Yardbirds 4: Greatest Hits

American labels knew how to recycle product in the ‘60s, and since a few months had gone by since the last album, Epic decided to release a greatest hits set by the Yardbirds. It’s only half an hour long, as were a lot of albums back then, but it really does cover their hits to date. It includes two songs from the first album, four songs from Having A Rave-Up, and only “Over Under Sideways Down” from that album. New to LP in the states were the previous year’s stellar single “Shapes Of Things” and its B-side “New York City Blues” (which opens with the same riff Jimmy Page would cop for “You Shook Me”, adding insult to Jeff Beck’s injury, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves), plus “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago”, which means the album includes performances by all three of the band’s soon-to-be-legendary lead guitarists.

Three years later, once each of those lead guitarists had become household names in households that listened to FM radio, Epic issued a double album with the inspired title Featuring Performances By Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page. With 20 songs coming in at just under an hour, it repeated nothing from the hits album—which had covered pretty much all of the songs that qualified as actual hits—and scrambled deep tracks from all the American albums in no understandable sequence, seesawing from blues to experimental. Several paragraphs of liner notes bemoaned the band’s commercial failures, but didn’t bother to detail which albums begat which songs, nor which of the performances featured which guitarist, even though each had an instrumental all to themselves. The bizarre cover art was typical of the era, and the same designer would get to work on another related project ere long.

Both of these compilations would go out of print by the end of the ‘70s, and because the masters were owned by different managers depending on who produced what, licensing would continue to be wonky, and shoddy rehashes abounded overseas. Then, in 1986, the Rhino made good on their original brief to restore music to the masses with a hits collection with the hopeful title of Volume One. This set concentrated on the Giorgio Gomelsky era, with began with Clapton and covered the first two American albums, including two further tracks from Five Live Yardbirds. It did a fine job of presenting them as blues interpreters, but the contents predated some of Beck’s innovations.

While a second volume never materialized, Rhino did score a coup in the new century with Ultimate! This was another apt title, as it crammed two CDs full of just about everything, starting with their first demos, through four tracks from Five Live Yardbirds, most of the three American albums, and all key singles and B-sides, plus a rare Italian single and three fey Keith Relf solo sides. Attention to detail ensured liner notes and comprehensive discographical information, including recording dates, locations, and even engineers; who knew Eddy Offord, Roy Halee, and even Bones Howe taped this band?

This, too, is out of print, but luckily in the digital era it’s possible to stream most of the music. The original albums are out there, along with various grey-area live performances. And of course, the BBC. After scoring the rights to Roger The Engineer, Warner Archives followed another ‘90s catalog trend with the 1997 release of BBC Sessions for the first time in the US after a few years floating around elsewhere. This set presented 26 tracks from the Beck and Page eras, complete with interview snippets from the usual clipped-voiced deejays and a few tunes that never made it to wax. This too became scarce, until 2024 brought The Ultimate Live At The BBC—they sure like that adjective—box of four discs.

The Yardbirds The Yardbirds’ Greatest Hits (1967)—4
The Yardbirds Featuring Performances By Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page (1970)—3½
The Yardbirds Greatest Hits, Volume One (1964-1966) (1986)—3½
The Yardbirds Ultimate! (2001)—4
Current CD availability: none

Jimmy Page 4: Live At The Greek

Clearly, without Robert Plant, Jimmy Page was at loose ends. Following their most recent short-lived collaboration, he took Puff Daddy’s money so the “rap genius” could write new words to the “Kashmir” backing track for a movie soundtrack. Then he hooked up with the Black Crowes for a brief and eventually truncated tour wherein they played mostly Zeppelin songs with a few blues standards and some Crowes songs as well. The matchup, while promising, was doomed; Chris Robinson’s ego got in the way of his gratitude, but even stupider, Rich Robinson snubbed Jimmy’s offer of riffs and ideas to collaborate on new songs. (Drummer Steve Gorman left the band soon afterwards, and his account of the Page experience is as astonishing as it is maddening.)

