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The Yardbirds - The BBC Sessions (REP 4777-WY) (1968)

Track listing:
  1. I Ain't Got You 1:58
  2. Keth Relf Talks About The Band's Background 0:58
  3. For Your Love 2:17
  4. I'm Not Talking 1:48
  5. I Wish You Would 2:34
  6. Keith Relf Talks About Usa Tour 0:56
  7. Heart Full Of Soul 2:18
  8. I Ain't Done Wrong 2:29
  9. Too Much Monkey Business 2:27
  10. Love Me Like I Love You 2:49
  11. I'm A Man 2:26
  12. Evil Hearted You 2:25
  13. Interview About The 'still I'm Sad' Single 0:50
  14. Still I'm Sad 2:52
  15. Hang On Sloopy 3:22
  16. Smokestack Lightning 3:30
  17. The Yardbirds Give Their New Year's Resolutions 0:46
  18. You're A Better Man Than I 3:08
  19. The Train Kept A-Rollin' 2:41
  20. Shapes Of Things 2:23
  21. Dust My Broom 2:31
  22. Baby, Scratch My Back 3:13
  23. Keith Relf Talks About His Solo Single 0:47
  24. Over Under Sideways Down 2:09
  25. The Sun Is Shining 2:42
  26. Shapes Of Things, Version 2 2:19
  27. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) 2:47
  28. Little Games 2:20
  29. Drinking Muddy Water 2:41
  30. Think About It 3:07
  31. Interview With Jimmy Page 1:47
  32. Goodnight Sweet Josephine 2:30
  33. My Baby 2:49

Notes

Over the years, the Yardbirds' performances for the BBC have been the focus of various bootlegs. But BBC Sessions is no bootleg. Assembled by Warner Bros. in 1997, this rewarding CD is a very legal collection of BBC material that spans 1965-1968. When the Yardbirds performed for various BBC radio programs, they did not have the luxury of stretching out as much as they could on stage -- they had to be succinct, and that meant that they couldn't get into extended blues-rock jams. Nonetheless, their creativity flowed; if they only had two or three minutes to perform, they would squeeze a lot of energy into those two or three minutes. Most of the material on this 75-minute CD falls into two main categories: tough, gutsy blues-rock and hauntingly melodic, quasi-Gregorian hits like "Heart Full of Soul," "For Your Love," "You're a Better Man Than I," and "Evil Hearted You." The Chess Records school of Chicago blues was a major influence on the Yardbirds, who put their uniquely British spin on "The Train Kept A Rollin'," "Dust My Broom," Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning," and other blues standards. When the Yardbirds played the blues, they were far from a carbon copy of Chicago bluesmen -- and that made for some very fresh-sounding blues-rock. Never let it be said that the Yardbirds were not versatile; they could be quasi-Gregorian one minute and unapologetically gritty the next. But one thing they weren't great at was '60s garage rock, and their performance of the McCoys' "Hang on Sloopy" falls short of the excellence that characterizes 90 percent of BBC Sessions. Most of the time, however, this collection is an exciting document of the Yardbirds' BBC appearances of the '60s.