THE PHILIP COHEN COLLECTION
November 24, 2009 – 2:10 pm
Longtime music fan and ICE contributor shares his rare music with all.
THE YARDBIRDS
Little Games Session Tapes [no label, 2CD]
Rough mixes and studio sessions. Excellent soundboards.
Some see The Yardbirds’ Little Games album in 1967 as marking the end of an era. The group started out as a blues outfit in 1963 and, along the way, featured guitar legends Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page in its lineup - and it’s hard to beat that. But by Little Games, Clapton and Beck had already left and the group’s earlier blues sound has turned somewhat into chiming, jangle pop. Even then, Keith Relf’s harmonica and tracks such as Smile On Me and Drinking Muddy Water showed where the band came from.
The Illustrated New Musical Express Encyclopedia Of Rock (1976) noted: “With the exception of the title track, this was a mish-mash of demos, first takes and material the band is reputed not to have intended for public consumption. In the event, it was only ever released in the US.”
Well, these are legends here, or at least legends in the making. [Keith Relf and Jim McCarty went on to form Renaissance and no points for guessing which supergroup Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones (who sessioned here) were a part of.] The years have been kind to the album; fans wanted more Yardbirds and, in 1992, a two-CD set - The Little Games Sessions And More - was released.
Let’s let music insider Philip Cohen take up the story of these tracks: “These rough mixes were made during the compiling of the EMI 2-CD set, The Little Games Sessions And More.
“As you will discover, the released version of You Stole My Love is a composite of elements from two or more takes assembled through sampling. You’ll hear the undoctored entire session for the song here. Also, the multitrack for Drinking Muddy Water has no guitar solo. The solo was performed twice during mixdown; once for the stereo mix and again for the mono mix. (Trivia note: the stereo and mono remixes of Drinking Muddy Water on The Little Games Sessions And More were created by editing in the guitar solo section from the original 1960’s stereo and mono mixes of the song).
“Excepting the single Little Games b/w Puzzles, the remainder of the album was recorded in three days, because producer Mickie Most liked to work fast. Not bad for a few days’ work.”
Thanks to Philip Cohen for his generosity in sharing these rarities with the fans. The tracks came from excellent soundboards (lossless) and we are sharing them as high quality mp3s (320 kbps).
Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s. As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.
Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.
Disc 1
Track 101. You Stole My Love (Take 3) (1.2MB)
Track 102. You Stole My Love (Take 4) (6.0MB)
Track 103. You Stole My Love (Take 5) (7.3MB)
Track 104. You Stole My Love (Take 6) (949k)
Track 105. You Stole My Love (Take 7) (2.4MB)
Track 106. You Stole My Love [Take 8] (6.5MB)
Track 107. You Stole My Love (Take 9) (2.8MB)
Track 108. You Stole My Love (Take 10) (1.2MB)
Track 109. You Stole My Love (Take 11) (1.9MB)
Track 110. You Stole My Love (Take 12) (6.0MB)
Track 111. You Stole My Love (Take 13) (2.3MB)
Track 112. You Stole My Love (Take 14) (1.8MB)
Track 113. You Stole My Love (Take 15) (4.2MB)
Track 114. LSD (Take 1) (6.9MB)
Track 115. LSD (Take 2) (6.0MB)
Track 116. LSD (Take 3) (5.5MB)
Tracks 117-128 (Takes 1-14)
Track 117. Ten Little Indians (5.4MB)
Track 118. Ten Little Indians (6.8MB)
Track 119. Ten Little Indians (6.1MB)
Track 120. Ten Little Indians (4.4MB)
Track 121. Ten Little Indians (5.6MB)
Track 122. Ten Little Indians (6.3MB)
Track 123. Ten Little Indians (6.0MB)
Track 124. Ten Little Indians (6.3MB)
Track 125. Ten Little Indians (2.8MB)
Track 126. Ten Little Indians (953k)
Track 127. Ten Little Indians (5.5MB)
Track 128. Ten Little Indians (5.3MB)
Track 129. Ten Little Indians (Take 14 - master) (5.6MB)
Track 130. Little Games (6.1MB)
Track 131. Puzzles (5.0MB)
Track 132. No Excess Baggage (6.1MB)
Track 133. Smile On Me (7.6MB)
Track 134. Drinking Muddy Water (6.7MB)
Track 135. Tinker Tailor Solder Sailor (6.7MB)
Disc 2
Track 201. De Lane Lea Lee (Backwards) (6.7MB)
Track 202. De Lane Lea Lee (Forwards) (7.1MB)
Track 203. White Summer (9.1MB)
Track 204. Stealing Stealing (5.9MB)
Track 205. I Remember The Night (7.3MB)
Track 206. Only The Black Rose (6.5MB)
Track 207. Glimpses (9.9MB)
Track 208. Little Soldier Boy (6.2MB)
Track 209. Never Mind (6.4MB)
Track 210. Glimpses (with sitar) (9.9MB)
Track 211. Glimpses (9.9MB)
Track 212. Glimpses Sound Effects (3.2MB)
Track 213. New York City Blues (1990 Stereo Remix) (9.9MB)
Track 214. W.O.R. Interview 1967 (offered at 192 kbps) (30.6MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 215. Jimmy Page - She Just Satisfies (Instrumental Stereo) (5.0MB)
Track 216. Jimmy Page - Keep Moving (Stereo Remix) (9.1MB)
Lineup (according to the wikipedia):
Chris Dreja – bass guitar
Jim McCarty* – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Jimmy Page – guitar
Keith Relf – harmonica, percussion, vocals
*due to illness, McCarty was absent for most of the recording sessions.
Additional personnel:
Nicky Hopkins – keyboards
Clem Cattini – drums
John Paul Jones – bass guitar, cello on Little Games, and string arrangements