Search - Yardbirds :: Live Blues Wailing: St George's Hall July 1964

A worthy alternative to "Five Live Yardbirds"

ACJ | Gladstone, MI, USA | 01/02/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was lucky enough to get the complete "Five Live Yardbirds" when Rhino briefly released it in the early 1980's. Inevitably, this new CD will be compared to it - after all, it has much the same song list. Happily, "Live Blueswailing" compares VERY well. The crowd is more sedate but still enthusiasic, the sound is clearer, the band's playing is crisper, Keith Relf banters more with the audience, and Clapton fans have one more fine E. C. performance to savor - the CD's closing track, "The Sky Is Crying." If you can't get your hands on the complete "Five Live," this is a great substitute; even if you can, this is a fine supplement."

Like an Exceptional Bootleg

o dubhthaigh | north rustico, pei, canada | 02/10/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Recognizing that there are precious few very good live recordings by any rock group in the mid sixties, the fact that this even exists is cause for celebration. In fact it has all the low fidelity of a bootleg, in mono, but with very articulated separation of instruments and voices. And what those instruments and voices convey is incredibly powerful. The seven tunes here comprise a set and an encore and they are each worth the price of the disc by itself. The Yardbirds were committed to scorching their way through the blues, and in doing so in this live context, they show just how much further ahead they were than the Stones, the Animals, basically everyone except the Beatles and the Zombies, whose mebrace of Bill Evans modal style jazz set them off ina separate universe altogether.
This is this band in 1964. The Beatles were bopping along with HARD DAY'S NIGHT and an assortment of pop singles. The Stones were still trying to figure out their persona. Dave Clark was a Phil Spector nocturnal ecstacy. Nobody was like The Yardbirds. Essaying deep blues issues such as "Got Love If You Want It", and "The Sky is Crying" as though they wrote the songs, there is an undeniable command of the material here that other groups had not quite locked on to. All of the members play as a well integrated team, and Clapton, while a formiddable presence in this group, seems light years away from turning the world on its head in Cream. In fact it is hard to imagine the light years he would cross in two years time to go from this protean blues player to rock and psychedelic demi-god, before cashing that in to become the laconic journeyman of first Derek fame and then as solo writer.
This is all feral powerhouse blues rock at this stage, and make no mistake about it, Clapton in this band and with John Mayall, wrote the book for everyone after him, with the exception of Hendrix and Stevie Ray. this is a great document to have of a man and a band in its nascent stages. As I'm saying, it is just staggering to think of where he would take his craft after this point. He is already at this stage severely out ahead of the pack and he has not even begun to burn yet. This band pushed Clapton and the rest of us should be grateful they did. Hear it for yourself."

True Blueswailing

Ken Nagaine | Ventura, CA United States | 04/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Keith Relf is surely a "mystery man." He deserves his own retrospective to reveal the many sided talent. Considering his voice alone, there is quite a range of material to take samples from. Not all of these examples, however, are found in an official recording studio. Listening to "The Sky is Crying" from this '64 discovery, the depths of the "mystery man's" being rings out in the blues, as it does comparably through ballad form in such classics as "Turn into Earth," and "Only the Black Rose." This CD is convincing proof, if any was needed, that Keith sang the blues as well as any of the more famous lead singers of his generation. His voice conveys the feelings of loneliness, jealousy, despair and hope in this song, as sharply as the wail of his harmonica playing. Compare his performance here to the profound vocalizing shown on the "Yardbird's Last Rave Up in L.A," a bootleg recorded at the Shrine Auditorium four years later, in 1968. The first two Renaissance albums as well as Armageddon capture some of this broodingly profound spirit, as do the Illusion albums, in their own unique way. On the Yardbird's latest release, "Birdland," he is described as an "Original Man," someone that's "for real." His "blueswailing" on this CD is certainly "for real;" a great tribute to Relf and the legacy of the early Yardbird period."