“My Baby” taken from the 10″ EP ‘Live In Sweden 1967’ | (Repertoire V-300) 2023
The Yardbirds | My Baby | Repertoire | We must thank Sweden for its many gifts to the world including Abba, IKEA, safety matches and the Nobel Peace Prize, not to mention the Tetra Pak and Energetically Modified Cement. However, it now emerges that great Scandinavian country is also responsible for one of the finest gifts to rock music heritage: a wonderful live recording of the Yardbirds made during an oft overlooked but important period during the British group’s turbulent career.
It was while on a visit to Sweden that the Yardbirds fetched up at national broadcaster SRT’s Radiohuset HQ in Stockholm where they were booked to perform a selection of songs for Popgtister i Stockholm on 7 April 1967.
The band now had a slimmed down four-piece line-up following changes made the previous year. The Yardbirds had previously enjoyed the services of both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page on lead guitars. This situation had evolved when Paul Samwell-Smith, the group’s original bass guitarist, quit in June 1966 to work as a record producer. He was replaced by Jimmy who played alongside Jeff creating an exciting front line, after rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja switched to playing bass.
Jeff quit the tour
However, Jeff suddenly quit during a demanding US tour in October 1966 leaving Jimmy as the sole lead guitarist alongside founder members Keith Relf (vocals and harmonica), Chris Dreja (bass) and Jim McCarty (drums).
At the time it was believed the Yardbirds were somehow losing their way, bereft of hit material and no longer making the headlines. Yet, as these unique and historic recordings show, the band that hit the airwaves on Swedish radio back in the ’67 Summer of Love was playing with fire and passion and, in many ways, more focused than ever.
We are privileged to hear them charging through eight songs that reflect both their history of hits and eagerness to try new material alongside old favourites. They also avoid most of the chart-chasing pop tunes that producer Mickie Most had been encouraging them to record.
The Yardbirds | My Baby | Repertoire
He wanted his best for the Yardbirds but it seems left to their own devices, and with the professionalism of Jimmy Page revitalising the group, they could still unleash truly exciting performances. The material ranges from their own compositions like ‘Shapes Of Things’ and ‘Over Under Sideways Down’ to Bo Diddley‘s R&B classic ‘I’m A Man’.
Today Jim McCarty looks back on that era with wry good humour, remembering all the escapades that followed in the wake of the Yardbirds as they navigated the crazy world of the 60s. He is just glad people still love their music and is delighted these tracks have been restored so well for posterity.
Jim: “The Swedes were quite advanced with the sound quality of their broadcasts, weren’t they? I always thought the Swedish and German sound engineers were very good. This live recording captures us when we were a tight band with Jimmy on lead guitar. We didn’t have all the ups and downs we’d had when Jeff was still with us.
“Jimmy was level-headed, and we also had a different dynamic within the band because it was more like the Who’s line-up. There was no rhythm guitar. Just Keith on vocals and harmonica, Jimmy on lead, Chris on bass and me on drums. And I was able to play in a more forceful style.”
Rave Up
The chemistry between Jim and Jimmy is well displayed from the outset on ‘Shapes Of Things’ during a rave-up solo section. The song had been a UK No.3 hit for the group in March 1966.
“Jimmy was good to work with at this time. When I say he was always professional, people tend to laugh. That’s only because they think of Led Zeppelin which was something else. But he was being professional in his approach because he had come off doing all those sessions for different artists. He wanted to make sure we were pleased with what he played, which was nice.
“Given this was recorded in April 1967 it would have been relatively early in the era of us being a four-piece. Jimmy would have been quite fresh. Jeff only got kicked out because he’d let us down on a tour of the US when he disappeared. He was expecting Jimmy to leave with him. And he didn’t. [Laughs] But when Jeff had gone the four-piece became very . . . smooth.
The Yardbirds | My Baby | Repertoire
“We all got on well. I remember we had two Mini cars for touring back in England. Chris and I had a Mini each. Keith used to come with me, and Jimmy went with Chris. When we drove ourselves to gigs, it was a bit like The Italian Job, the Michael Caine film with all those Minis racing about. But, no, we didn’t drive down any steps!”
Jim insists the Yardbirds with Jimmy was nothing like Led Zeppelin.
