REVIEWS:
Post your comments about The Yardbirds
(reviewed by Kevin Baker)
These guys are cool! No, really! I don't know where that came from. I probably got hit by a few too many paintballs today. Anyhow, the Yardbirds were an interesting little band. They started off like the Stones, doing blues covers and Chuck Berry. However, they also co-invented psychedelic music with the Byrds, well, kinda. They sound slightly psychedelicized on Roger The Engineer, but the blues roots are always clearly there. They're also known for introducing the world to Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. You don't hear any Clapton on this one-CD set from the archives, though. He quit the band for getting too poppy before their first radio broadcast on Radio One's "Top Of The Pops" program. As it was, it actually helped Clapton because it gave him more time to perfect his licks as he was VERY young at the time.
I will say that the Yardbirds do sound better in the studio. Out of the 26 songs on here, the studio versions of all the ones that they did in the studio are much, much better. Their live mixing is pathetically thin, so everything suffers a bit, but not too much. That's really the only place I can deduct for....ok, Keith Relf's voice isn't great for blues, but it's at least listenable. The tracks here run from early '65 to early '68, and they keep getting better. Experience (plus better engineering) really makes a big difference. About halfway through the playlist, Page takes over from Beck, and then they really start kickin' some butt. I'm a big Page fan, so I naturally like his tracks best, but Beck plays like a wildman most of the time, so it's all good. If you like the Stones, you'll dig the Yardbirds....tasty mid-60s British blues.
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COMMENTS
the yardbirds were very cool, but about your psychadelia comment. I believe See my Friends by the Kinks was the first psychadelic song ever, it is one of the first (the first?) to have indian sounding instruments as well. It came out 1965, does anyone agree with me?
[email protected] (Casey Brennan)
I guess you can say that about "see my friends"... but I'll always think the first 'truly' psychedelic number is "Tomorrow Never Knows"