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Ultimate! [Double CD]

~ Yardbirds
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
Price: £14.98 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Audio CD (20 Aug 2001)
  • Number of Discs: 2
  • Format: Double CD
  • Label: Warner
  • ASIN: B00005LMXN
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 66,064 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Disc: 1
1. Boom Boom
2. Honey In Your Hips
3. Certain Girl
4. I Wish You Would
5. Too Much Monkey Business
6. I Got Love If You Want It
7. Smokestack Lightning
8. Here 'tis
9. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
10. Got To Hurry
See all 25 tracks on this disc
Disc: 2
1. Lost Woman
2. Over Under Sideways Down
3. Nazz Are Blue
4. I Can't Make Your Way
5. Rack My Mind
6. Hot House Of Omagararshid
7. Jeff's Boogie
8. He's Always There
9. Turn Into Earth
10. What Do You Want
See all 27 tracks on this disc

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Culled from a woefully meagre recording history that includes a handful of singles and two studio albums (yet, strangely, three live collections), this double-disc anthology instantly becomes the single most comprehensive document of the Yardbirds' brief reign and lasting influence. With a tenure on the charts of barely five years, a fitful discography and the erratic guidance of three managers during their prime, the Yardbirds have a legacy that is as unlikely as it is undeniable: they're second only to the Beatles as the most influential band of the 1960s. Long known as the musical divinity school of the Beck-Clapton-Page guitar trinity, the Yardbirds cast a much longer shadow across rock music, one that encompassed psychedelia, blues rock, heavy metal, jam bands and even the nascent world music and alt-rock movements . Eric Clapton's tenure with the energetic blues revivalists hardly hinted at enduring superstardom, but it did help foster the band's ambitious rave-ups, the frenzied mini-jams that became one of the Yardbirds' live trademarks and set the stage for Jeff Beck's groundbreaking two-year stint. But often overlooked in the homages to fret frenzy is the band's restless musical curiosity and the moody-cool, expressive charms of vocalist Keith Relf, explored here by the overtly Gregorian "Still I'm Sad", the sloppy, monkish "Hot House of Omagararshid" and the brooding "You're a Better Man Than I". But by the time Page signed on (briefly sharing duties with Beck), the Yardbirds shifted managers and directions, resulting in an uneasy cocktail of rock and pop that ultimately fractured the band, if not its heritage; Page would rebuild the New Yardbirds around an amped-up vision of its original blues roots, then quickly change the name to Led Zeppelin. All that ground is covered, along with some rarities (the odd Italian single "Questa Volta"/"Paff Bum" and three spotty solo tracks by Relf). --Jerry McCulley


CD Description

With two discs, 52 songs and a 52-page book, this is a wonderful roller coaster ride through the vitally important Yardbirds catalogue. Not only did guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page emerge from their ranks, but the group spearheaded a unique meld of blues and ferocious rock & roll. Formed in the era of British blues bands, the Yardbirds released a series of singles that gave them Top 40 clout. Though this hastened the exit of Clapton, who decried their abandonment of a purer strain of blues, it created some incendiary, forward-looking material anchored in one of the era's underrated rhythm sections.
Flush with the experimentation that was fueling the era, there are countless treasures to be heard here. "I Can't Make Your Way" is a mix of skiffle, cowboy swagger, and infectious riffing. "He's Always There" is pre-psych fuzziness combined with cool background vocals and handclaps. And then of course, there are all the hits, richly mastered and delivering a hefty wallop.

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A fitting tribute to a seminal band, 15 Aug 2001
Emerging from the early '60's Crawdaddy scene, The Yardbirds quickly established themselves as an R&B outfit to be reckoned with. Fronted by Keith Relf and featuring ol'Slowhand himself, they simply stormed through classics like "Honey in your Hips", "I ain't got you" & "Good morning little schoolgirl" before scoring a top three hit with "For your love" After this, Clapton left & the young Jeff Beck was recruited as the band entered a new phase as psychedelic adventurers. A succession of classic singles, "Still I'm sad","Evil hearted you", "Shapes of things" and, at last on CD,"Over,under,sideways,down" plus underrated winners like "Mr.you're a better man than I" or "Paff-boum" kept them in the charts as Jeff now joined by Jimmy Page,flew the flag for guitar pyrotechnics.They were simply wonderful and surviving live clips display a fierce live outfit. Just about everything you could wish for from one of Rock's seminal bands. "
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Ultimate? Certainly, 16 Jun 2009
By L. T. M. Liechti "Len Liechti" (Bath, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Words such as "ultimate" and "essential" frequently appear in the titles of single-artist compilations, many of which turn out to offer neither the "ultimate" nor the "essential" canons of their works. In the case of this excellent-as-ever Rhino release, the title is completely justified. A better collection than this of this much-anthologised group's catalogue is unlikely ever to surface.

