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Yardbirds Fly Back
Seems like every few months another '60s band reunites for a shot at Behind the Music glory. With the release of Birdland, the Yardbirds stake their claim.
The group, one of England's earliest rock bands, is back and will release its first album since 1968 in April.
The Yardbirds are most famous for being the answer to a great trivia question: Which group included Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page?
After beginning as a hardcore blues band with Clapton on guitar, the group crossed over to the pop charts with the single "For Your Love"--causing the tradition-minded Clapton to leave the band in protest. He was replaced by Jeff Beck for the group's second LP, Roger the Engineer. The band was featured in Michelangelo Antonioni's influential 1964 film Blow-Up and seemed destined to be the Brit band most likely to follow the Beatles' coattails to international fame. Instead, Beck and other key members defected and Page eventually transformed the group into Led Zeppelin. A succession of managers and record labels and a bizarre and confusing catalog of releases left the Yardbirds in relative obscurity for decades.
But the seminal group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and the release last year of Ultimate!, a definitive two-CD set of the band's greatest hits, has apparently provided sufficient momentum for original members Chris Dreja (rhythm guitar) and Jim McCarty (drums) to enlist three new bandmates and record the upcoming Birdland.
The newcomers are Gypie Mayo (lead guitar), John Idan (lead vocals and bass) and Alan Glen (harmonica). Mayo was in the '70s warhorse Dr. Feelgood.
In a twist, Birdland features rerecorded old classics augmented by seven new songs, including "Original Man (A Song for Keith)," a tribute to original vocalist Keith Relf, who died in 1976 of electrocution in his home.
High-profile guests litter the album, including Jeff Beck himself. Other guitarists filling Page and Clapton's venerated shoes include Steve Vai, Queen's Brian May, Slash, Joe Satriani and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (famous for his work on 1970s Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers records). And omnipresent Goo Goo Doll Johnny Rzeznik lends his vocals to one track.
Dreja is thrilled with the results. "To make our first album in so many years has been a lasting ambition of ours. We wanted to do our original songs and our new ones with modern production, while preserving the essence of our sound," he says. "It was a labor of love, and we're grateful to everyone who helped--our guest musicians and especially to Steve Vai.
"To me, it doesn't sound like we've been away for 35 years. The Yardbirds are still a kick-ass, high-energy band and that comes across on this album."
Birdland is due in stores on April 22. For more info, check out the band's site, theyardbirds.com.
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