Five Live Yardbirds

The Yardbirds were one of Britain’s most important groups in the ‘60s and this live album of the band’s early line-up, with Eric Clapton on lead guitar, goes a good way towards explaining why. Their mastery of the blues and Chuck Berry was rivaled only by the Rolling Stones, but even the Stones at this point couldn’t boast a lead guitarist with Clapton’s skills — or a harmonica player like singer Keith Relf. These tracks are dense and exciting, primarily recorded at the Marquee Club with a few additional tracks from the same 1964 era taken from the Crawdaddy Club. The group exudes the raw power of a garage band with the finesse of consummate professionals. Bo Diddley’s “You Can’t Judge a Book By Looking At the Cover” is manic. “Let It Rock” is a steamroller. “I Wish You Would” crashes through with the entire band playing with pure abandon. This album finishes out with a number of studio tracks from the era – “I Ain’t Got You,” “A Certain Girl” and “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” (also here in a live version).