“It was tamer and smoother but like I say very professional. When we played ‘Shapes Of Things’ for Swedish radio it was a big song and I was pleased with it because the single had been made at a good time for us, with Jeff and before Jimmy, of course.
“It was recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago, and I didn’t have my own drums with me. There was this beaten-up old kit in the corner of the studio. It had a great big sack of sand or cement – or something – in the bass drum. I thought ‘Is this the kit you expect me to use? The engineer said: ‘Don’t worry about the kit, it sounds great.’ He was experienced and had worked with all the blues greats like Muddy Waters, so he knew how to get a good drum sound.”
The studio was a dump
Jim recounts story of the Yardbirds’ trip to the legendary Chess studios in his book Nobody Told Me! (2018). He recalls how manager Giorgio Gomelsky had fixed up the session that proved somewhat fraught.
“You never quite knew with Giorgio what would happen. It was always very last minute. He arranged for us to go there and of course we were partly shocked and partly excited. But when we walked in, it was just like any other studio. A bit of a dump in a way!
“But the result was great. We had partly worked out the song, not all the lyrics but the sequence. We had rehearsed it in a Chicago blues club, so we vaguely knew what we were doing, even if all the lyrics weren’t finished. The format was complete, and it sounded really good. We recorded it at Chess, and it was finished off at another studio in California.
“I was proud of ‘Shapes Of Things’ because we had written it and it was pleasing to have a chart hit with our song. Keith and Paul wrote most of the lyrics, and I wrote some of the tune and also chipped in on the lyrics. It was an anti-War song that fitted in with the feeling in 1966 about the Vietnam War.”
On the radio version there is a pause in the arrangement and then Jimmy comes in for his solo.
“Yes, we liked to do that. I always liked stops in songs. It made it all the more exciting. Jimmy did a great job on the guitar, and he was brilliant.”
‘Heart Full Of Soul’ which follows was written by Graham Gouldman and was a UK No.2 in July 1965.
The Yardbirds | My Baby | Repertoire
“That was our follow-up to ‘For Your Love’. I always thought it had a great guitar riff. When Keith introduces the number, he sounds a bit like BBC radio DJ Brian Matthew. I remember Brian did a great introduction for us on once on the BBC when he said: ‘Please do not adjust your sets. The sounds you are hearing are purely intentional.’
We kept a copy of that show but it was a bad recording, so I asked him to do another one, and he went into the studio to do another recording of the same announcement. We later used it as an intro on stage for the band. It was so sweet!”
‘You’re A Better Man Than I’ has intriguing lyrics and a stomping drum beat behind Jimmy’s extended solo. Keith sings: ‘Can you judge a wise man by the way he speaks so slow . . . and by the way he wears his hair.’
Jim: “That was a great song written by Mike Hugg and his brother Brian. It’s another social comment on that time and for all time, really. It still applies today. We play it now and it’s still relevant. Mike was the drummer with Manfred Mann but I didn’t really know him that well. We used to chat when we did a tour with the Manfreds. He could do a single stick roll which was very clever. I think he showed me how to do it!”
Keith was pissed
The Yardbirds made the original recording of this song at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison had all recorded.
“When we arrived Sam Phillips [the owner] wasn’t there; apparently he was out fishing. This was something Giorgio had arranged. It must have been about 7 o’clock and there was nothing for us to do, so Keith had a few drinks. He liked to have a drink, y’know?
So, by the time Sam finally arrived about 11 o’clock at night, Keith was fairly pissed. I’m afraid that came across on the recording. Sam thought we were a good group, but he thought Keith was no good at all. He said: ‘You’ve gotta sack the singer!’
“I could understand it because Keith was pretty bad. We recorded the tracks and of course we had a problem with ‘spill’ in those days, where the vocals were going onto the drums. We couldn’t get rid of Keith’s vocal track. Some of his drunken vocals are also on another recording of ‘Train Kept A-Rollin”, and people still ask why there are two vocals going on! Because it was a good take and a good feel, we kept it. Keith did another vocal over the top which was quite weird.”
