The Yardbirds
Yardbirds '68

THE REVIEW

Dedicated to Emilio

Mini box set of a great band.

I have always considered friendship as the noblest of feelings; you owe nothing to a friend, everything you do stems spontaneously.

Without obligations and constraints, it is only your heart that speaks. A friend does not betray, they may even break your face if necessary, but they do not betray.

Friendship means loyalty, respect, generosity, altruism, passion, fidelity. All noble and yet rare qualities.

Love is another thing; unfortunately, dynamics come into play that do not make it pure.

I have never considered my bands or my beloved artists as idols or myths (hell, if they knew me, I would be their idol), but as special friends, who with their splendid music have accompanied me so far in the most different situations.

Because I always listen to them, their music is always inside me; in dramas and in joviality, as well as in melancholy and sadness and in (for me, very brief) truly happy moments. Our music is a great friend, it never betrays you.

When a friendship is born, when that spark lights up, it becomes natural first of all to tell each other about everything that happened before, when you didn't know each other.

In the same way, when a band enters your soul, you want to know in what context the group was born and what they did before.

This is what happened with my Sorcerer. Led Zeppelin fill my heart, soul, and guts, and it's normal that soon after I discover that James Patrick, after being one of the most esteemed session men in England, was the guitarist for the Yardbirds.

After the Beatles, along with the Rolling Stones and the Animals, they were at the forefront of the British Invasion.

The band that had within its ranks the top three English Guitar Heroes of the time; first Clapton, then Beck, and finally my Devil.

This fantastic uniqueness of theirs will also be the determining factor for their rather inglorious end.

With both Clapton and Beck, the band has to daily measure itself against and endure the decisions, whims, and quirks of the two young guitarists.

With Clapton, they played genuine and exhilarating blues, with Beck they became harder and more psychedelic.

However, it was difficult if not impossible to live with their whims and pedantry as young egocentric rock stars.

So when my Sorcerer arrives, he finds a now weary group. Years of frenetic live activity and management left to the whims of events rather than a logical and sensible setup had worn out the bodies and especially the psyche of the members.

Despite a promising start, the newcomer’s frenzied desire clashed with this state of mind of the others. Thus they move towards the end, with Ralf and McCarty taking a path of sounds different from those Page intended for His band, and Dreja who will devote himself to his beloved photography.

From these ashes, with the Devil and Grant fired up, that Zeppelin will be born, which, for the "peace" of all, will kick ass and steamroll anyone in its path, playing from hard rock to folk without interruption and with undisputed quality (there is no argument about it, thank you).

Grant, for his part, will revolutionize the figure of the manager. "Stop useless individuals on site. We organize concerts and tours ourselves, we don't need publicity, our music is more than enough. 90 percent to us and 10 percent to the leeches, and that's still too much" (the words are mine, but I think Grant would have said that, we are similarly ignorant).

I have always thought that the Yardbirds, compared to other bands of the period, were not given enough recognition for everything they contributed to the rock of that period. Especially in the Beck era, they were pioneers of new sounds, particularly in the superb live performances history reminds us of.

This mini box set represents the best of the Yardbirds with Page period.

It is a double disc; the first is a live album, the second contains unreleased recordings in a New York studio in the final days of the band.

The "Live at Anderson Theater" (New York, March 30, 1968) is not unknown to the group's followers as it was already released, but with a sound that would make stones laugh and with the addition of fake applause that makes those same stones want to crap (the Devil, proud and perfectionist, had initially managed to block its distribution).

Fifty years later Page remixed everything, as he knows how to do, and delights us with this gem. I'm not here to "explain" the tracks to you because I'm incapable of doing so and because everyone evaluates them with their own soul, by listening. I can just say that if this is a concert of a tired band, I can only imagine what kind of performances they offered to the audience when they were not tired.

I can also tell you that Page begins to showcase (and deliver) high-level numbers with tracks that will also be seen in the early Led Zeppelin. "Dazed and Confused," with the Sorcerer's early experimental steps, is the most striking example (we know he was completely taken by the piece when he heard it from the original author, Jack Holmes, when he opened for the group in New York the previous year).

Noble guitarist friends have always pointed out to me over the years the incredible sounds Jimmy was able to extract from a Telecaster back then... well, I'll pass it on to you like this, because you know and you will understand; with my total ignorance when it comes to guitars, it seems to me that if my Devil had put six strings on a shovel what came out would probably have had the same effect as a guitar to me.

The second disc makes us understand, especially with the four original tracks, how much good the Yardbirds could still have given us. Noteworthy is an early instrumental version of what would become the "Tangerine" from the third Zeppelin album (a track written by Jimmy at the end of his relationship with Jackie DeShannon).

Anyway, it would all have been different, we wouldn't have had Renaissance and Armageddon from Keith and Jim and, above all, the Creature wouldn’t have been born. For once, thank you, destiny.

Great soul, wonderful sound. Besides the Devil, a great performance from McCarty, both Relf and Dreja are excellent.

Much, much honor and respect for them, history of rock.

Loyal, sincere, respectful, and reserved are qualities I greatly appreciate.

Emilio is like that, more like a friend than a simple father-in-law.