THE YARDBIRDS Five Live Yardbirds (Get Back)

More good work from the good folks behind Get Back, this reissue documents the Yardbirds live experience at The Marquee circa 1964, with as few additives, flavouring and preservatives as is technically possible. (In fact the modern listener might wish for a few of the above to smooth over the abrupt fade-ins and lurching edits). As Giorgio Gomelsky's sleevenotes note, "Something of the excitement and freshness of the Yardbird sound had been captured on tape", and "Five Live Yardbirds" can turn your lounge into a pretty fair approximation of a sweaty mid-60s London R&B club, with all the beer-swilling crudity and distortion that implies. (All this from a band that pose on the cover in matching suits and ties!)

The music here is almost too well known to discuss, but basically it consists of Chuck Berry, Isley Brothers, John Lee Hooker standards, among others, given a kicking as only British blues boom bands knew how. If you don't crave for more than one album of the stuff, "Five Live Yardbirds" is probably the one to get.