Customer Reviews

Live Yardbirds! Featuring Jimmy Page

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Wow! Cannot even believe this rare (most of the time) and hard to find CD is even available on Amazon. I've heard there were two versions of this title available. A bootleg CD and a legit pressing. Believe the legit release has eleven tracks and the bootleg has just nine. Really very good sound quality, SPECIALLY for the time this show was recorded, on March 30, 1968 in New York's lower east side's Anderson Theater. Tunes that will have you playing this disc over until you wear it out are "The Train Kept A Rollin'", "I'm Confused", the ultimate late '60's boot-stomper of all time "Over Under Sideways Down", the bluesy "Drinking Muddy Water", Jimmy Page's stellar instrumental "White Summer" and the 12-minute awesome "I'm A Man". An ABSOLUTE must-have. A true keeper. Highly recommended. You get the point.

THANK YOU AMAZON. I HAVE WAITED DECADES TO GET THIS CD.

I owned the original vinyl LP of this set back in 1977. I paid

around $35 dollars for it back then. The Yardbirds had it pulled

from release due to the company dubbing in fake crowd noises,bull

fight cheering and the clinking of cocktail glasses according to

Jimmy Page. Those in the audience witnessed the birth of Led

Zeppelin and the implosion of the Yardbirds on this night. J.Page was unknown to an american crowd and unleased his guitar

fury on this tour. Jimmy Page had played bass on the Yardbirds

previous tour which showcased Jeff Beck,and rightfully so.

Singer Keith Relf had a hard time matching Jimmy Page's guitar solos and power cords, which dominated their sound. You

can hear Jimmy using wah-wah pedal, fuzztone, and even a string-

bow on the early version of Dazed and Confused with different

lyrics. My LP labeled the song as Im So Confused.

Songs of interest are Dazed and Confused, a blueprint for the great Zeppelin epic to come, White Summer,which appeared in early Zeppelin live sets. Drinking Muddy Water, which was the

other song played from their album Little Games- it is very similar to Train Kept A Rollin. From the shadows of the stage

that night, Jimmy Page roared through the Jeff Beck Classics-

Heart Full of Soul,Over Under Sideways Down,I'm a Man,and Shapes of Things. The other band members wisely let him take the stagefront. Followers of early Led Zeppelin might

be interested in this CD. Zeppelin arose from the ashes of The

Yardbirds and this music served notice of things to come.

I recommend Yardbirds ... Where the Action is, with the second disc- Jimmy Page with the birds at Stockholm 1967. This

set includes Shapes of Things and Little Games. Especially if you

can't find Live At The Anderson Theatre with Jimmy Page. I also

recommend the band Armageddon,self titled, which rocks to the

singing of the late Keith Relf,the voice of the Yardbirds.

I was lucky enough to get this from amazon a few years back before Mr.Page ONCE AGAIN killed it with legal injunctions.I see his point.The canned cheering,crappy recording and Keith Relf singing flat for a hour is a bit much.Why the 5 stars then? Jimmy Page sounds great.The Telecaster/Vox combo is stunning and he seldom reached this level of tone again even in Zeppelins best moments.Grab this and enjoy a great guitarist while he was young and fresh.

This is one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Pagey is at a high point and the band rocks as fiercely as any, including any punkers. Far better than the later bloat and pretension of the Zepsters. Recording quality not pristine but not at all bad. (I've heard far worse Zep boots that are lauded as "holy grails.") Anybody who puts this down -- well, you don't know rock & roll, boyo (probably a Kiss fan, too!).

For those of you still trying to figure out the reading order of the liner notes, starting with the front cover as page 1, they read in this order: page 2,14,4,12,6,10,8,9,7,11 and 5. Most of the other reviews are on the mark as for performance and sound quality. For Yardbirds fans the historic importance of this release makes it a must have.

I have a copy of this entire show on a Yardbirds rare tracks disc. My brother bought this on LP back in the 70's and I am pretty sure this recording is a bootleg and a very famous one, but it's still a "boot". I remember Page not liking this release much, stating that some of the crowd noises were added. Page said "the crowd cheers could have been lifted from a bull fight for all I know" It's funny because before I read that, I would imagine the crowd going wild as it does sound that way! The album starts off with an excellent version of "A Train Kept A Rollin'" a jamming version of "Mister You're A Better Man Than I" that goes right into a pumped up version of "Heart Full Of Soul" There is a song called "I'm Confused" which would later be re-worked for Led Zeppelin's first album as "Dazed and Confused". The set is really interesting and I'm glad I have it. If you can find it, it buy it! It is one hell of a good performance and the recording is pretty damn good. Please remember it was a "boot", so the sound quality is very good, but not perfect(a little tinny). Well worth hearing and owning!

I had this on vinyl at one point. At the time I thought it was a promotional copy because of the white label, though later I learned this was a bootleg. I also in the early 1990's saw this concert on an import CD, with some bonus tracks from the Olympia Theatre in Paris. I should have snatched it up them because when I returned a few days later it was gone. The concert itself it noteworthy because of its rarity, not because it is a particularly great show. Anyone who likes the Yardbirds has heard and probably owns the 1963-64 era live recordings and will recall that their first proper release of a LP was a late 1964 concert recording from the Marquee Club in London. The fascination from this is that other than the 'Little Games' LP there is very little Yardbirds music available from 1967 or 1968. As others have noted, Page is in fine form here, he seems like he is enjoying himself as part of a band as opposed to being a sesion player which he did earlier in the 1960's. And of course, he was about to launch into something enormous in just a few short months. Relf is tentative here, although he does communicate a bit with the audience between songs. Perhaps he knew deep down that the end of the band was near. The most annoying thing is the dubbed in crowd noise which is totally unnecessary. I hope soon that Page will live and let live and authorize a proper reissue as it happened -- minus the added crowd noise.

