LP-The Yardbirds-Little Games Mono 60's psych garage freakbeat classic
$
100
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(.LITTLE GAMES ) by ( THE YARDBIRDS )...... ....( Original 1967 first pressing in glorious MONO (different song mixes and a solid bold producyion boost ) = the Jimmy Page era of the great Yardbirds...If almost any group other than the Yardbirds had released Little Games, it would be considered prime late-'60s psychedelic/hard poprock artifact ...Not that it's a bad album, it infact is quite good measuring it on its own -- it just lacks the cohesion of the group's preceding album, Over Under Sideways Down aka Roger the Engineer). Although they were nominally the same group they'd been a year earlier, in reality the Yardbirds had undergone a massive shift in personnel since the release of The Yardbirds. The departure of original bassist Paul Samwell-Smith in June of 1966 set off a sequence of personnel shifts, bringing guitarist Jimmy Page into the lineup, first on bass and then on lead guitar in tandem with Jeff Beck (while rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja switched to bass), until Beck's exit in November 1966 for a solo career left Page as their lone guitarist. At the same time, the band was forced -- when its fabulous single "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" went over most listeners heads -- to accept a new producer in the guise of Mickie Most, who was currently enjoying huge success with psychedelic-pop era Donovan and had a formidable string of hit singles to his credit with the Animals, et al. The Yardbirds' blues roots and progressive tendencies clashed with Most's pop/rock preferences, and the two sides never did reconcile, much less mesh for more than a few minutes on the album. To top it off, the bandmembers were finally seeing some serious money for their live performances (ironically, just as they were hanging on by their fingertips to a recording contract), courtesy of their new manager, Peter Grant, and so were committed to lots of stage work. The overall result was a hastily done LP with flashes of brilliance. Apart from the title single -- one of the better compromises between where the group had been and where Most wanted to take them -- the two best cuts were "White Summer" and "Drinking Muddy Water," excellent showcases for the experimental and bluesy sides of the band, respectively; both, curiously, were also virtually thefts, "White Summer" lifted from Davy Graham's arrangement of the 300-year-old "She Moves Through the Fair" and "Drinking Muddy Water" a rewrite of "Rollin' and Tumblin'," a blues standard usually attributed to Muddy Waters. The best of the rest included "Only the Black Rose," a strangely beautiful, moody acoustic psychedelic piece; "Stealing, Stealing," an unusual (for this band) pre-World War II-style acoustic blues; and "Smile on Me," a hard, bluesy number that could have come from any part of the group's history. A cool catchy rocker, "No Excess Baggage," needed better involvement from vocalist Keith Relf; the power chord-laden "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor" was a great piece of psychedelic pyrotechnics, sounding more like the Who than the Yardbirds, and introduced Jimmy Page's violin bow discourses on the guitar; and "Little Soldier Boy" was a psychedelic pop piece more appropriate to the lighter pop bands of the era than the Yardbirds. The album was unintentionally revealing, in hindsight, of the growing schism within the band, as Relf and drummer Jim McCarty's growing embrace of flower power and hallucinogenic drugs came to be reflected in the trippier numbers such as "Glimpses," whereas Jimmy Page was starting to take his blues slower and flashier, and into wholly new territory with that violin bow. One more album or a proper concert might've sealed the deal for the Yardbirds, but presures from all sides imploded the legendary act... 1. Little Games 2. Smile on Me 3. White Summer 4. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor 5. Glimpses 6. Drinking Muddy Water 7. No Excess Baggage 8. Stealing Stealing 9. Only the Black Rose 10. Little Soldier Boy CONDITION: The cover is solid "M" (excellent) has a small round circle delete at top left corner rare to find without shelf wear (strong seams, no bends, no writing) REAL NICE COVER )........
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