can't find For Your Love for a price I'm willing to pay. There's a 4-disc set called Yardbirds Story. Is that all music or is there narration?
Love them. Unfortunately like The Small Faces, this is a brilliant and important group whose legacy has been lessened by the amount of below-par releases out there. There are three releases needed to cover the basic ground.
1- 'The Yardbirds Story' covers *every* released recording they did for Giorgio Gomelsky. That features everything they recorded with Eric Clapton, most of the Jeff Beck stuff (including a 4th disc of demos and runthroughs) and the stray Beck/Page track 'Stroll On'. This is all you need of that period. No narration, just music.
2- This box does not include everything they did, however- not by a long chalk. It doesn't have the album 'The Yardbirds' aka 'Roger The Engineer'. Get a version of that with the mono and stereo mixes, plus the single 'Happenings Ten Years Time Ago'/'Psycho Daisies'. Quite a few are available.
3- There's also another album 'Little Games' with Jimmy Page, and this is a murkier area- this album wasn't even released in Britain at the time! I've only ever had the Sundazed mono version...unfortunately whilst some bonus tracks were included, some were left off leaving this era incomplete. Those songs are on other releases but it would have been nice to have them all there.
There is a now deleted Rhino set called 'Ultimate' which chose from the whole career. This one looks perfect on paper. However I forgot how 'bright' and trebly this one sounds until the last time I played it, and it left off 'Glimpses' which is brilliant. There's also various live/radio session releases...never delved into those.
Last edited by JJ88; 03-02-2014 at 01:57 PM.
You'll still need Roger The Engineer and Little Games
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
thanks for the direction...
yardbirds story box also has some of the best sound of any yardbirds release i've heard.
I did some reading about this on other forums like Steve Hoffman's, and the man who compiled that box prioritised the mono mixes where previous releases had often used fake-stereo garbage and the like.
For many years I only had 'Ultimate!'.
What's the consensus on the page era?
I've not listened to any of it for an age and barely remember it in detail, other than finding it at the time to be pretty weak psych pop?.Maybe time for a re-listen.
It's not the best period of the band, by then they'd started working with Mickie Most who had a more bubblegum outlook and it's hard to imagine a band less suited to that. 'White Summer', 'Glimpses', 'Drinking Muddy Water' and 'Think About It' hold up best from that period, not much else does. The first of those and also 'Dazed And Confused'. which they did live, were important for Jimmy Page obviously.
On video I've seen the JP version of the Yardbirds play 'Dazed and Confused'. It seemed really heavy and bluesy for that time. otherworldly even. Was this before or after the first Hendrix album?
The latter.Originally Posted by davis
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
^ okay. I thought maybe the first Hendrix album might've influenced it. I did some research and learned that 'Dazed and Confused' was originally a folk song by a guy called Jake Holmes. He opened for the Yardbirds. Page heard the song and basically grabbed it and made it his own. The result is great, but shame on him for not crediting Holmes.
Well, that's part of Page's legacy. Not sure he has any shame about it.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
well, I ani't gonna dwell on it. just an FYI: http://www.theguardian.com/music/201...d-and-confused
The booklet that comes with The Yardbirds Story box, what's in that besides photos?
Absolutely. Also, there's a great album, Yardbirds Live, which I think Page had withdrawn or something. You can find it online...
"Always ready with the ray of sunshine"
The booklet is full of information about the band and recordings.
I dug out 'Ultimate' and that one just sounds too loud and too shrill. A shame because it seems to me some of the source material used was an improvement, just the mastering lets it down. 'Got To Hurry' sounds very odd on it, though. That particular track, I prefer the alternate take where Clapton uses the distortion...the 'Yardbirds Story' has both.
'Live Yardbirds' has been caught up in litigation for years, since its release in fact. There was another one that got hastily withdrawn featuring Page called 'Cumular Limit'.
I was lucky enough to buy Yardbirds Live (new) back in the mid-70's, I always liked it even though the critics railed it...!
I have it as well. I saw this band in '66.
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
Does anyone have a comment on an a live album called,Golden Eggs(Jimmy Page on guitar)?
^I read about that one recently...seems to be a compilation bootleg rather than a live release. Looks all over the place to me. But their discography never made much sense. The 'Little Games' album was never even released in Britain in the 60s. I don't know if the studio versions of 'Train Kept A Rollin' and 'I'm A Man' were released here at the time either, and those became iconic tracks in the US!
The Yardbirds BBC album is worthy as well! There is also a Clapton-era live album that was released on Get Back several years ago that is quite excellent.
Bill
She'll be standing on the bar soon
With a fish head and a harpoon
and a fake beard plastered on her brow.
This thread inspired me to go back through and listen to the stuff i have(clapton, beck era) and while an enjoyable band i'm reminded of how stiff and embryonic a blues rock\beat band they were.Good guitar work of course, but the rest of the band aren't really up to it.Especially Relf, who sounds like an accountant.
I dig most of the more psych styled work, but they were by no means one of the better blues rock\R&B bands from the 60s.Listening to the butterfield blues band and Graham bond organization after them really hammered home the difference in quality for me.
I'm impressed with Relf's harp playing.
My older brother had this album in his collection way back when:
I was just a kid and I remember being blown away by the guitar solo on "Your A Better Man Than I."
It's unfortunate that this is part of his legacy but I think he's one of the most influential guitarists ever. He gets ripped a lot here on PE but whatever. The guy really was a musical genius in the studio. I've always loved his guitar playing and I'd take him over the other British guitar gods.Well, that's part of Page's legacy. Not sure he has any shame about it
I agree. I'm not a huge Zep fan, but I am a fan. No one person can be 'the Best" guitarist in the world, but Page's guitarist-IQ is off the charts. So is Jeff Beck's.
Last edited by davis; 03-17-2014 at 09:53 AM.
Get Little Games, a comp from 1985 (on RAK Records, I believe) covering their 1967 productions, demos and outtakes. I'd hardly call stuff like "Glimpses" anything near 'weak psych pop' - those are some over-the-top, syrip-heavy acid rock fanfares.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
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