Nonetheless, selections from two of the LA shows were released rather quickly as one of the first “on-demand” Internet offerings, then given wider distribution as a double-CD via the TVT label. Subtitled Excess All Areas in its first incarnation, Live At The Greek is notable in that it focuses more on the deep cuts than greatest hits. There’s no “Stairway” or “Kashmir”, but healthy dollops from Physical Graffiti and unexpected choices like “Hey Hey What Can I Do” and “Your Time Is Gonna Come”. Blues covers include tunes by B.B. King, Jimmy Rogers, Elmore James, the Jeff Beck Group arrangement of “Shapes Of Things”, and most surprisingly, Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well”. For a guy who says he was never really into Robert Plant’s vocals or lyrics, Chris Robinson certainly did his homework. Jimmy was definitely having fun, and with two extra guitarists and a keyboard player onstage, the sound is certainly filled in. (25 years later, the album was expanded to three discs to encompass a complete show or at least its equivalent, now including the Crowes staples that were left off the original album for licensing reasons, three further LZ songs, and five songs from a soundcheck—one of which is mostly them working out the harmonized guitar parts in “Ten Years Gone”, followed by a ten-minute jam.)

We want Jimmy to be happy, of course, so it’s a shame that his talents hadn’t resulted in more than a handful of albums with new music since Zeppelin disbanded. Being stuck playing in his own cover band may have brought in some cash, but what did it do for his creativity?

Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes Live At The Greek (2000)—3
2025 expanded reissue: same as 2000, plus 16 extra tracks

Jimmy Page & Robert Plant 2: Walking Into Clarksdale

A mere three years after their “unplugged” show Page and Plant went into Abbey Road Studio, of all places, with Plant’s rhythm section and came out with twelve songs—recorded by hardcore legend Steve Albini, a man who never allowed himself to be credited as “producer”—that were as good as anything either had done since Bonham died. Walking Into Clarksdale has a nice dry sound, delivered by voice, guitar, bass and drums, with only occasional strings. Just as it should be. (In an odd coincidence, the bass player’s surname happens to be Jones.)

“Shining In The Light” starts with a nice sloppy acoustic flourish (more of a slashing, actually) then kicks in with drums and a Mellotron. Add a few electric touches and it’s a good start. “When The World Was Young” has all kinds of light and shade touches and a good driving beat. “Upon A Golden Horse” offers the first Arabic influence, in the vocals and the strings. Anything called “Blue Train” will always have Coltrane connections, but this is an excellent collaboration of colors, complete with a fantastic solo wherein Page gets his fingers stuck between the strings but manages to fight his way out in time. “Please Read The Letter” uses the low end of Plant’s range very well; he even harmonizes expertly with himself, but could he have imagined redoing it with Alison Krauss ten years later? The first single, “Most High”, ends the first half and is one of the weaker tracks, likely included to remind the skeptics of “Kashmir”.

The rest of the album covers ground just as wide, without ever sounding like a retread. “Heart In Your Hand” is a moody one, with a well-paced guitar solo followed by the broken leg shuffle of the title track. “Burning Up” should further please fans of Physical Graffiti. “When I Was A Child” takes the mood down again, building tension and breaking it up through repeated references to being a soldier. Before things get too quiet, “House Of Love” and “Sons Of Freedom” bring on the boogie and keep it loud. (Japan got a bonus track, the derivative “Whiskey From The Glass”, while another excellent song, the spooky “The Window”, was only issued as a B-side and may now be lost forever.)

To their credit, Walking Into Clarksdale was never marketed as a Zeppelin album, and presented as a collaboration between the two stars and the two supporters. They sound really into it, Plant discovering new places to take his voice and Page working well off his friend’s influence. They toured behind the album, and promptly went their separate ways, again.

Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Walking Into Clarksdale (1998)—4

Jimmy Page & Robert Plant 1: No Quarter

Jimmy’s recent musical gamble paid off big time. Basically, Plant gave in to the stalemate, taking Page’s actions to mean that if Robert didn’t sing with him again, Page would just keep recording with David Coverdale. Still, it was a surprise to hear that the two were teaming up for an MTV unplugged show, and it wouldn’t be just a one-off gig.

