Yardbirds (Roger the Engineer) [Extra tracks, Import, Original recording remastered]

Yardbirds | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 26, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Extra tracks, Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Repertoire
• ASIN: B000NA2AY6
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #206,819 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Lost Woman [Stereo]

2. Over Under Sideways Down [Stereo]

3. The Nazz Are Blue [Stereo]

4. I Can't Make Your Way [Stereo]

5. Rack My Mind [Stereo]

6. Farewell [Stereo]

7. Hot House of Omagarishid [Stereo]

8. Jeff's Boogie [Stereo]

9. He's Always There [Stereo]

10. Turn into Earth [Stereo]

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Lost Woman [Mono Version]

2. Over Under Sideways Down [Mono Version]

3. The Nazz Are Blue [Mono Version]

4. I Can't Make Your Way [Mono Version]

5. Rack My Mind [Mono Version]

6. Farewell [Mono Version]

7. Hot House of Omagarishid [Mono Version]

8. Jeff's Boogie [Mono Version]

9. He's Always There [Mono Version]

10. Turn into Earth [Mono Version]

See all 14 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

This classic album is now available in Special Slip-case 2CD edition. Complete Stereo & Mono versions of the album, plus 2 bonus singles tracks. Repertoire Records. 2008. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Sound for a 60s Classic, March 18, 2008

By 

A. Kesselman "Traveler of Time and Space" (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Yardbirds (Roger the Engineer) (Audio CD)

I have owned numerous releases of the vinyl and CDs of this album over the years, and I would have to say this is the best sounding one of them all. The packaging is top notch as well, with the CDs encased in a great box that replicates the front and back covers of the original album.

The music itself is great, of course. As it would turn out, this would be the only real album legendary guitarist Jeff Beck would record with the Yardbirds. Shortly after this released, the Yardbirds lost Paul Samwell Smith, gained Jimmy Page, and then lost Jeff Beck. For a short time, Beck and Page led a two pronged guitar attack, which two of the best songs on this collection, "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" and "Psycho Daisies," capture. It always leaves me to wonder what could have been if only the Beck/Page era had lasted longer.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YES, THIS IS WORTH GETTING, February 14, 2008

By 

Syd (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yardbirds (Roger the Engineer) (Audio CD)

This classic album is worth springing for in mono, even if you have it in common stereo. There is not a real lot of difference in the mix, maybe slightly more echoy vocals in parts, but it has more punch, a different feel, just typical mono, and hey it's still one of the all times greats.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the BEST albums of the British Invasion era, October 25, 2010

By 

anarchitek (California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yardbirds (Roger the Engineer) (Audio CD)

This is the best album the Yardbirds would record, bar none. It was released in the US titled to take advantage of the latest single, overundersidewaysdown, as was common in the '60s. AM radio ruled the air in those heady days, and the Yardbirds ruled the Top 40 charts for a brief, but exciting period, from the 1965, with the song that caused their ace guitarist to leave, For Your Love (#3 US w/ Eric Clapton). They quickly replaced him, and roared on, releasing in short order, Heart Full of Soul (#9 US -Clapton, +Jeff Beck), I'm A Man (#17 US), Shapes of Things/I'm Not Talking (#3 US, re-released a month later with New York City Blues on the flip side), OverUnderSidewaysDown/Jeff's Boogie (#13 US), Happenings Ten Years Time Ago (#30 US +Jimmy Page), Little Games (#51 US -Beck), until they fizzled out with the execrable Ha Ha Said the Clown (#46 US +Jimmy Page), and the equally tepid Ten Little Indians which barely cracked the Top 100, in October 1967., two years, seven months, and a world away.

The Yardbirds had started their singles parade with the release of I Wish You Would (didn't chart, w/ Eric Clapton),in August 1964, re-working a song written and recorded by Chicago bluesman, Billy Boy Arnold, in 1955. The Yardbirds were first and foremost a "blues band," the earliest to succeed at the genre, although most fans would insist they were far more successful at restyling those blues riffs in a psychedelic or early heavy metal manner, more than into anything that resembled the "blues." Their take on Bo Diddley's I'm A Man set the bar for everyone to follow, transforming Bo's chugga-chugga beat into a rhythmic masterpiece that roars off to a rousing climax.

It was a time of experimentation, of stretching the boundaries of pop music, and the Yardbirds had as much as anyone, in revising the structure and shape of pop songs. Each of their successive singles brought new ideas, new techniques to the table. Jeff Beck had experimented with a sitar, for the sound of Heart Full of Soul, them duplicated the sound he wanted with his Telecaster, instead. Shapes of Things used full-on feedback, in the bridge, as a musical technique. I'm A Man used feedback, and Relf's harmonica, with Beck strumming above the bridge to create the chaotic sound, impersonating a train slowing down, at the rousing close. Considering the analog taping systems used then, to capture the recording, the Yardbirds managed to work wonders with the marginal stereo recording process available to them. Everywhere, groups were doing the same, exploring the definitions of popular music and creating new, unique sounds, and song structures. The Beatles went from She's A Woman to Sgt Pepper's in the same span, the Rolling Stones from re-recording old R&B songs to Between the Buttons. In the final analysis, the Yardbirds' recordings are among the finest from the period, setting standards for others to match, and reaching for new heights with each new release.

