The Yardbirds – Birdland (2003)
We are already on record as saying the point of the Yardbirds wasn’t the lead guitarists, so reviewing a version of the band that includes original members Jim McCarty (drums) and Chris Dreja (rhythm guitar) doesn’t make us feel uncomfortable and ethically challenged. The guitarists never stuck around long anyway, so the fact that, during the course of Birdland, the band runs through Skunk Baxter, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Slash, Brian May, and Steve Lukather, plus a quick pull from Jeff Beck, seems a tradition speeded up a bit. And at least there’s not a dumbfounded Eric Clapton standing in the way, slowing things down with a false sense of higher purpose. The Yardbirds rhythm and dazzle still shines here, and it’s nice of them to bring it out to show an audience that might have missed it the first time around.
What’s incredibly odd about these partial reunion things is how so many bands play true to form. New vocalist/bass player John Idan is Relf-ish; new guitarist Gypie Mayo (what big, big shoes he’s filling – give him a hand) is inspired and original; Alan Glen keeps the harmonica in the picture. One maybe expects fidelity as Dreja, McCarty and company burn through the classic "I’m Not Talking." Fidelity is present; but we’re also witness to a powerful take on Mose Allison’s timelessly hip, dour, dismissive ("The things that seem to matter/don’t mix with idle chatter – that’s one thing I can do without") classic. When the liner notes are checked to find who does the nice solo on "I’m Not Talking," you may be pleasantly surprised to see it’s Gypie Mayo, and not one of the hired hot-shots. "Over Under Sideways Down" features Slash, and it’s monstrously rave crazy. "Shape of Things" is layered with compelling guitars, and features some nice bottom end work in the bridge. And the new collaboration between Edgar Allen Poe!!! and Jim McCarty ("Dream within a Dream") reaches an unexpectedly anguished zenith.
But when discussing Yardbirds’ form, one soon recalls some problems. All the quasi-Far Eastern introspection and state-of-the-world gloom offered up by Relf, Dreja, McCarty, Hugg, Gouldman, etc., in the early/mid Sixties is uncannily complimented on Birdland with new songs written by McCarty. The over-wrought lack of humor seems uneasily familiar. Elsewhere, it’s hard to tell whether the new song "Crying Out for Love" sounds like a ball-park follow-up, almost four decades later, to "For Your Love," or whether "For You Love" sounds like it could have been the weak follow-up to what might have made for a better sixties’ hit. On the musical side, there’s foreign-sounding guitar patterns like you find on old Yardbirds material ("An Original Man (a Song for Keith"). "Mystery of Being" showcases low-end, scary Monk-chanting background vocals a la "For Your Love," with a "What is Life" lyric slant. If the album is a mixed bag, it’s because it relays the seemingly musically genetic ideas that always made the band a mixed bag that sometimes peaked into greatness. And as for the hot-shot guitar players? Well, it’s not a bad idea, and the songs have their moments. Here’s a hard question though: how would the Yardbirds remain innovators today? The hard answer might be: It would probably involve not sounding like the Yardbirds, quite so much.
So it’s not a matter of new songs and old songs. There’s nice tunes all around. My edit would include the old songs "I’m Not Talking," "Train Kept a Rollin’," "Shapes of Things," "Over Under Sideways Down," and "Happening Ten Years Time Ago," mixed with new songs "My Blind Life," and "Dream Within a Dream." This leaves out five new songs, and the old songs "The Nazz are Blue," "For Your Love," and "Mister You’re a Better Man Than I." Going my way you’d also miss out on a lot of good playing, including a neat underplayed turn by Mayo on "Crying Out for Love." Not to mention the odd resonance of McCarty’s lines on "Mystery of Being:" "If I could shine a light on where I’m going; if I could shine a light on what I’m doing."
It’s important to listen to new bands and new music. Everybody knows this. Just don’t rest your new band selections on Rolling Stone magazine’s "Picks" or you’re likely to end up with new product that completely sucks. The point missed with reunions-missing-key-figures is that they are just a valid as anything going. Theories don’t count; only results. "Key-members" is strictly a relative matter anyway, and basically the complaint is over-ridden when the result is better, say, than the latest album by the so-called "key member". And whether it’s partial success or total success – let the band without sucky songs throw the first stone. Forget the idle chatter, about things that really matter. Play on boys – the future is yours as much as it is anybody’s.