This two-CD, 52-track set covers all the periods of this truly progressive British sixties group: the orgasmic R&B club years, the unsettling search for pop chart stardom, the blissed-out trip through psychedelia and the early moves towards the thunderous blues-rock which became Led Zep. Indeed, the different periods are all highlighted in the track listing, which discerns the Georgio Gomelsky, Simon Napier-Bell and Peter Grant eras. The ragged and inadvisable partnership with Mickie Most is also well documented.

And documentation is the name of the game: the included 56-page booklet is of the highest order, with numerous well-reproduced photographs, a concise yet entertaining band history from an American perspective and excellent track summaries by the late Cub Koda, who does a job for the Yardbirds comparable to that of Andrew Sandoval for the Monkees. The splendid production quality is continued in the heavy slipcase and twin library cases for the discs.

I won't dwell too long on the contents, as the track list speaks for itself, but to highlight a few items: the live rendition of Smokestack Lightning is surely the best white-boy garage band blues performance ever committed to record; Beck's Jeff's Boogie is the craziest and most accomplished spoof on Les Paul's playing you're ever likely to hear - and no sped-up tape effects required, either; Happenings Ten Years Time Ago is perhaps the best psych single ever, even beating Dantalion's Chariot's wondrous Madman Running Through The Fields. There are even a few turkeys deliberately included, which make for interesting, if less inspiring listening: the turgid single in Italian (why?), Questa Volta, and Relf's unnecessary cover of Ha Ha Said The Clown with Rick Nielsen (yes, that one) on organ (really!).

As for those three guitarists, it's Beck's stellar contributions throughout his tenure with the Yardbirds that strengthen the case for him as the most inventive and gifted guitarist of the era. Clapton's early playing comes across as more diffident and often shaded by the ferocious harp work of Keith Relf, while the offerings of the erstwhile session player Page sometimes come across as rather too tasteful, the full-blown gutsy renditions of the Zep era only occasionally starting to surface.

In my opinion, again, the Yardbirds were probably the second most influential band of the sixties, after those Moptops - and that influence went well beyond the contributions of their three stellar guitarists. Notwithstanding the obvious limitations of the vocalist and the solid, workmanlike qualities of the other three band members, the quality and energy of their records and of their live act were clearly contagious. Cub Koda describes in detail how the Yardbirds inspired, more than any other act, the American garage bands of the mid-sixties; how these lesser souls achieved local status in relation to the quality of their covers of Heart Full Of Soul and Over, Under, Sideways, Down. His summaries of the tracks are social literature in themselves - never have I read descriptions containing so much enthusiasm and sheer love for their subject.

All in all one of the best "best of's" I've ever encountered, and unreservedly recommended.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Stupendous double retrospective!, 16 Jan 2009
By Mr. P. B. Koeb (Geneva, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
It really does seem appropriate to corroborate what an tremendous Yardbirds anthology this is. It comes in a very appealing package, with an excellent booklet and a generous running time.

It covers the early r&b period with Eric Clapton, through to "For Your Love", before going into orbit with the more psychedelic and experimental Jeff Beck phase. This period supplies about half of the set's contents, and includes virtually all of the brilliant "Roger The Engineer" album. All of the vital stuff is there, it would seem, including both "Train Kept A Rollin'" and the "Stroll On" rework. The brief Beck/Page period features, prior to things moving into the home straight with the Jimmy Page era.

This double also contains a few oddity tracks, like the"Questa...Volta"/"Paff Bum" single and some less-than-vital solo Keith Relf tracks. The latter could have been replaced with more "superior" selections, but this remains a thoroughly worthwhile compilation of this vital group.
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