Customer Reviews

Live Blueswailing: St George's Hall July 1964

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I was excited when I read about this previously unissued live soundboard recording of the Yardbirds. "Live Blueswailing July '64" features an uncirculated tape of vintage Yardbirds featuring Eric Clapton on lead guitar. The sound quality for the time period is excellent and it may even be better then the sound on "Five Live Yardbirds" which was also recorded with this particular line up. The set list is similar to that found on "Five Live Yardbirds" but the new disk includes previously unissued live versions of "Someone To Love Me" and the slow burning take of "The Sky Is Crying" by Elmore James. With the exception of the latter track the set list is comprised of high energy "rave ups". Tracks like Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning" and "She's So Respectable/Humpty Dumpty" not only why the band was exciting in concert but the latter also illustrates the band's sense of humor. Keith Relf is in good form and jokes with the audience between songs. The sound and style of the Yardbirds influenced many of the garage bands during the sixties (Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction" for example). While the disk clocks in at only a little over 30 minutes the music included is well worth the price. It is surprising that a tape sounding this good has gone unheard for so long. It makes me wonder how many other gems from vintage sixties groups remain lost or unheard Now if only a great live tape of the Jeff Beck era could be found.

I was lucky enough to get the complete "Five Live Yardbirds" when Rhino briefly released it in the early 1980's. Inevitably, this new CD will be compared to it - after all, it has much the same song list. Happily, "Live Blueswailing" compares VERY well. The crowd is more sedate but still enthusiasic, the sound is clearer, the band's playing is crisper, Keith Relf banters more with the audience, and Clapton fans have one more fine E. C. performance to savor - the CD's closing track, "The Sky Is Crying." If you can't get your hands on the complete "Five Live," this is a great substitute; even if you can, this is a fine supplement.

As someone who's always been a big fan of the British Invasion era of rock and roll, I knew about the Yardbirds pretty much the same way as a lot of people did, through the rotating cast of superstar guitarists. Then I bought a tape of some of their best songs, and I was hooked. Apart from the Animals and the early Rolling Stones, no other British band pulled off the covers of blues standards with quite the same audacity as the Yardbirds, and the too-short Clapton-era incarnation has always been my favorite (the Beck years were good too, but they devolved into psychedelica).

This is a great find, and one that I wish I'd bought months earlier. The sound is utterly fantastic for a forty-year old recording (the conspiracy theorist in me might say it's almost "too good"...perhaps the guys got together for one last gig recently and repackaged it as a "old" recording....that's crazy talking), and the performances are something to behold. After a rough start with the first song ending a little early, the band comes back and roars through Smokestack Lightin' and (my all-time fave Yardbirds song) Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl. She's So Respectful/Humpty Dumpty is a great song about "a girl who doesn't go out much" and thus is the singer's dream girl. The album overall makes you wish there was more Clapton-led Yardbirds material lying about, but this and "Five Live Yardbirds" (which I want to get despretely) are all we have. Thank God for that little bit, because this is amazing.

Keith Relf is surely a "mystery man." He deserves his own retrospective to reveal the many sided talent. Considering his voice alone, there is quite a range of material to take samples from. Not all of these examples, however, are found in an official recording studio. Listening to "The Sky is Crying" from this '64 discovery, the depths of the "mystery man's" being rings out in the blues, as it does comparably through ballad form in such classics as "Turn into Earth," and "Only the Black Rose." This CD is convincing proof, if any was needed, that Keith sang the blues as well as any of the more famous lead singers of his generation. His voice conveys the feelings of loneliness, jealousy, despair and hope in this song, as sharply as the wail of his harmonica playing. Compare his performance here to the profound vocalizing shown on the "Yardbird's Last Rave Up in L.A," a bootleg recorded at the Shrine Auditorium four years later, in 1968. The first two Renaissance albums as well as Armageddon capture some of this broodingly profound spirit, as do the Illusion albums, in their own unique way. On the Yardbird's latest release, "Birdland," he is described as an "Original Man," someone that's "for real." His "blueswailing" on this CD is certainly "for real;" a great tribute to Relf and the legacy of the early Yardbird period.