Being 1994, of course, it wasn’t strictly unplugged anymore. No Quarter: Unledded took the songs the two liked most and extended them to include more overt Celtic and Arabic touches. While having Jimmy around was certainly a plus, Plant was definitely calling the shots. The musicians consisted of his touring band, plus a variety of symphonic and Egyptian players. “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” is transformed from a heavy blues to a hurdy-gurdy driven lament, and the “title track” is purely acoustic, devoid of any of John Paul Jones’s influence. “The Battle Of Evermore”, “Since I’ve Been Loving You” and “Kashmir” get full orchestral treatments, while “Four Sticks” and “Friends” are expanded to the Eastern sound both envisioned.

A couple of new tunes were recorded live on location in the streets of Marrakesh; “City Don’t Cry” makes the most of traditional Moroccan instruments, and Page turns it up to 11 for “Yallah” while the locals scratch their heads. The best new song, “Wonderful One”, was a descendant of “The Rain Song” and the DADGAD tuning, and left one hoping for more new music like it.

No Quarter: Unledded was a success, but was released the same day as another long-awaited reunion, that of the Eagles, whose own album ended up selling about eight million more copies. One person who might have gotten a kick out of such competition would be John Paul Jones, who famously thanked the other two for remembering his phone number when they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame the following year.

Ten years after its original release, the show appeared on DVD, accompanied by a rejigged version of the album. The track previously known as “Yallah” was retitled “The Truth Explodes”, while the international-only track “Wah Wah” was included, as was “The Rain Song” for the first time. Several tracks were edited from their original length, and “Thank You” was removed completely. (The DVD also includes the onetime B-sides “What Is And What Should Never Be” and “When The Levee Breaks”, neither of which had been on either CD.)

Jimmy Page & Robert Plant No Quarter: Unledded (1994)—3½
2004 reissue: same as 1994, plus 2 extra tracks (and minus 1 track)

Jimmy Page 3: Coverdale Page

Things were quiet on the Zeppelin front for a few years, until what sounded like a really bad rumor came true: Page had recorded an entire album with David Coverdale of Whitesnake. Even more frightening was the result that Coverdale•Page turned out to be pretty good. Coverdale took a rougher, more “Axl” approach for his singing, and Page came up with new riffs in a production style that hadn’t aged yet.

We need to say this again—the album’s pretty good. “Shake My Tree” and “Pride And Joy” sport classic Page riffs and solos. “Take Me For A Little While” may veer close to power balladry, but the guitars more than make up for it. Throughout, Jimmy plays more “sober” than ever, if that’s a fair description. A decent solo rises from the mix here and there; “Absolution Blues”, despite having the most tenuous connection to the blues, gives him a good couple of minutes to layer on some “scary sounds” for the intro. “Easy Does It”, “Over Now” and about half of the over-long “Don’t Leave Me This Way” also balance their contrasts well.

It’s easy to forget that Coverdale was already a veteran, having sung with Deep Purple in the mid-‘70s. Whitesnake wasn’t much more than an obscure joke until the hair metal era posed the singer as another Plant clone. Besides, it’s not like Page hooked up with Bret Michaels or the guy from Kingdom Come. Both singer and guitarist get equal billing in the writing credits, but it’s easy to blame David for some of the rhymes. “Feeling Hot” is a little silly and “Waiting On You” admittedly “classic” Whitesnake; “Take A Look At Yourself” isn’t too far removed from the type of thing Aerosmith had been doing of late. Such a thing might be expected when the “John Kalodner: John Kalodner” credit appears in the booklet. “Whisper A Prayer For The Dying” would have really pissed off Robert Plant, with all the yelling over lifts from “Kashmir”.

Coverdale•Page is one of the more satisfying offshoots in the Zeppelin canon, if people could just overlook the simple fact that David Coverdale was singing over a rhythm section featuring the drummer from Heart (and Montrose) and the bass player from Miami Sound Machine. The lyrics are printed in full in the booklet, unfortunately, but the tunes are just plain catchy so we don’t pay attention to those anyway. Even today.