This was heady stuff for AM radio of the time, even given the changes inspired by the Beatles, the Stones and others. The Yardbirds inspired musicians everywhere to expand their horizons; blues purists dusted off their library of old songs by wandering bluesmen, in hopes of replicating the Yardbirds success. For a brief while, in late 1966, the Yardbirds contained two of the premier guitarists of the period, Jeff Beck, whose pyrotechnics had dazzled countless imitators, and Jimmy Page, who, as a studio musician, had graced dozens of singles by nearly everyone, from Van Morrison's Them, to the Kinks early efforts (regardless of what Dave Davies might say now); veritably, a roster of artists never heard from again, whose singles shined because Page, the Guitarslinger, laid down a rippling, shimmering guitar solo, transforming what might have been merely interesting, into something that had a chance on the charts.

The first Yardbirds album was produced by Giorgio Gomelsky, featuring US-only tracks and previously UK-released singles. The title-track single selected to break the band in the US was written by Graham Gouldman, who would go on to make his mark as part of 10CC. The band had included Eric Clapton, until he decided the group was headed in much too commercial a direction for his tastes; he left, to be replaced by Jeff Beck, from the Tridents. Jeff plays on three tracks from FYL, the other seven feature EC. The Yardbirds' next album, Having A Rave-Up, was half studio material, half live in concert, a format that hadn't been tried before. The studio material included the powerful Mr You're A Better Man Than I, as well as Heart Full of Soul, I'm A Man, and the Yardbirds' defining version of Train Kept A'Rollin', 3 minutes, 26 seconds of musical mayhem, the likes of which hadn't been heard by American audiences, anywhere, anytime. Countless bands have tried to improve on the Yardbirds take, but it still stands in a class by itself. Side Two of the album contained four live versions of songs the band routinely performed, including a take of I'm A Man.

Almost nine month later, the Yardbirds released their first full album, a vital and engaging collection of original material written by the band, featuring their latest single, OverUnderSidewaysDown. Every song had been polished to a fine edge, the running order carefully thought out, and sequenced. Released in the UK as Yardbirds (later renamed Roger the Engineer), and in the US, a month later, as OverUnderSidewaysDown, although missing two tracks (included on later pressings), a common practice by American record companies when dealing with British Invasion product. The Beatles had experienced the same treatment at the hands of Capitol Records, who stripped tracks from each new Beatles LP, re-sequencing the running order at times and re-naming the albums, so they could release compilation albums, and stretch the product out. Albums such as Something New and Beatles '65 did not exist in the British catalog; now the US releases have been discontinued, the original releases, songs and running order were as the Beatles had conceived them, with George Martin's assistance.

Collectors have long sought out the various issues of this album, in stereo and mono, for the subtle differences in finished mixes. At long last, these have been brought together on this one two-CD issue, so we can enjoy the songs the way they were originally released, that summer of 1966. The songs have lost none of their luster in the intervening 44 years, still as engaging as then. Lost Woman kicks off the album, a rocker with a rolling bass line that propels the song along, with intervals for Beck to flash on guitar, accompanied by Keith Relf's harmonica. The song reaches a crescendo as Jeff's double-tracked guitar howls in feedback, Samwell Smith's bass pulses, and McCarty keeps time madly, until everything comes to a stop, then returns to the chorus for the close. OUSD opens with Beck's screechy guitar line following the lyric line, the band in it's usual top-of-the-Top 40 form, wailing about the vicissitudes of modern life. The song stops periodically for the line "When will they learn..." then returns to the guitar figure and chant of OverUnderSidewaysDown. The song hit the charts on June 25, 1966, entering at #82, reaching it's highest chart position at #13 after seven weeks, remaining at that position for two weeks, and leaving the charts two weeks later, eleven weeks on the Top 100, a very respectable showing for the times.

The Nazz Are Blue, featuring Jeff Beck's first vocal performance, bows in next, a 12-bar blues workout, that features Jeff showing off, as he was wont to do, at any opportunity, from the sheer fun of it. The solo shows his growing ability to master feedback and his stellar skills tweaking his Telecaster, as he wanders up and down the neck, choking it on the verses. The next song, I Can't Make Your Way, I recall being described at the time as a "Gregorian chant dressed up in pop clothing." It certainly offers Jeff numerous opportunities to ply his guitar strings against the massed voices of the band, channeled in one side, with a tambourine atop a high-hat being rhythmically struck on the opposite channel. Next, one of the songs dropped on the initial Epic release, Rack My Mind, returns to typical Yardbirds fare, with a vocal sung against Beck's noodling on the fretboard, as he creates feedback and ringing sounds, before taking off in the middle eight on another solo. Relf comes back in to tone Beck down, and the bass figure walks up and down in the background. Beck's not to be contained though, and soon returns to wail away, until the song fades on a strummed note.

Farewell begins on a piano melody, sounding like another chant, similar to Cream's Pressed Rat and Warthog, or Blue Condition, for that matter, except it lasts for only a minute and a half, where those other worthies went on for several minutes. The second-side opener, when it was on vinyl, Hot House of Omagarashid, starts with a bit of acid-inspired lunacy, with someone screaming the name Jeremy, then bubbles merrily along for two minutes, 39 seconds. Jeff comes in with a screeching solo that explores the song's major figure until it fades away.

Next up, Jeff's Boogie does just what the title implies, offering the ace guitarist two minutes, 44 seconds in which he can riff up and down, or, if you will, over, under sideways AND down, all around a boogie figure, probably lifted from Guitar Boogie, that never strays but pleases just the same, still a pleasure to listen to, particularly the final extro. He's Always There explores Jeff's use of the fuzz tone, at that time a new toy for guitarists. He actually restrains himself, never overdoing it. Keith uses a hollow fish for a percussion piece, sounding like a squishy shoe, while Jeff solos off into the fade... Read more ›