Recorded just a few months after 'Five Live Yardbirds' on drummer Jim McCarty's birthday this gig shows a much improved band, a rapidly evolving band. A nice touch is Keith Relf's between song banter with the audeince as 'Slowhand' tunes and retunes his guitar. Almost the same set list as 'Five Live' but with a superb six minute 'The Sky is Crying'(this one gem alone is worth the price of the disc)....A quick aside at this point. Record Companies are singing the blues over lack of sales. Maybe THIS release would sell a few more copies if the record company would bother to submit a photo of the cover along with track listings and an editorial review of their own.

Recognizing that there are precious few very good live recordings by any rock group in the mid sixties, the fact that this even exists is cause for celebration. In fact it has all the low fidelity of a bootleg, in mono, but with very articulated separation of instruments and voices. And what those instruments and voices convey is incredibly powerful. The seven tunes here comprise a set and an encore and they are each worth the price of the disc by itself. The Yardbirds were committed to scorching their way through the blues, and in doing so in this live context, they show just how much further ahead they were than the Stones, the Animals, basically everyone except the Beatles and the Zombies, whose mebrace of Bill Evans modal style jazz set them off ina separate universe altogether.
This is this band in 1964. The Beatles were bopping along with HARD DAY'S NIGHT and an assortment of pop singles. The Stones were still trying to figure out their persona. Dave Clark was a Phil Spector nocturnal ecstacy. Nobody was like The Yardbirds. Essaying deep blues issues such as "Got Love If You Want It", and "The Sky is Crying" as though they wrote the songs, there is an undeniable command of the material here that other groups had not quite locked on to. All of the members play as a well integrated team, and Clapton, while a formiddable presence in this group, seems light years away from turning the world on its head in Cream. In fact it is hard to imagine the light years he would cross in two years time to go from this protean blues player to rock and psychedelic demi-god, before cashing that in to become the laconic journeyman of first Derek fame and then as solo writer.
This is all feral powerhouse blues rock at this stage, and make no mistake about it, Clapton in this band and with John Mayall, wrote the book for everyone after him, with the exception of Hendrix and Stevie Ray. this is a great document to have of a man and a band in its nascent stages. As I'm saying, it is just staggering to think of where he would take his craft after this point. He is already at this stage severely out ahead of the pack and he has not even begun to burn yet. This band pushed Clapton and the rest of us should be grateful they did. Hear it for yourself.

Really, the only bad thing you can say about this disc is that it's not quite as good as "Five Live Yardbirds." However, "Five Live" is generally regarded as one of the greatest live recordings in the history of rock'n'roll, so it's a hard album to compete with.

What we do get on "Live Blueswailing" is a shorter, looser performance that's still well worth seeking out. The sound quality is fantastic, Keith Relf oozes charisma, and the band just rips into every song for all it's worth. It's not the definitive live Yardbirds album, but it comes damn close!

A book reviewer once wrote of Nabokov that he wrote prose the only way it should be written: ecstatically. The same could be said of the way the Yardbirds played rock'n'roll. Anyone with an appreciation for this band's classic approach to rock and blues music will enjoy this disc immensely.

I enjoyed this early sixties live show from this classic rockin band.
And you get Eric Clapton playing his heart out circa 1964. That doesn't mean long guitar solos though and that type of hard rock that wasn't really invented yet in 1964. This is a great band that later became hard rock and led zeppelin, but at this time was a heavy blues rockin pop rockin outfit. On this disc the band lays down some great blues rockin songs although none of their hits are on the disc. The tracks sound very clear and that's a huge plus here. This is soundboard all the way. And you won't go wrong with this one if you are fan of british invasion music or blues rockin circa 1964. With this one you can already see that this is a band of powerful musicians who are extremely talented and dedicated to what they are doing. These people took the blues and rock seriously and didn't just play music without conviction. They were fans themselves who wanted to bring their love of blues rock to their fans. This one may be for completists more than those looking for a greatest hits package though. The yardbirds became led zeppelin and the rest is history and that's enough for all of us grateful fans. ANd this gives us a great early live show to enjoy as well.