Coverdale•Page Coverdale•Page (1993)—3

Jimmy Page 2: Outrider

Right around the time of Zeppelin’s disastrous appearance at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert, Jimmy Page released a solo album, his first such release if you don’t count the handful of singles from the mid-‘60s or the Death Wish II soundtrack.

Not about to start singing himself, Jimmy used Outrider as an opportunity to work with a hand-picked group of revolving musicians. Young Jason Bonham was one of those, and subsequently signed on for the tour. Of the vocalists, Robert Plant sang and co-wrote the best track, a rave-up called “The Only One”. But to get there, one must endure two songs howled by one John Miles (who also joined the tour). “Wasting My Time” has a decent riff, but the sound is tired by the time “Wanna Make Love” comes in. A pair of instrumentals, “Writes Of Winter” and “Liquid Mercury” bookend the Plant tune, wherein Jimmy shows his aptitude around time signatures.

Side two features the overblown vocal stylings of Page favorite Chris Farlowe. His “technique” takes most of the enjoyment out of Leon Russell’s “Hummingbird”, and “Prison Blues” is about as clichéd as you can get, making Jimmy’s fingered responses even more desperate. “Blues Anthem (If I Cannot Have Your Love…)” is more restrained, but colored by bad fake strings. Thankfully, the instrumental “Emerald Eyes” is nicely balanced between Page’s acoustic and electric strumming.

As with much of 1988, much of Outrider sounds bombastic and hurried, and while Jimmy’s timing was astute, his statement was inevitably overshadowed by Plant’s effort earlier that year. It was especially disappointing to hear that Jimmy’s original tapes, supposedly filled with two records’ worth of acoustic and blues tunes, went missing, leaving only what remained. Supposedly. As time goes on, it’s clear just how lost Jimmy was without Zeppelin, and without Robert, who’d joined that band as a novice, but would hold the keys after it was all done.

Jimmy Page Outrider (1988)—2

The Firm 2: Mean Business

A tour followed the release of The Firm, with the rest of the set filled in with selections from Death Wish II and Paul Rodgers’ solo album. Amazingly enough, less than a year later, they had a second album, some of which developed out of the songs performed on tour. The packaging on Mean Business was even simpler than the first album, a foreshadowing of the whimper with which the band would end.

“Fortune Hunter” comes crashing through the wall with all the subtlety of a runaway pickup truck, a ferocious rhythm and unintelligible lyrics. Jimmy tries to keep up with the solo and fails, then it switches and changes into another, slower song that seems completely unrelated, only to build back into the original tune. “Cadillac” got most of the potshots upon release, a lumbering stink with too much fretless bass and misplaced bowing effects. It’s also much too long. For ‘80s cheese it’s tough to beat “All The King’s Horses”. The keyboards are canned, the chorus probably took two minutes to steal and the declaration “This ivory tower was built on rock, not sand.” You tell ‘em, Paul. “Live In Peace” fades up from that, a remake of a song from the Rodgers solo album. It’s got the piano to keep Bad Company fans happy, an amazing solo that’s one of Page’s best, and an anti-Cold War sentiment that goes completely against the American mindset at the time.

“Tear Down The Walls” has an offbeat riff that’s hard to follow from the start, with only the drums and bass slap to make it at all outstanding. “Dreaming” is apparently bassist Tony Franklin’s first recorded composition, and the other guys rise to fill it in admirably. “Free To Live” is just a stepping stone to the grand finale, the feel-good anthem to end all anthems: “Spirit Of Love”. If this song doesn’t make you raise both your arms and scream along with the chorus, then there’s no help for you.

They did another tour and that was that. Paul Rodgers went on his own and eventually joined Queen, the bass player ended up in Blue Murder, and the drummer did a stint in AC/DC. So are these albums really any good? Nobody else seems to think so. But they go together very well. When the day arrives that Everybody’s Dummy receives the Pulitzer Prize for Why The Firm Is The Most Underrated Band Of The 20th Century, we hope there will be a quote from Jimmy Page himself for the flyleaf, something along the lines of “I was actually in this band, and even I thought we stank.”

