THE YARDBIRDS (Feat Jimmy Page) – Live At The Anderson Theater,NY 1968

Arguably the most famous lost live album in history, Live Yardbirds Featuring Jimmy Page, cut at the Anderson Theater in New York on March 30, 1968, has been issued twice on vinyl legitimately (only to be suppressed by legal action) and innumerable times since as a bootleg. In August 2000, Mooreland St. Records put out the first authorized CD edition of the performance, and it is a complete revelation. The original master tape has been improved significantly; the absence of vinyl noise is an obvious plus, but the sheer impact of the instruments is also startling, given that the show was taped by a producer who had never recorded a rock band before, on equipment that was ten years out of date. The producers have expanded this reissue with help from a separate reference tape, an audience recording that preserved the complete unedited show; it's somewhat low-fi, but it captures material edited from the finished master, and it allows for the restoration of little nuances. Page's guitar (which goes out of tune several times) is the dominant instrument, alternately crunchy and lyrical, but always loud and dexterous; the roughness of Keith Relf's singing is also more apparent, but his shortcomings don't really hurt the music. The performance also reveals just how far out in front of the psychedelic pack the Yardbirds were by the spring of 1968; Page had pushed the envelope about as far as he could, in terms of high-velocity guitar pyrotechnics. Ironically, this album isn't quite as strong as the contemporary Truth album by Jeff Beck, mostly because the Yardbirds were still juggling three sounds: the group's progressive pop/rock past, the psychedelia of 1968, and a harder, more advanced blues-based sound. It's clear that they had few places left to go with the first two; "Dazed and Confused," by contrast, represented something new, a slow blues as dark, forbidding, and intense as anything that the band had ever cut -- it showed where Page, if not this band, was heading.

This is rock and roll legend in the making. There are very few occasions when you get to listen to something which, though the participants do not know it, will eventually go down as iconic for its generation. This, frequently overlooked album, a rarity even now, is one such moment.

The reason is because this album sees Jimmy Page doing his stuff live before Led Zeppelin. For some reason (I think it has something to do with injunctions and lawsuits) this album is rare. I have it. Nostalgia mixed with a foretaste of the greatness that was Led Zeppelin still to come. Early versions of "White Summer" and "Dazed and Confused" (this time with Jake Holmes' original lyrics).

Many of the band's best tracks are on here. There are also some relatively new ones like "My Baby". Keith Relf sounds a bid jaded at times, tired of the rock circus and the whole damn show business thing. The only bad thing about it is the sound quality. The chitter chatter of the audience comes through all too often as an irritating chirping in the background. Once the music starts though, all that is forgotten. From one of the best outfits of the sixties, this their last output had to be one of the best.

CHRIS DREJA rhythm gtr
JIM McCARTY drms
KEITH RELF vcls, hrmnca
JIMMY PAGE gtr
1 Train Kept A Rollin' (soundcheck)
2 Dazed and Confused (soundcheck)
3 Train Kept A Rollin'
4 You're a Better Man Than I/Heart Full of Soul
5 Dazed and Confused
6 My Baby
7 Over Under Sideways Down
8 Drinking Muddy Water
9 Shapes of Things
10 White Summer
11 I'm a Man

This is rock and roll legend in the making. There are very few occasions when you get to listen to something which, though the participants do not know it, will eventually go down as iconic for its generation. This, frequently overlooked album, a rarity even now, is one such moment.

The reason is because this album sees Jimmy Page doing his stuff live before Led Zeppelin. For some reason (I think it has something to do with injunctions and lawsuits) this album is rare. I have it. Nostalgia mixed with a foretaste of the greatness that was Led Zeppelin still to come. Early versions of "White Summer" and "Dazed and Confused" (this time with Jake Holmes' original lyrics).

Many of the band's best tracks are on here. There are also some relatively new ones like "My Baby". Keith Relf sounds a bid jaded at times, tired of the rock circus and the whole damn show business thing. The only bad thing about it is the sound quality. The chitter chatter of the audience comes through all too often as an irritating chirping in the background. Once the music starts though, all that is forgotten. From one of the best outfits of the sixties, this their last output had to be one of the best.

Highly recommended!
Rip from CD 256@ (full artwork included)
Download link
http://link-protector.com/254166/