Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Yardbirds

For your, well actually, my viewing pleasure I present Yardbirds footage that either I've never seen before (from European TV) or haven't seen since I was a tyke. I got bored today and put Yardbirds into the YouTube search box and sure enough there's some new stuff since I last checked about a year ago. I love the Yardbirds and assume most of you do too. So much has been written about the Yardbirds over the years that I have little to add, except that I still listen to them constantly.
It's been a longstanding love affair, after buying the 45 of Heart Full Of Soul b/w Steeled Blues (I didn't really like their first U.S. hit For Your Love), I managed to acquire their first two LP's-- For Your Love and Having A Raving Up With The Yardbirds in 1966, having traded a copy of Beatles '65 with a neighbor. I still think I got the best of the deal. I was seven years old and I can distinctly remember being aware of how the sound of the guitar was changing-- from the Kinks' "You Really Got Me" to the Stones' "The Last Time" and then the first side of Having A Rave-Up (in my opinion the peak of Jeff Beck's style), the guitar was becoming a rather ominous sounding instrument (of course I was unaware at that time of earlier purveyors of guitar noise like Link Wray and Johnny Guitar Watson). I eventually bought every single second of music the Yardbirds have ever recorded and still get excited when anything new surfaces, especially from the Beck period (Aug. '65-- Oct. '66).
Louise (bottom) is the only footage I've ever seen with Clapton on guitar (my least favorite of the three). There's an interesting version of My Gal Sloopy and I Wish You Would that I've never seen, unfortunately the embedding has been disabled so I can't run it here, but you can catch it here, it looks like Jim McCarty himself provided the footage. The CD re-issues of For Your Love, Having A Rave-Up and Over Under Sideways Down, along with non-LP' singles, bonus tracks and outtakes are essential.

13 comments:

  1. Thanks for such a comprehensive collection of videos.

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  2. I have a really great Yarbirds boot DVD if you want one...came out in the last couple years as a "silver" Euro piece....
    email me.

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  3. Jim, if you ever get bored again
    try going here.

    http://www.cashboxmagazine.com/archives.htm


    Fascinating to see all the R&B and blues acts whose songs actually chart but usually never make it above #90.



    Kevan A

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  4. Cashbox was great, beause they counted Jukebox plays their charts were way different than Billboard's. BTW you can find old issues ofBillboard on lined at:

    http://books.google.com/books?id=9fUDAAAAMBAJ&dq=billboard+may+1950&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=0&as_pt=MAGAZINES&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=2_2&atm_aiy=200#all

    I even found an old ad for a Kip Tyler single (w/photo).

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  5. Howlin' Relf and the lads!

    Beck years were the best, although Pagey was no slouch.

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  6. Found this on the Grande Ballroom site and thought it was interesting and sure to get a lot of people BANGIN' their keyboards in anger, posted by Clark Pardee (local musician, guitar salesman, and sometimes music critic)-
    "Final tour before Zep. Jimmy Page, in full English rock star regalia (red velvet pants, white ruffled shirt and a black embroidered Japanese shawl) armed with an old painted-up Telecaster and FIVE Dual Showmans, proceeded to rip through most of the signature riffs used on the first Zeppelin album, but cleanly and with passion precision - something totally lacking in the live Zep shows I saw in subsequent years. It was joyous - just one of those nights when everything clicks - and he was lit (eyes mere slits)." - Clark Pardee

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  7. Damn that "Louise" is sweet.

    Kevan A

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  8. I love how the Hullabaloo dancers don't know what to do with the ending of I'm A Man. haha.

    -- Lianne

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  9. "I love how the Hullabaloo dancers don't know what to do with the ending of I'm A Man. haha."

    The same can be said for Keith Relf, who seems lost after turning his harmonica into a tamborine...

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  10. Howzit James. I've got a couple of DVDs worth of Yardbirds "videos". The quality is not great but will do the needful. Planning to come to NYC in April 2010. More details closer to the time. Cheers B.

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  11. Great post and collection of vids... Thanks!

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  12. Some INCREDIBLE close-up color photos from a '66 Yardbirds show (with Beck AND Page) taken at some club in Indiana can be seen here:

    http://careerrecords.com/picture_book/albums/History-Lesson/album/index2.html

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  13. "http://careerrecords.com/picture_book/albums/History-Lesson/album/index2.html"

    great pix, but a) what kind of bass is Page playing?

    b) who are the other two guitar players (one's got a tele), the ones who are not Jeff Beckor Chris Dreja?
    C.f. image #48, whose the guy on the left? whose theguy w/the tele?

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