The Firm Mean Business (1986)—3½

The Firm 1: The Firm

The band known as The Firm was born from a chance collaboration between Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers, lead vocalist from Free and Swan Song labelmates Bad Company. The quartet stuck around long enough to record two albums that combine to fill up a 90-minute Maxell tape, the gold standard for so many years. (There’s something to be said about a musical entity whose output can be so neatly contained.) The eponymous debut was the bigger hit, and for good reason.

“Closer” starts with a grungy guitar part—kind of like a backwards Keith Richards riff. There’s even horns blasting through from time to time. Soon enough the vocal kicks in, then we hear the soon-to-be omnipresent fretless bass. (If that sound bugs you, get out now. You will not be able to handle another 85 minutes of it.) Page’s guitar sound is a touch more indicative of his ‘80s style, played through a Telecaster copy with modern effects. “Make Or Break” is stolen from “Rock Steady” from the first Bad Co album. A lot of wah-wah beats the riff into the ground, then the drumbeat keeps going at the end to lead into “Someone To Love”, the worthy second single, complete with fake ending. “Together” doesn’t have much going for it, and was the B-side for the first single, “Radioactive”, which took about ten listens to catch on. The lyrics are pretty average, and the solo doesn’t sound at all like Page. (And for good reason, too—Paul Rodgers says he played it.) But just try to avoid that fade: “RADIO, RADIO, RADIO, RADIOACTIVE.”

Side two presents a gruesome rendition of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’”, which wasn’t good for Hall & Oates to do either (and makes about as much sense as the stupid remake of “Stairway To Heaven” that actually charted the following year, but let’s stay on topic). The sneaky “Money Can’t Buy” follows, with a subtle riff from “Hell’s Bells” and weird keyboards that crop up at strange moments, setting us up for the finale. “Satisfaction Guaranteed” is simple but great, the next radio hit FM-wise, and deservedly so. “Midnight Moonlight” is a musical descendent of “Kashmir”, a nine-minute semi-acoustic exploration with extemporaneous lyrics and plenty of fretless bass, female backing vocals, and another meter-ignorant hook. Critics are split as to whether it’s the best or worst thing Jimmy Page had ever done.

Two and a half decades on, both the band and the album called The Firm get unfairly slammed as overindulgent sludge, even by Zeppelin fans who can spell their favorite band’s name correctly. Perhaps it’s a nostalgia thing, but the album still holds up today, and sounds very good in the car with the windows open on the first nice day of spring.

The Firm The Firm (1985)—3½

Jimmy Page 1: Death Wish II

After Led Zeppelin announced their breakup following the death of John Bonham, everything was quiet except the rumor mill. Amazingly the first of the survivors to surface was Jimmy Page, and in an unlikely fashion.

Death Wish II was the unexpected (after eight years) sequel to the notorious original thriller starring Charles Bronson as beleaguered architect Paul Kersey. Now it was the ‘80s, his loved ones were still getting raped and murdered, and only he could avenge them. And this time, his theme music would be provided by Jimmy, with the soundtrack on Swan Song Records. Jimmy’s last attempt to score a film—Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising—didn’t get too far, so he at least made the effort to buckle down this time.

“Who’s To Blame”, the opening track and main theme from the opening credits, sports a stomp and feel akin to “In The Evening” from In Through The Out Door, so that’s not too unexpected. Dave Mattacks, most famous from Fairport Convention, ably pounds the kit with Bonham-like power, but rather than Robert Plant’s familiar wail, we get Chris Farlowe, who has an extremely blustery, distracting voice. Being a soundtrack, vocals take a back seat to instrumental atmospheres, such as what we hear on “The Chase”. The credits on the inner sleeve are very helpful in noting who’s playing on what part of which track, particularly when it’s one of Jimmy’s synthesizers. Suspense is heightened and sustained, accordingly. “City Sirens” is sung weedily by Gordon Edwards, who played in the Swan Song incarnation of the Pretty Things, and is little more than a two-minute sketch of a song that might have been developed further in a band setting. And because it’s a soundtrack, tracks get titles like “Jam Sandwich”, which is little more than a riff. “Carole’s Theme” is pretty in its sadness, pretty when he plays the theme himself on acoustic. Another orchestral flourish leads to “The Release”, a decent theme for the closing credits, strangely ending side one.

