Sunday, May 06, 2007

Get Down


The Yardbirds

Having A Rave Up

1965

Review
by Bruce Eder
In its original U.S. vinyl release, this album, comprised of several singles and B-sides plus excerpts off of Five Live Yardbirds, was one of the best LPs of the entire British invasion, ranking on a par with the greatest mid-1960s work of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones; it was also just a step away from being a best-of the Yardbirds as well. The contents have reappeared numerous times in many different configurations, but no collection has ever outdone the sheer compactness and high quality of Having a Rave Up. One major problem since the 1960s, as with all of the Yardbirds material owned by Charly Records, has been the sound — for years, Charly only had substandard master materials to offer. That situation improved significantly in the mid- to late 1990s, and Repertoire Records is working from sources that are the cleanest and most impressive to have surfaced on these tracks during the CD era; one suspects that there might still be room for improvement, but not nearly as much as was previously the case — a quick comparison of tracks between this and the contents of Train Kept A-Rollin' reveals somewhat superior sound here. The Repertoire reissue also adds 11 songs that cut across the group's history: principally outtakes from later in their careers and some odd studio sides from much earlier, plus the B-side "New York City Blues" (a rewrite of "Five Long Years"), the single "Shapes of Things, and their featured number from the Antonioni movie Blow Up, the "Train Kept A-Rollin'" rewrite "Stroll On," featuring Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page in the lineup. There are new notes by Chris Welch that, although structured somewhat haphazardly, give a good account of the history of the varied (and overall stunning) contents of this CD.
1 Mr. You Are a Better Man Than I
2 Evil Hearted You
3 I'm a Man
4 Still I'm Sad
5 Heart Full Of Soul
6 Train Kept A Rollin'
7 Smokestack Lightning
8 Respectable
9 I'm A Man
10 Here 'Tis
11 Shapes Of Things
12 New York City Blues
13 Jeff's Blues
14 Someone To Love Pt 1
15 Someone To Love Pt 2
16 Like Jimmy Reed Again
17 Chris' Number
18 What Do You Want
19 Here 'Tis
20 Here 'Tis
21 Stroll On

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Great post !!!!!

Regards

Marcus Mikhail
www.bluesmasters.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Hello
Thanks for this Gem
Greatings
Andre

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, the set list on the blog does not match what was downloaded -- you may want to check this.

Trustar said...

Thanks jddrew. You are absolutely right. I had pulled the track listing from the original album, not this Repertoire re-issue as stated in the review.

My bad
Your good.

T

Anonymous said...

Excellent and most appreciated, wish it was at 192 instead of 128, but am still glad to know about the improved sound quality. I'm going to find this CD and buy it. I saw Beck and Page with The Yardbirds, Dallas, 1966, they blew everyone else off the stage. Peace.