ThE YARDBIRDS

Yardbirds ’68

This is a legendary 1968 recording of the final Yardbirds incarnation live at the Anderson Theatre in New York, originally released (briefly, before Jimmy Page forced its withdrawal) with a shockingly fake audience track; the crowd was small, recalls bassist Chris Dreja, because of new boys Vanilla Fudge packing them in down the street. From the dynamic and forceful performance, a particular testament to the quality of Keith Relf’s vocal work, you would never guess that the band’s end was already decided, with only five more shows to follow, yet in hindsight a new beginning is equally audible, that of Led Zeppelin, which Page was to form and take to Denmark as The New Yardbirds only months hence to fulfil pre-breakup committments. This is clearly the Jimmy from Led Zep I, the flash, panache and violin bow all in place. The greater surprise is to hear how much drummer Jim McCarthy had created the rhythms on White Summer and Dazed and Confused, patterns which Zep fans would suppose to be Bonham’s invention, and how the overall Zep sound was not so much invented by the synergy of its members as refined by them from this late Yardbirds template. Also a delight is the recording quality—a proper multitrack re-master with everything in its place. Currently available only on vinyl and CD from Jimmy’s own label and website, the second disc is a mish-mash of abandoned studio tracks also recorded in New York at the same time, showing directions that might have been. But the proto-Zeppelin live set is truly amazeballs.