Much of what’s left is further atmosphere. “Hotel Rats And Photostats” combines two sections, including what sounds like a fretless bass in a harbinger of things to come. More interesting is “Shadow In The City”, full of harmonics, bowed guitars, and Theremin, refugees from the unfinished Lucifer Rising soundtrack. “Jill’s Theme” seemingly refers to the actress and not a character, and it’s a double shame that her theme is another tense orchestral demonstration. In contrast, “Prelude” (adapted from a Chopin piece but not credited that way) is a perfect showcase for Jimmy’s style, playing the teary melody over sympathetic keys and rhythm section. But then there’s “Big Band, Sax, And Violence”, which uses canned brass to represent the sound of the title. Finally, there’s a fairly generic rocker in the form of “Hypnotizing Ways (Oh Mamma)”, Farlowe’s vocals mixed thankfully low.

Being all we heard from Jimmy Page in those wilderness years, the Death Wish II soundtrack wasn’t immediately encouraging. Anyone who paid to see the film because of the connection would have been confronted by graphic violence and gang rapes, and subsequent playings of the album only bring back those images. Still, it has it moments, specifically the Chopin prelude and one or two of the instrumentals, but it’s still not much easier to recommend than the actual film. It was, after all, designed as background music.

The album has been long out of print since its original release, with only Japan approving a CD in the late ‘90s. Jimmy himself distributed a pricey vinyl-only version via his website in 2011, deleting “Big Band, Sax, And Violence” and adding “Main Theme” (basically, “Who’s To Blame” without vocals) at the end. Four years later, the same sequence was included in a hefty box called Sound Tracks, which included another half hour of cues and ideas—including a demo from the mid-‘70s—as well as two discs (totalling one hour) dedicated to Lucifer Rising. All in all, spooky stuff.

Jimmy Page Death Wish II: The Original Soundtrack (1982)—2

Yardbirds 6: Live Yardbirds

Once Led Zeppelin had become a worldwide sensation, Epic Records realized they had a live recording of the Yardbirds’ final incarnation as a quartet from 1968 sitting in their vaults. After beefing up the mix with unconvincing audience atmosphere (according to legend, from a sound effects LP featuring ambience from a bullfight), the concert was released as Live Yardbirds! Featuring Jimmy Page, to the guitarist’s immediate displeasure—partially because the fourth Zep LP was due out shortly. This and any subsequent reissues were quickly recalled, making actual copies rare, but commonly pirated and bootlegged. Its mass unavailability was a shame, because what one could hear of the show was quite entertaining, the band mixing some of their hits with a couple of tunes from the recent flop Little Games.

Beginning with a welcome from Keith Relf and a riff soon famous from “Dazed And Confused”, they plow through “Train Kept A-Rollin’”, then manage to make a medley out of “You’re A Better Man Than I” and “Heart Full Of Soul”. What comes next is likely what most worried Page: the Yardbirds version of a song they then called “I’m Confused” to differentiate it from the song it was stolen from, but still maintaining many of the elements of the track that would close side one of the first Zeppelin album. “My Baby” was a mild hit a couple of years earlier for soul shouter Garnet Mimms, and would be later recorded by Janis Joplin; here it’s an exercise in staying in sync with the time changes.

Relf asks the crowd to help out with the “heys” on “Over Under Sideways Down”; whether they comply is hard to tell under all the fake applause. “Drinking Muddy Water” is prefaced by an explanation of the detuned guitar, and a similar boast sets up “Shapes Of Things”, wherein Page replicates Jeff Beck’s original solo while sneaking in his own flourishes. He plays “White Summer” mostly by himself, the rhythm section joining in ably here and there. Finally, “I’m A Man” is dragged out to twelve minutes, incorporating the riff from “Over Under Sideways Down” and a violin bow solo, and Relf muttering some mystical lyrics (“Deep within the turning sands of inspiration…”?) before the drone goes back to the main riff via a detour that today sounds like parts of “How Many More Times”.

