''Five Live Yardbirds'' is the live debut album by English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

the Yardbirds The Yardbirds are an English rock band, formed in London in 1963. The band's core lineup featured vocalist and harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist and later bassist Chris Dreja and bassist/producer Paul Samwell ...

. It features the group's interpretations of ten American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

songs, including their most popular live number,

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade care ...

's "

Smokestack Lightning "Smokestack Lightning" (also "Smoke Stack Lightning" or "Smokestack Lightnin'") is a blues song recorded by Howlin' Wolf in 1956. It became one of his most popular and influential songs. It is based on earlier blues songs, and numerous artists ...

". The album contains some of the earliest recordings with guitarist

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

. Recorded at the

Marquee Club The Marquee Club was a music venue first located at 165 Oxford Street in London, when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts. Its most famous period was from 1964 to 1988 at 90 Wardour Street in Soho, and it finally closed whe ...

in London on 20 March 1964, it was released in the United Kingdom by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

nine months later. Despite several favourable retrospective reviews, the album did not reach the UK album charts. It was not issued in the United States; however, four songs were included on the Yardbirds' second American album, '' Having a Rave Up''.

Background and recording

In October 1963,

took over

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

' position at the

Crawdaddy Club The Crawdaddy Club was a music venue in Richmond, Surrey, England, which opened in 1963. The Rolling Stones were its house band in its first year and were followed by The Yardbirds. Several other notable British blues and rhythm and blues acts a ...

and had signed a management contract with club owner

Giorgio Gomelsky Giorgio Sergio Alessando Gomelsky (28 February 1934 – 13 January 2016) was a filmmaker, impresario, music manager, songwriter (as Oscar Rasputin) and record producer. He was born in Georgia, grew up in Switzerland, and later lived in the Unit ...

. After touring with

Sonny Boy Williamson II Alex or Aleck Miller (originally Ford, possibly December 5, 1912 – May 24, 1965), known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He was an early and influential blues harp st ...

, the band signed a contract with Columbia Records. In 1964, they recorded two singles, " I Wish You Would" and "

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl "Good Morning, School Girl" is a blues standard that has been identified as an influential part of the blues canon. Pre-war Chicago blues vocalist and harmonica pioneer John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson first recorded it in 1937. Subsequently, a ...

". These had limited success and Gomelsky was able to persuade Columbia to release a live album as the Yardbirds' debut album. The Yardbirds were a popular live attraction at music clubs. Much of their reputation was built on their use of a "rave up" musical arrangement, an instrumental interlude that builds to a climax. Clapton credits the rave up to bassist

Paul Samwell-Smith Paul Granville Samwell-Smith (born Paul Smith, 8 May 1943, in Richmond, Surrey, England) is an English musician and record producer. He was a founding member and the bassist of the 1960s English rock band the Yardbirds, which launched leading g ...

and explains: "While most other bands were playing three-minute songs, we were taking three-minute numbers and stretching them out to five or six minutes, during which time the audience would go crazy". It was at such performances that Clapton often broke a guitar string. While he was putting on a new one, the audience would slowly clap their hands (slow handclapping). This led manager Gomelsky to nickname him "Eric 'Slowhand' Clapton". ''Five Live Yardbirds'' was recorded at the Marquee Club in London. Yardbirds' biographer Gregg Russo describes the conditions and equipment for recording at the club as less than ideal, but they were able to capitalise on their greater popularity compared to the Crawdaddy. He adds:

Composition and musical style

All of the songs that appear on ''Five Live Yardbirds'' were written by American blues and rhythm and blues artists and several of the original recordings appeared on the American record charts. The band's early material reflects the repertoires of the early

British rhythm and blues British rhythm and blues (or R&B) was a musical movement that developed in the United Kingdom between the late 1950s and the early 1960s, and reached a peak in the mid-1960s. It overlapped with, but was distinct from, the broader British beat a ...

groups, such as the Rolling Stones and

the Animals The Animals (also billed as Eric Burdon and the Animals) are an English rock band, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in the early 1960s. The band moved to London upon finding fame in 1964. The Animals were known for their gritty, bluesy sound and ...

. Clapton biographer David Bowling described the album as "a lot of straight electric blues, but at times they come close to a rock sound." Their version of

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

's "

Too Much Monkey Business "Too Much Monkey Business" is a song written and recorded by Chuck Berry, released by Chess Records in September 1956 as his fifth single. It was also released as the third track on his first solo LP, ''After School Session'', in May 1957; and a ...

", which is the album opener, is the most rock-oriented song on the album. Several songs feature extended instrumental improvisation. Bo Diddley's "Here 'Tis" and

the Isley Brothers The Isley Brothers ( ) are an American musical group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that began as a vocal trio consisting of brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decades, ...

