Poll : 'Roger the Engineer' album by The Yardbirds (1963–1968) in your collection?

Sorry I cost you some more money Old School. I hope you enjoy it!

 

I remember my friend getting an original UK stereo of the album and it being hugely exciting to hear the stereo version - the actual sound wasn't as good as the Edsel.

'Turn Into Earth' though, with Keith's vocal leering out of one speaker, was memorable.

 

It must have been 1983, I got my bike stolen from outside the record shop whilst I was in there buying it!

 

Sounds about the right time frame (for the Roger reissue - dunno about the bike)...

 

One of the best from '66 for my money...

UK Columbia stereo LP (2nd press blue label)
UK Edsel mono reissue
US CBS "Half-Speed Master" LP
US 1966 "Over Under Sideways Down" mono LP (several copies)
UK Mono/Stereo Demon/Big Beat CD
German Line label CD
I ditched the other, lousy-sounding CD reissue that I had bought.

Also have all the original US and UK 45's for this material.

 

That's the tail end of The Yardbirds when Page was in, and bass player Paul Samwell-Smith had departed not long after The Yardbirds aka Roger the Engineer aka Over Under Sideways Down came out. Not my favorite era, the rumblings of Led Zeppelin were evolving. For me, their peak period was the Beck era - some of that material was recorded in the States at Chess and Sun Records and sounds better than most of their other songs. Roger suffers from a tremendously bright mix that could use some help. Tales of the first generation/multitracks/master tapes for many of their songs being locked up in a Paris bank vault due to legal wrangling provide a glimmer of hope for better sounding Yardbirds releases, but I wouldn't suggest holding your breath for that to happen anytime soon.

 

Sadly 'Roger The Engineer' is really the beginning of the end for The Yardbirds at the front of the creative spearhead though.

The loss of Paul Samwell-Smith as a songwriter was hugely felt, even though they followed the album with the absolutely epochal 'Happenings Ten Years Time Ago'.

It was downhill from there, with only a few glimpses (pun intended) of genius in the last couple of years.

 

I have the old WG Line CD of Roger, the Charly box set and the Raven comp. The Rhino double disc Ultimate set had a killer track listing but was impossible to listen to so I tossed it. A missed opportunity.

 

Wonderful album just, about my favourite. When Beck joined the band one could sense they were building towards something like this, and IMHO created an absolute masterpiece. I have numerous copies but my Australian mono first pressing is pretty hard to beat. I read somewhere that this may have been pressed from the 1st U.K. issue. Any readers know more about that?

 

Epic Mastersound LP, back in the day. Warner Archive CD most recently.

 

Five Live Yardbirds
Roger the Engineer
Greatest Hits Vol.1: 1964-1966
The Ultimate Collection
Ultimate!

Not sure if that counts as "all essential music" or not, so I just voted "RTE and some of their other music".....

 

I've got some weirdo New Zealand version of this with a purple cover. It's all backing tracks and alternatives from the Roger album that their previous manager laid claim to. You can only play it about once every 5 years.

 

No Yardbirds in my collection, nor much of anything from their alum. My problem with so much of the British stuff is that the singing is often sub-par, at least for someone brought up equally on rock and R&B.

 

I've got a couple of compilations; one has the whole of Five Live Yardbirds on it - that's why I bought it and that's what it's titled as well. It has 7 EC 'single' tracks - it's a pretty tacky item (on a cheap, cheap label called Prism.. as at least one of those studio tracks sounds abysmal, where I've heard it sounding great elsewhere) but I paid very little for it.

And the other is The Collection (on Castle Communications) which has a mixture, including some later singles and alternate takes - even though it's a cassette it's a definite keeper and I should find the CD one day.

Then I've got the single Shapes Of Things/You're A Better Man Than I... I might have at least one other; I know I had a few at one time. Also got other Yardbirds tracks spread over various multi-artist comps as well.

 

Roger The Engineer and the US For Your Love albums are two of my favorite records of all time.This period was definitely a high water mark.I have tried many times to like Little Games,but still find it mostly unlistenable.Same goes for most solo Jeff Beck.Shapes In My Mind,released as a Keith Relf solo single,was the only later release for me to equal anything on RTE.I remember how disappointed I was when I finally tracked down a copy of the first Renaissance album with Keith Relf.

 

Doesn't sound that bright when you listen to an EMI tube cut copy.

 

At one point, I had virtually everything the Yardbirds ever issued, and then some. But since The Great Vinyl Purge Of 2000, my poll response tops out at "essential."

I've owned more copies of Roger (going all the way back to the original US Epic OUSD) than I can remember. Was always looking for better sound, until it finally dawned on me that NO Yardbirds recordings were ever done well. Now I'm down to the Edsel and Repertoire CDs. And several other titles of course.

I think the only title I've never owned is Sonny Boy Williamson. Reason unknown, though I've got individual tracks on comps, I think. The creative stuff came later in any event.

Amazing how forward-thinking they were in the day.

Courtesy of Mr Beck, who still remains ahead of the curve, half a century later.

Roger is right up there with Revolver for creativity and eclecticism.

There, I said it.

 

I've got a great sounding 176k transfer from what seems to be a high quality tape copy of the master. It sounds amazing.

This would be a great candidate for an audiophile mastering. The songs are all over the place in terms of production and sonics, but there are some great moments on this recording.

Btw, We've got three such tapes from the Yardbirds. One is For Your Love which sounds ok but not as good as Roger. The other is a copy of the 8 track production master for Shapes of Things. It's a few generations down, and is interesting in that it has the sequential content from the four tracks, including the fades and edits. It's not great sounding, but pretty good and very interesting.

 

Would love to hear those !

 

I've only got one. But it's the original 1966 UK vinyl, stereo. bought brand new. still pristine.

 

I suppose I have all of their stuff up to Jeff Beck leaving the group. I find the Page stuff really only interesting in terms of what it lead to, and even the Eric Clapton stuff doesn't demand that I return to it. It's "Rave Up" side 1, "Roger" and 2 other Beck-era singles ("Shapes of Things", "Happenings"/"Psycho Daisies") for me. But....those ones, wow.

 

I should add...My first experience of "Roger" was the Epic LP re-release from the early 1980s. Later, when I acquired a CD containing both the stereo and mono versions, I decided that that Epic LP was a quite intelligent compromise. It combined stereo and mono mixes, using mono when some element of the stereo mix was severely wanting (missing overdubs or just a poor mix). It did include a couple of fake stereo mixes, which was odd.

This is all from memory...

 

I have the album on a good sounding EMI budget label LP and a rather grotty sounding Edsel CD.

My favourite Yardbird's CD is a very early CD on the Charly label with most of it in fake stereo, but tonally it's ok and it can be cranked right up.

My favourite Yardbird's track is the Twodawgzz DCS version of For Your Love. Somehow it works remarkably well.

 

Don't forget Girl From New York City, recorded at the same Chess session as
the released Shapes Of Things and I'm A Man. (see "Yardbirds Greatest Hits")

 

I used to have the original yellow Edsel cd, but sold it a good while back. Now I have the Raven "Over Under Sideways Down 1963-1968" cd and I'm good.


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