Besides being historic, captured a mere five months before Led Zeppelin as we know it was formed, Live Yardbirds! was still a fine showcase for the man Relf dubbed “Jimmy Magic Fingers, the Grand Sorcerer of the Magic Guitar.” The band was pretty good, too, when you could hear them.

And only a half-century later, one could. Soon after Jimmy managed to expand the Zeppelin catalog in record time, he and the surviving Yardbirds approved an officially restored version of the album without the extra sound effects, but also with some of Relf’s stage patter removed. Packaged as a double album, even though it could have fit on a single CD, and extravagantly priced accordingly, Yardbirds ‘68 also included about 20 minutes of previously booted “studio sketches”, including an early version of what would one day be better known as “Tangerine”.

The Yardbirds Live Yardbirds! Featuring Jimmy Page (1971)—3
2017 Yardbirds ‘68: “same” as 1971, plus 8 extra tracks

Yardbirds 5: Little Games

Unless they were enmeshed in the business themselves, chances are if any Americans heard of Jimmy Page before Led Zeppelin was when he was playing with the Yardbirds—first as a bass player after Paul Samwell-Smith quit to focus on producing, then in a twin-guitar attack with Jeff Beck. After Beck finally had enough, the band was down to a quarter, with Jimmy as sole guitarist.

Given his experience playing countless sessions for potential pop hits, he was probably the best person yet able to handle the more commercial material foisted upon the band by producer Mickie Most, while still flirting with experimentalism. As it is, Little Games presents what Jimmy was doing immediately before Led Zeppelin, and demonstrates what led to it. Even being near the end of the band, it’s a good place to dive in.

The title track bears an simple, repetitive bar chord attack, with some signature Page leads and a cello arrangement for that chamber pop feel, provided by one John Paul Jones. “Smile On Me” is a fairly simple blues, played in two tempos depending on the section; think “The Lemon Song” without the power. Then there’s Page’s solo acoustic showpiece, “White Summer”, accompanied by tabla and oboe, which led to countless Zeppelin ideas. “Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor” sports a couple of chords in the intro that will be heard again on “The Song Remains The Same”, along with the first instance of Page’s violin bow technique. The potential of that approach to create spooky sounds is taken further on the psychedelic “Glimpses”, complete with tape loops, sound effects, distorted voices and Keith Relf’s Gregorian-style chant on top (a genre he’d been courting for years).

The blues return on “Drinking Muddy Water”, a blatant rewrite of “Rollin’ And Tumblin’”, with Ian Stewart on piano, while “No Excess Baggage”, while strong, is another misplaced pop song. The band’s view of the material thrust upon them is best demonstrated on the nutty rearrangement of “Stealing, Stealing”, the old jug band chestnut; here, the part of the washboard is tackled by somebody blowing raspberries. “Only The Black Rose” is very English folk, which is where Relf would go next, albeit with only two chords. “Little Soldier Boy” is another in a line of protest songs disguised as a nursery rhyme; rather than hire a trumpet player, that part is played by a vocal imitation.

The album’s lack of sales ultimately played a part in the band dissolving, leaving Page to take charge of his future, and boy, did he. Beginning in the early ‘90s, Little Games has had a few reissues, starting with 1992’s Little Games Sessions & More. This double CD presented the original album in excellent sound, with session chat and alternate mixes, and also attempted to complete the picture with further Page-related recordings of the period. These include the excellent B-sides “Puzzles” and “Think About It”, and less impressive A-sides, such as “Ten Little Indians”, “Ha Ha Said The Clown” and “Goodnight Sweet Josephine”. A few tracks by Together, Relf and McCarty’s next project, take some of the spotlight off of Page. (Later reissues kept it down to one disc, tacking on some of the singles and sometimes BBC sessions, including unique takes on Dylan’s “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)” and even an early incarnation of “Dazed And Confused”.)

The Yardbirds Little Games (1967)—3
1992 Little Games Sessions & More: same as 1967, plus 22 extra tracks