' "Respectable" are high-energy tunes, which represent the use of the double-time feature of the rave up for the entire songs.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

critic Matthew Greenwald describes "Here 'Tis" as "driven by a furious "Bo Diddley" beat and rhythm ... Clapton's interplay with bassist

is one of the great moments in the band's recorded history". The instrumental spotlight was also shared with singer and

blues harmonica The Richter-tuned harmonica, or 10-hole harmonica (in Asia) or blues harp (in America), is the most widely known type of harmonica. It is a variety of diatonic harmonica, with ten holes which offer the player 19 notes (10 holes times a draw and ...

player

Keith Relf William Keith Relf (22 March 194312 May 1976) was an English musician, best known as the lead vocalist and harmonica player for rock band the Yardbirds. He then formed the band Renaissance with his sister Jane Relf, The Yardbirds ex-drummer J ...

. Clapton and Relf trading riffs is one of the highlights of "

". The Howlin' Wolf song was the Yardbirds' most popular live number and a regular in their sets. Performances of the song could last up to 30 minutes. Howlin' Wolf reportedly referred to the group's 5:35 album version as "the definitive version of his song". The slow

blues standard Blues standards are blues songs that have attained a high level of recognition due to having been widely performed and recorded. They represent the best known and most interpreted blues songs that are seen as standing the test of time. Blues ...

, "

Five Long Years "Five Long Years" is a song written and recorded by blues vocalist and pianist Eddie Boyd in 1952. Called one of the "few postwar blues standards hat hasretained universal appeal", Boyd's "Five Long Years" reached number one on the '' Billboa ...

", features extended guitar soloing by Clapton in a style he further developed with

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are an English blues rock band led by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall. While never producing a hit of their own, the band has been influential as an incubator for British rock and blues ...

. Clapton and Samwell-Smith share the lead vocals on "

", which is based on the version by the American R&B duo Don and Bob.

Bo Diddley Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates; December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, incl ...

's " I'm a Man" (which became a hit when the Yardbirds later recorded it with

Jeff Beck Geoffrey Arnold Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with the Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a focus ...

) and songs by

Slim Harpo Slim Harpo (born James Isaac Moore; January 11, 1924 – January 31, 1970) was an American blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spiri ...

and

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...

round out the album.

Release and critical reception

Clapton biographer

Christopher Sandford Christopher Sandford (1902–1983) of Eye Manor, Herefordshire, was a book designer, proprietor of the Golden Cockerel Press, a founding director of the Folio Society, and husband of the wood engraver and pioneer Corn dolly revivalist, Lettice Sa ...

notes, "When ''Five Live Yardbirds'' was released that winter, to generally favourable reviews ('Raucous interplay ... great guitar ...feral energy of the ensemble') it, too, failed to materially benefit icthe group." The album did not appear in British record charts. Subsequently, it was not issued in the US, but in November 1965

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...

(their American label) included four of the tracks on '' Having a Rave Up with the Yardbirds''. In 1966, Epic planned to release the album in the US with the same tracks as the UK album (although with different cover art), but did not follow through. Later critics have given favourable reviews. AllMusic's Eder awarded it four and a half out of five stars and described it as "the first importantindeed, essentiallive album to come out of the 1960s British rock & roll boom. In terms of the performance captured and the recording quality, it was also the best such live record of the entire middle of the decade". In a separate review for AllMusic, Rick Clark noted "Smokestack Lightning" nd other songswere open-ended improvisations that helped lay the groundwork for groups like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience." Bowling calls the material "raw and powerful" and Russo adds that it is "a completely faithful reproduction" of the group's early shows. ''Ultimate Classic Rock'' included the album in its list of "Top 100 Live Albums", calling it an "explosive document of a British blues band fueling a decidedly American music with power, fireworks and amped-up resourcefulness".

Aerosmith Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums) and Brad Whi ...

's Joe Perry described himself as "a huge fan of Clapton's work on ''Five Live Yardbirds''. Their version of

's '

' was such a blueprint for a lot of what Aerosmith tried to do. The 'Rave Ups' nstrumental interludeswhich were backing up Eric, the solosit was like the band was a slingshot and, as soon as it hit that pocket, he went sailing. Those parts of the songs still give me goosebumps."

Track listing

Personnel

The Yardbirds * Eric "Slowhand" Claptonlead guitar, co-lead vocals on "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" *

Chris Dreja Christopher Walenty Dreja (born 11 November 1945 in Surbiton, Surrey) is an English musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist and bassist for rock band the Yardbirds for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. E ...

rhythm guitar *

Jim McCarty James Stanley McCarty (born 25 July 1943) is an English musician, best known as the drummer for the Yardbirds and Renaissance. Following Chris Dreja's departure from the Yardbirds in 2013, McCarty became the only member of the band to featur ...

drums *

lead vocals (except on "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl"), harmonica,

maraca A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair. Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were r ...

s * Paul "Sam" Samwell-Smithbass guitar, co-lead vocals on "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" Production *

– producer, liner notes *Phillip Wood – engineer, sound effects engineer *Bill Inglot – digital remastering *Richard Rosser – photography

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

* {{Authority control The Yardbirds live albums 1964 debut albums Albums produced by Giorgio Gomelsky 1964 live albums Columbia Records live albums Live albums recorded at The Marquee Club Covers albums