The Yardbirds | My Baby | Repertoire
‘Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)’ has Jimmy, the dutiful session man, playing a lively backing to Keith’s vocals and blending with his insistent harmonica riff. Jim:
“This was a Bob Dylan song that we came up with when were short of numbers for the show. “I had Dylan’s album Blonde On Blonde and used to play those songs in my little flat in Fulham. I liked that particular song so I suggested we give it a try. It suited the band because it featured Dylan’s harmonica and we did quite a good version. I never met Bob Dylan, but I did see him at the Cromwellian Club in London one night. He turned up with the singer Dana Gillespie.”
‘You Go Your Way’ became part of the set at a time when the group was struggling to write more original songs.
“That was the whole problem about going with producer Mickie Most when we weren’t able to write anymore hits. Maybe it was to do with the chemistry of the band. No Paul Samwell-Smith or Jeff Beck anymore. We were looking for other songs to do and that included ‘Dazed And Confused, of course.
“That doesn’t appear here because the broadcast probably took place before we found it. We first heard it by Jake Holmes, an American folk singer, when we played with him on a gig.
It’s a good song, so we did our version. We recorded it on the album Live At The Anderson Theatre which came out again relatively recently, re-mixed by Jimmy and it now sounds pretty good.”
A great riff
Back in Stockholm Keith announces: “Now I have to change back to my 6-string guitar. I hope you remember this tune. It’s called ‘Over Under Sideways Down.’
Jim: “This got to No.10 in the charts. It was co-written by all the members of the band, but Jeff came up with that great riff. It sounded odd at first, a bit strange and off the wall. But eventually it fitted in with the song.
Chris also plays a great boogie beat here [in Sweden] on the bass guitar. But if you’d never heard Jeff’s riff before, you might think ‘What is he playing!’
On the original recording Jeff actually played bass, and he and I did a backing track a la rockabilly. Everyone else overdubbed their parts including Jeff – clever man!”
‘Little Games’ is also announced by Keith as ‘Our record at this time’ and proves a lively performance, although the single release wasn’t a hit.
Jim: “Ah, yes, that was one of Mickie Most’s productions. He had a list of songs by different writers he thought might be hits and ‘Little Games’ was one for us. Actually it wasn’t such a bad one, and probably the best of the Mickie Most songs we did. It wasn’t a huge hit, but it came over quite well. The thing about Mickie was he had session players on his productions.
“I don’t think I played on the original single version. But I played on another version of the same song that came out on the Little Games album and I was fine.”
We feel the Swedish radio performance is better than the actual single. “Well, do say that Chris!” laughs Jim.
The Yardbirds | My Baby | Repertoire
The penultimate track, ‘My Baby, was composed by Jerry Ragovoy and Mort Shuman and recorded by Garnett Mimms and the Enchanters.
“That was another of those songs we thought we’d do. But looking back I don’t know whether it was quite right for us. It was a soul song played in 3/4 which was an odd timing. However, it is a great song and the original Garnett Mimms version is terrific. It was nice for us to play but a bit of a stretch for Keith, really. Jimmy kept his playing tight, just like a pro session man.”
The grand finale for Swedish radio listeners comes with Bo Diddley’s ‘I’m A Man’ delivered by the Yardbirds with pounding drums and lots of harmonica. Jimmy plays a storming blues solo that includes a sneak preview of him using the bowed guitar technique and strange percussive effects that would become a trademark of Led Zeppelin performances a year or so later.
Jim: “That was always a great song for us to play and we did lots of different versions. The arrangement changed over the years. We did it on a single with Jeff, and Jimmy probably adapted that version. But it was always different, every time.
the violin bow technique
If Jimmy was using the violin bow then this was his arrangement. You can also hear Jimmy striking the dead strings on his guitar with a plectrum and which gave quite a good percussive effect.”
When Keith plays harmonica he blows with true blues fury. “Yes, that’s right and it’s amazing to think he only had one lung! He’d had an operation early on and despite that, he really did work hard.”
Did Jim and the Yardbirds ever meet Bo Diddley?
“No, never met him. It was a shame he sold the rights to that song. But before he died his manager got him some of the rights back. We still play that song in the current Yardbirds. We will be back on the road in 2023, and will also be playing aboard a Caribbean ‘Flower Power Cruise’.
The era with Jimmy was good in that it worked well playing-wise and we were performing such good shows. It always helped when we played to an appreciative audience, like the one in Sweden back in 1967!” (Chris Welch / January 2023)
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