Your favorite Yardbirds song

I like that EP!

Since Jeff and Jimmy did not record an LP, they can have an EP:

side 1
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
Psycho Daisies

side 2
Stroll On
Beck’s Bolero

 

Yes, if they were forced to use outside material because their self written stuff wasn't considered commercial enough, they should have at least used folks more sympathetic to their style like Graham Gouldman (although I doubt their version of You Stole My Love would have restored their fortunes either)

 

I'm not sure, to be honest.

 

Small wonder. Beck's version is tons better.

 

Shapes of Things. I was only about ten years old and was just getting into Top 40 radio. Already I could tell that this was totally different than the "hand holding" bubble-gum sunshine pop music of the time. Cryptic anti-apocalyptic lyrics and weird guitar sounds all neatly packaged in a 2 and half minute song.

 

Here's a question (try to be honest) -- do people really think Happenings Ten Years Time Ago is a "better song/record" than Heart Full Of Soul, or have you convinced yourself that it must be better because it's got both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page playing guitar on it (and how awesome is that!)?

I mean, I really like them both, Happenings has got a cool innovative riff driving it, psychedelic chatter behind the solo, etc., but I think Heart Full Of Soul is overall a better record musically.

 

Yes. The Song Remains The Same in its embryonic form.

 

I prefer the live version of Happenings with just Page on guitar to the studio cut.

 

I first heard Happenings in 1983 or so on a battered Greatest Hits LP put out by Epic in '67... there was no info on which guitar player was on what track and in those pre-Internet days this 15-year-old had no way of finding out... the two songs that immediately struck me were Happenings and I'm a Man... I like Heart Full as well but it wasn't revelatory... I'd already heard pop songs of that ilk... I hadn't heard anything remotely like Happenings and 35 years later still haven't... I did a lotta LSD to Happenings as a teen, for better or worse, but never cued up Heart specifically to begin a trip...

 

His tone is exquisite on that, but the second guitar is sorely missed both musically and sonically...

 

Especially the unreleased-at-the-time instrumental version from the aborted Bird's Eye View of Beat album... a.k.a. Someone to Love part 2... his feedback excursion has never been matched on that, no apologies to Hendrix...

 

I think "Heart Full of Soul" is a very good pop song, with a good (if short) solo.

I think "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" is simply a different kind of record altogether, meant to take you to a different place — which I believe it does very successfully.

There is room in rock for both kinds of songs. No one likes or appreciates a good pop song more than I do. But, assuming pretension doesn't overwhelm the proceedings, there's something to be said for a song that aspires to more, and explores a very different landscape.

I've never given a lot of thought to the lyrics of "Happenings." I just like visiting the world it creates. I never needed any external "convincing" to feel this way.

 

I also have a soft spot for "Goodnight Sweet Josephine", although I fully concede that it's not really a "Yardbirds style song". But it's got one of my favorite Jimmy Page guitar solos.

The version by the song's writer (Tony Hazzard) had a psychedelic feedback effect in the chorus which was sadly never implemented in The Yardbirds' version:

 

You make some good points, and I can't really can't argue with them. And "Heart Full Of Soul" has all the elements of a classic Yardbirds song (iconic riff + driving beat + Gregorian vocals + wild guitar solo + pop sensibility + hints of psychedelia). But for my money I just prefer "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago".

"Pop group, are ya?"

 

As noted, they're both fine, both representative of the multifaceted Yardbirds.

Maybe you're simply more inclined toward melodic-and-catchy, and I'm more inclined toward experimental-and-provocative. While appreciating both. Neither tune is bereft of musicality.

That latter quality was extremely important to me in the 60s, which was something of a Renaissance in the arts. And the Yardbirds brought it in strong fashion. This M.O. has steered the bulk of my music searches over decades. My playlist in 2018 is, uhhh, unusual. And gratifying.

Quoted for its Eternal Cosmic Wisdom.

 

Yardbirds
"An Original Man"


Deserving of honours,imo -
recorded by the line-up feat. Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty as remaining original members, along with the brilliant John Idan on bass and vocals paying tribute to forebear and idol the late great Keith Relf.

 

...
and here's Snooky's original:

Snooky Pryor - Someone To Love Me

To hear this and think of what the Yardbirds brought to the song in it's final form makes me appreciate how brilliant they could be. Did any other rock group do improvisational rave-ups in their studio recordings at that time?

 

Here's a radical concept: maybe other people's preferences and tastes don't coincide 100% with your own 100% of the time and when they state that they like X best, they aren't lying or living in denial but actually mean it.

 

Over Under Sideways Down tied with Heart Full Of Soul

 

I Wish You Would. It is the only Yardbirds piece that hasn't left my playlists over the last few decades. The others are all great, but they move on and off my various artists mix "tapes" pretty regularly. I Wish You Would is, to me, the quintessential foundation of the Yardbirds sound, and likely the peak of their R&B days.

 

Shape Of Things. I have no doubt that the first time I heard this was on David Bowie's Pin-ups album. I didn't/don't think much of that album, but the song stuck in my head and turned me on to The Y's own version.

The second Yardbirds I would vote for would be Got To Hurry. The first time I heard this was when I bought the album Unrest by Henry Cow, as a teenager. The song was Bittern Storm Over Ulm – written by the band's guitar maestro Fred Frith – that "acknowledges its debt to O. Rasputin's 'Got To Hurry' by The Yardbirds". It would be years before I heard the original, but I was always intrigued by the mystery of who O. Rasputin was. Of course I later found out it was Georgio Gomelsky, manager of the Yardbirds and Gong, who hummed the original tune that Clapton used to write the final music.

 

More like liquidator as it turned out.

 

Brilliant thinking sir, take a prize from the top shelf!

 

Heartful of soul
Over under sideways down

 

I saw that lineup with Gypie Mayo on lead guitar. Chris was outstanding - the most excellent of rhythm guitarists.