This album gives me the chills. When you listen to it alongside early Yardbirds stuff and compare, it sounds like the devil crept in and tore the band to shreds in one final amazing last frenzy...and the crowds on this final tour must have flipped their tops (this could easily fit in with the popular legend that Jimmy Page once sold his soul to the devil to play guitar!) The sound is that of a band that once was once something, but was about to become nothing... How did it happen? Jimmy Page joined The Yardbirds quietly about a year and half earlier as a replacement on bass. Within that time he had risen to second lead, and then took over Jeff Becks aclaimed role as lead guitarist. By listening to this show, it is obvious that he was about to chew right through this band entirely! Here endeth the Yardbirds. It is amazing to witness though, and actually a show worthy of its legend. Too bad this album is so rare.

Listen to the early take of Dazed and Confused as a Yardbirds song (I'M CONFUSED is the actual title here, but you will no doubt recognize the guitar work) Keith Relf almost sounds like he is literally (a little scared and) confused as to what his role as lead vocalist has come down to.. lyrically he has a hard time keeping up with Pages continuosly building sound... and he sings "I'm starting to crack, if your trying to break me, you're on the right track!" I feel like he's singing it to Page.... However still Relf shines as a master of the harp... numerous times throughout this perfomance, when he's in doubt, he just blows the harp. And its intense sometimes over these raw Page riffs. No doubt in my mind that Robert Plant studied Relfs harp section on Dazed rather than his vocals when he took over later on. The famous Plant wails in the ZepI version vs. Relfs haunting chords on this, compare.

I will tell you this. At some point in your life you need to get your hands on this album and soak it up. Especially if you are a fan of early Zep or The Yardbirds in general... which, who isn't; and, well you damned should be. Jimmy Page has done everything in his power to keep this album underground for whatever reason or another. Epic first released it in the early seventies and it lasted about three years before Page finally battled it into the dirt. In 1992 Epic tried once again to release it on CD (the version found here) and it lasted on the shelves for a matter of weeks before Page banished it again. Whats he got to hide here... the set is stellar. Sort of makes you think a little bit, no?

There are some minor flaws. For one thing, I guess Epic thought the album didn't sound live enough? And they added in additional crowd noise (boneheads.) Secondly the sound quality is just a par above bootleg standards... however I happen to love the way the record sounds ( I own the vinyl myself, and I know nothing about the bonus tracks on this featured version) this record has a very dark and mysterious quality to it... the vocals sound like old time forties radio, but Pages guitar is on fire... fresher than Zep even at spots. The songs are just flat out ROCK! TRAIN and the twelve minute I'M A MAN?! Are you kidding me? And OVER-UNDER... crunches, man.

Trust me, seek this album out like the grail.

I happen to posses copies of the vinyl bootlegs of this concert, plus the one day legal copy, which was suppressed by Jimmy Page because Led Zeppelin's first album was about to be released. This is the once well known (among YB fans) the Live at the Anderson Theater album. The concert was a failure and the recording was awful and got panned by all reviewers at the time. It was collectible only because of the one day release and Jimmy Page's personal intervention. So it became a collectors item for that reason. And fool that I am, I have one of each production ever done in vinyl that I grabbed up as a collector in the 1970s and early '80s. (Should I put them on Ebay?) The cheering and glasses clinking was dubbed in by the producer and the cheers were actually from a bullfight! Page hated the finished product and felt - probably correctly - that this lp on the market would hurt LZ1.

Positives; the album art is great. The same artist did an official late double album of the Yardbirds Greatest Hits - which I also have. But you can't appreciate that so much on a cd. The material on the album is interesting only to a deep YB fan as it was recorded poorly and only Page seems to have enthusiasm playing. Even Relf makes a comment to the sparse crowd after the band finishes with Shapes of Things I think, "Nostalgia." After all, Cream was just finishing up its reign and all the enthusiasm of the time was focused there - until Led Zeppelin dropped its first bombshell....

Today, much is being dug up and recycled and hailed as "amazing" and other overblown appraisals of once denounced and even embarassing productions like the Anderson Theater album. But hey, I am only too happy to see every living member of the Yardbirds profit from this because they turned out to be such an important staging point for some truly great rock music to come. I just hope they are profiting from all current YB recording sales. Perhaps someone out there who knows could tell us.

Four Stars for its academic value, which I think is generous, considering how Page probably still feels about this one.

The last time I herd this album yes album was in the 80's,the first was in the 70's.It was great then and,is still great now.Jimmy Page adds a slightly different sound quality which is all Page,and reminiscent of early Zep. So if you are a Yardbirds fan and especially you Zepplin fan's you can experience some great early Page.It also contains one of the greatest versions of White Summer that I've ever heard, the only other one which is comparable would be the one on the Zepplin DVD. Where you ask can you get this great CD? on Amazon.com of course.