The unheard Yardbirds recording the band refused to release
The Yardbirds were one of the pinnacles of live performance. Regardless of the band’s line-up, they could consistently deliver stellar sounds to shocked crowds worldwide. When they had Eric Clapton, people came to watch. When they had Jeff Beck, people came to watch. And when they had Jimmy Page, people came to watch. As such, it’s hardly a surprise, given their reputation as a live band, that record companies were keen on trying to capture their energy-infused sound on wax; however, it didn’t always go to plan.
There is a reason why Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin became so renowned for their live show: the people playing in the band were committed to making the most exciting music out there, and all involved were perfectionists. This is represented best by Jimmy Page. By the time he had joined Yardbirds, he had been working as a session musician and had a fine-tuned ear for nailing a solo and what a good record should sound like. Subsequently, there was no chance that he would ever put out an album that was anything less than perfect.
When Yardbirds were approached to record a live album, they were more than open to the idea. Given they had such a good reputation as a live act, there would no doubt be many people keen to get their hands on the LP. However, the organisation of the recording wasn’t great, and the band were made to perform under pretty dire circumstances.
Firstly, at the helm of the recording was Manny Kellem, who had never recorded a rock band before. The Yardbirds had a lot of different sounds going on throughout their sets, and as such, whoever was recording their album should have been a veteran pro, but that’s not what they got. Instead, the recording came as haphazard.
On top of that, they were incredibly jet-lagged after just flying in from California. Subsequently, they weren’t playing their best. The vocals were scratchy, the drums were out of time, and Jimmy Page’s guitar couldn’t decide what tune it wanted to be in. The product was so poor that the entire band refused to allow it to be released, as it wasn’t an accurate reflection of what they were like performing live.
That wasn’t the last time the album had to be turned down, either. After the band broke up and Led Zeppelin started to make it big, Epic wanted to cash in on their success by releasing it, and Jimmy Page had to shut them down completely. As such a perfectionist with such a good reputation behind him, it was a non-starter that Page would let the album see the light of day.
Finally, decades later, Mooreland Records tinkered with the recording and remastered the songs so that they sounded much better. They also added some extra songs so that it played as a completely different album. Finally, the band agreed to release the record, which came out as Live Yardbirds.
The attitude surrounding these recordings shows how much Page and Co. cared about the sound they were putting into the world. It will no doubt have sold well because of the band’s excellent reputation as a live act, but it was about more than money for them. Playing music live was their passion, so anything that didn’t accurately reflect that passion shouldn’t have been released.
