Music DVD Review: - The Story Of The Yardbirds

Although they never sold as many records or made it quite as big as their friends in the Stones and the Who, the Yardbirds made every bit as lasting an impact on the music world. Even though this band originally made its mark during the Sixties, their influence would last well into the Seventies and beyond. It continues to be felt today. Most notably, the Yardbirds served as the launch pad for the careers of three of the best rock guitarists ever in Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page.

The Story Of The Yardbirds is a one-hour documentary chronicling the band's history in interviews with both lesser-known members like Chris Dreja, Paul Samwell Smith, and Jim McCarty as well as the more famous alumni like Clapton, Beck, and Page.

But what really makes this DVD a must-get are the rarely seen live performances. For starters, the extras include a 1967 German television broadcast (from a show called "Beat Beat Beat") where a young Jimmy Page is seen performing on songs like "Shapes Of Things," "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," and "Over Under Sideways Down." For the finale of "I'm A Man," Page gives us a preview of the Led Zeppelin to come by whipping out his violin bow. Elsewhere in the film, Page is seen with the bow again on a pre-Zeppelin version of "Dazed And Confused."

Earlier on, there is also plenty of live footage with both Clapton ("I Wish You Would") and Beck ("Still I'm Sad," "Heart Full Of Soul," "Train Kept A Rollin'," and more). The Beck footage is especially fun to watch for everything from the Go-Go dancers behind him to Beck destroying his guitar Pete Townshend style during a scene from the film Blow-up (which Beck himself describes as "crap...we were supposed to be the Who").

The footage from Blow-up is also one of the two rare pieces of film where you get to see the version of the Yardbirds with both Beck and Page on guitar (the other is a version of "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" from 1966). In an interview, Page describes how he originally joined the Yardbirds to fill the shoes of departing bassist Paul Samwell Smith, but ended up playing guitar anyway. In another interview, Beck explains that sharing the guitarists slot with Page was one of the reasons he ended up leaving ("I wanted to be it," he says).

Article Author: Glen Boyd

You'll find Blogcritics assistant music editor Glen Boyd sharing his Thoughtmares on his personal blogs The World Wide Glen, and The Rockologist. In a previous life, Glen was a music professional and journalist whose work has appeared in The Rocket, SPIN, Pulse!, and The Source. …

Visit Glen Boyd's author page — Glen Boyd's Blog