Yardbirds' An Eye View to Beat - unreleased Beck era LP?

I'll preface by stating that my Yardbirds knowledge is severely lacking so be gentle I read somewhere on the net that there is an unreleased (incomplete) Beck era Yardbirds LP called The Yardbirds' An Eye View to Beat. Are the below tracks on Disc 4 of the Yardbirds Story box from these sessions? Does Beck play on all these tracks? Are they any good?


3. Someone To Love (Pt.1) (Take 2 - Instrumental)
4. Someone To Love (Pt.1) (Take 4 - Instrumental)
5. Someone To Love (Pt.1) (Take 14 - Instrumental)
6. Someone To Love (Pt.1) (Take 15 - With Vocal)
7. someone To Love (Pt.2)
8. Like Jimmy Reed Again
9. Chris' Number
10. Pounds And Stomps (XYZ)
11. Pounds And Stomps
12. What Do You Want (Take 1)
13. What Do You Want (Take 2)
14. What Do You Want (Take 3
15. What Do You Want (Take 4)
16. Here 'Tis (Stereo Instrumental Version)
17. Here 'Tis (Version For 'Ready, Steady, Go!')
18. Crimson Curtain (Edit Of Take 1)

 

Most, if not all of these, have been circulating for years. I remember first getting them on a French LP in the early 70s. They're outtakes and backing tracks from the Yardbirds (Roger the Engineer) sessions.

"Someone to Love" is "Lost Woman," IIRC. I know that "Pounds and Stomps" is "He's Always There." Can't recall what 8 and 9 are, and 18 is the only title that doesn't sound familiar to me.

I'd say for completists only.

 

This is a complete guess, but it may be something similar to the Buffalo Springfield's Stampede Lp = what amounts to some outtakes and demos that come from sessions with an eventual Lp in mind therefore resulting in some genuine unreleased songs (among half-tried demos and instrumental try-outs)

 

To elaborate on what's been said already: The tracks you list are rehearsals for the "The Yardbirds" album, now commonly called "Roger the Engineer" after the drawing on the cover. Jeff Beck is the only lead guitarist on all of them. No Jimmy Page. Ok but not that exciting. For some reason they appear to be controlled by their former manager Giorgio Gomelsky so they have appeared on many compilations over the last 20+ years, licensed from or issued by Charly Records. However, "The Yardbirds" aka "Roger the Engineer" is not owned by Gomelsky but by EMI/Columbia/Epic.

I believe The Yardbirds' An Eye View to Beat was something Mr. Gomelsky dreamed up but there are no recordings. Maybe it was a proposed compilation of singles and EPs for the UK. (There were no Yardbirds LPs in the UK which included their best known hits w/Jeff Beck; "For Your Love" and "Having a Rave Up" were assembled by US Epic.)

See Greg Russo's book for more information (not handy).

Dave

 

Thanks a bunch guys!!!

Let's say I wanted to compile a homeade compilation of all of the Yardbirds studio recordings that feature Jeff Beck. What discs do I need? Of course, I want the best sounding discs, etc.

 

IMO you would need the 4 CD set on Charly with everything up to "Roger the Engineer," which includes a lot of filler like the backing tracks above. Then you need "Roger the Engineer" itself. Do a search, I know different people have different preferences.

The Rhino "Greatest Hits Vol. 1" from 1986 is a good sampler of what's on the 4 CD set. It has most of the essential Clapton and Beck tracks.

Dave

 

Thanks Dave!

 

For "Roger", you would need to get both the stereo and mono album versions. The mono version has additional Beck solos. There are single CDs that have both on them.

 

For more thoughts on "Roger" see here:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=48204

My comments are #42.

Dave

 

I believe the members actually own the rights to "Roger The Engineer",not EMI...Giorgio Gomelsky controls everything else,save the LITTLE GAMES period stuff,which I believe the Y'birds also own...