Yardbirds, The

In the early 1960s, the English music scene was in transition. Traditional jazz still held sway over a large segment of music enthusiasts and nascent British rockers like Cliff Richard and Tommy Steele were on the upswing, albeit with a largely tame style. But in the underground, an enthusiastic cult rabidly pursued American blues and r&b. Passing imported records around like sacred scrolls, these blues acolytes absorbed everything thing they could about this exotic music from a far-off land. Before long, these students graduated from listening to actually playing the blues, tentatively at first, but gaining confidence daily. As groups began to form, a competition of sorts ensued, wherein the participants battled to be the best at replicating the wild, howling sounds from across Atlantic. Of all the young blues combos, the best and the absolute wildest was the Yardbirds.

Too often, the Yardbirds are merely pigeonholed as the "guitar hero farm team" that introduced Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page to the rock world. This outlook unfairly underplays their outrageous talents as a live band. It also ignores their stellar discography. For a band recording in the 1960s, the Yardbirds created an archetype that many of their contemporaries attempted to emulate. Starting as a blueswailing, powerhouse combo emulating their American blues heroes, they also scored major pop hits and later pioneered a heavy psychedelic sound that bore full fruit in Page's New Yardbirds, better know as Led Zeppelin. Throughout their various lineups, the Yardbirds remained one of the most dynamic bands on the rock scene with top-notch vocalist, an amazing rhythm section and, yes, some of the most lauded guitar players of all time.

The Sundazed Yardbirds releases offer intriguing insights into the band at two critical stages in their career. Live! Blueswailin' July '64 captures the band in their second incarnation, with Eric Clapton on lead guitar. 1967's Little Games, the band's final studio album, is wildly innovative collection with Page pushing producer Mickie Most to create the most adventurous album possible. Both releases have been sourced from the original analog tapes to provide the ultimate listening experience for discerning fans of this seminal band.