It's New to Me: As, Bs & EPs by the Yardbirds (2007)

Image from an advertisement for General Dynamics, 1960

I've always thought it would be fun to make a rock album that mimics the sound of a British Invasion band's "greatest hits" record. It would start with a handful of cruddy blues covers played competently. Then there would be a a selection of fey pop songs (originally composed, of course) ripping off the Everly Brothers. And the final third of the album would be a mix of progressive and psychedelic rock sounds, gradually spiraling into tuneless weirdness. Basically, it would be what a lot of current retro-rock bands do, but sequenced in a very specific way. Anyway, I was reminded of this idea when I was listening to the Yardbirds' comprehensive two-CD collection As, Bs & EPs.

The Yardbirds have a convoluted discography and went through a series of lineups (everyone knows that they went through three pretty-good guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page.) As a result, it's hard to sort out where the tracks on this compilation are coming from or who plays on which songs - the liner notes aren't especially helpful in that regard. The songs follow the progression I mentioned above, although it seems to be broken up into two parallel sequences, as the first disc covers the singles in chronological order, while the second CD does the same with the EPs. At least, I think that's what's happening - no explanation is given in the booklet.

The 50-song tracklist is almost identical to the Yardbirds best-of Ultimate! - why did I get this (admittedly more pricey) import instead of that one? First, I am a crazy person who refuses to buy greatest-hits collections. Second, this collection only contains one song from Five Live Yardbirds, the live album that gets prominent inclusion in Ultimate! - I have a thing about live tracks mixed into a tracklist with studio tracks.

Of course, there are a lot of great songs on this compilation, and the sound quality is excellent. I was really hoping that I would be impressed by the lesser-known songs - while listening, I keep thinking, "I bet I'd enjoy this a lot more if I was really into blues guitar." But I'm not. And the songs that don't feature prominent guitarwork (like the Yardbirds' cover of Nilsson's "Ten Little Indians") are not great. One song that I'm really liking, though, is "He's Always There", a song that was originally featured on the British LP Yardbirds (AKA Roger the Engineer AKA Over Under Sideways Down - I never cease to be amazed by this band's twisted discography.) It's got a bluesy verse melody that I find appealing, but it's the handclaps and backing vocals that make it really fun. I also like the break after the abbreviated chorus. The menacing fuzz-guitar riff is nice, too - I think it's Jeff Beck, but with who knows for sure?

"He's Always There" by the Yardbirds