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Yardbirds — 21

ALBUM: Favorites (1977 comp.)

MVC Rating: 4.5

Here is the group that has led to all those noisy guitar licks in heavy metal and hard rock.

It was early 1960s and a handful of white British kids became immersed in American blues, singers and guitar pickers. They learned the songs, for which they applied amplification and voila: The amplified blues chords have been heard in songs from Black Sabbath to Deep Purple to Blue Oyster Cult (hey, I could have used Green Day.)

The Yardbirds is a group that at separate times had Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Actually there was a short time when Beck and Page were in the group together, according to the liner notes written by Ira Robbins the editor of Trouser Press magazine.

Writing in 1977, when this compilation was released, Robbins said: ‘It only takes a little applied listening to current R-n-R to discern how much of today’s rock traces back to things the Yardbirds did almost a decade ago.‘

Now that was 1977 and this album is culled from songs of the 1960s. Listening to it you can almost make that same case. The blues riffs ring out on much less sophisticated equipment, perhaps, but the song remains the same (if I may pull from a Led Zeppelin song with Jimmy Page on guitar.)

Page, Beck and Clapton are revered like few others and on many lists of top guitarists. I guess I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the original Yardbirds: Keith Relf, lead vocalist and harmonica; Jim McCarty, drums; Paul Samwell Smith, bass; Chris Dreja, rhythm guitar; and Top Topham, lead guitar. Topham’s departure after six months made way for Clapton.

Somewhat ironically, Clapton left the band about a year later saying they were going too commercial for his purist sensibilities. Evidence was the song ‘For Your Love,’ Clapton said.

Well, that’s one of my favorite Yardbird songs (not on this album for some reason) and it was a worldwide hit lifting the band from obscurity.

I say it’s ironic because Clapton starting in the late 1970s has put out more than his fair share of commercial shlock. Some of it was OK shlock but shlock nevertheless. (Shlock is a nicer word than dreck, I believe).

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Cream –560, 559

ALBUMS: Wheel of Fire (1968);  Disraeli  Gears (1967)

MVC Rating: Wheels 4.0/$$$$;l Disraeli, 4.5/$$$$$

Listening to these now after all these years, they sound to my ears  like historical archives.

It’s like finding old Da Vinci sketches that were mind blowing at the time. But now while those flying machines are fun, they don’t really take you anywhere.

Hearing and evaluating these albums properly would be to project yourself to the late 1960s and so you could hear it for the first time. That electrified blues rock  must have been mind blowing upon first and early listens.

But it’s a little bit like when I was around 9 or 10  hearing Wilson Pickett and James Brown for the first time. This was so foreign from the bubblegum music of the day such as the Partridge Family, the Osmonds and Bobby Sherman. (I put the Jackson 5 in a category by themselves, beyond bubblegum.)

Still, you will notice, I give these records high grades because, well, they deserve them. Disraeli being my favorite gets 4.5.

‘Strange Brew,’ and ‘Sunshine of your Love’ were the two hit songs off of Disraeli Gears. ‘White Room’ off of Wheels of Fire was their second biggest selling single after Sunshine.

Listening to them as historic artifacts doesn’t mean they can’t be loved, but for me it’s more that I admire and wonder about some of these. Less blues on Disraeli and more of the  psychedelic tinge that for better or worse would go on to influence groups like Deep Purple, Sabbath and, even, Jimi Hendrix. Or was it  Hendrix, with a 3-piece band as  well , influencing Cream?

But no matter  the song, there was always the expectation Eric Clapton’s stinging guitar would come slip and lash. Jack Bruce on bass, Ginger Baker on drums and Clapton could surely make some noise for a three piece. I remember one of the Beatles responding to the question about how the Beatles got to be the best rock band in the world.

And one of the Beatles said Cream might  be doing some thing better or more progressive than the Beatles. Nice political humble answer.

Based on what I hear here?

Nah.