Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds tabs The Yardbirds discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

The Yardbirds guitar tabs

CD reviews

Roger the Engineer

The Yardbirds - Roger the Engineer Audio CD

A fair review of the The Yardbirds "Roger the Engineer" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Yardbirds reviews here, or go back to the The Yardbirds tabs.

Band: The Yardbirds
Title: Roger the Engineer
Rating:

Release Date: 2009-04-28
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Lost Women (stereo) 2: Over Under Sideways Down (stereo) 3: The Nazz Are Blue (stereo) 4: I Can't Make Your Way (stereo) 5: Rack My Mind (stereo) 6: Farewell (stereo) 7: Hot House Of Omagararshid (stereo) 8: Jeff's Boogie (stereo) 9: He's Always There (stereo) 10: Turn Into Earth (stereo) 11: What Do You Want (stereo) 12: Ever Since The World Began (stereo) 13: Happenings Ten Years Time Ago (single track) 14: Psycho Daisies (single track) 15: Lost Women (mono) 16: Over Under Sideways Down (mono) 17: The Nazz Are Blue (mono) 18: I Can't Make Your Way (mono) 19: Rack My Mind (mono) 20: Farewell (mono) 21: Hot House Of Omagararshid (mono) 22: Jeff's Booge (mono) 23: He's Always There (mono) 24: Turn Into Earth (mono) 25: What Do You Want (mono) 26: Ever Since The World Began (mono) 27: Mr. Zero (Keith Relf single track) 28: Knowing (Keith Relf single track) 29: Shapes In My Mind (Version 1) (Keith Relf single track) 30: Shapes In My Mind (Version 2) (Keith Relf single track) 31: Blue Sands (excerpt) (Keith Relf single track)

A Piece of Musical History
"
"Roger the Engineer," like most British LP's, featured more selections than the U. "Roger the Engineer" was the British version of the American LP Over Under Sideways Down. S. counterparts. Some of the selections were not even available on the American albums.
Back in the days of vinyl, "Roger the Engineer" was a must-have for any Yardbirds fan. It was gem that at one time was available only as a British import.
In my opinion, this was the Yardbirds at their peak. Great songs. Unlike the Yardbirds previous albums, this was also in true stereo.
Now that we have progressed from LP's to CD's, "Roger the Engineer" is a must-have for any Yardbirds fan. It provides irrefutable evidence proving that the Yardbirds were a legendary band. .

Mono and Stereo "Yardbirds"
It was their first studio album although an earlier incarnation of the band with Eric Clapton had released a live blues album, Five Live Yardbirds, and in America Epic had capitalized on the success of their final single with Clapton, For Your Love, by collecting all their UK Columbia singles to date and an EP in the pipeline, and added a couple of unreleased items for an album also named For Your Love. Officially called simply The Yardbirds, this album came to be known as Roger The Engineer as that was the name of the front-cover caricature of their engineer Roger Cameron by Chris Dreja, written on the sleeve.
Jeff Beck was not a blues purist and steered the band into fresh and exciting musical areas over the next few hit singles, incorporating Gregorian chants, sitar-like psychedelic guitar, backward tapes and controlled feedback.
Only the most recent of these, Over Under Sideways Down, which was created in the studios out of a spontaneous jam around Rock Around The Clock, and its instrumental flip, the self-explanatory instrumental Jeff's Boogie, were included on the album, the rest of which was largely concocted from scratch at Advision in one brief week of recording.
Some of the ideas used on their singles are reworked here, with Keith Relf leading all the vocals with the exception of The Nazz Are Blue which features a rare early vocal from Jeff Beck and bursts into a well-known Elmore James riff in the middle. Todd Rundgren named his band The Nazz in 1967 as a tribute to this song.
Mono was the norm in those days, when few record-buyers had stereo hi-fi systems, so must of the time spent mixing the album was devoted to the mono version, with the stereo mix left to the end and recreated independently but with reference to the mono master. Inevitably, there would be subtle, and sometimes glaringly obvious differences. A guitar overdubbed directly onto the mastertape during mixdown is necessarily absent from the stereo version of Hot House Of Omagararshid, and there are similar anomalies on He's Always There, Turn To Stone and others. Nevertheless, the benefits of the wide stereo sound are clear, and this edition presents both mixes in full using the Yardbirds' own mastertapes.
Bonus tracks include the magnificent psychedelic single released three months later, Happenings Ten Years Time Ago/Psycho Daisies, by which time Paul Samwell-Smith had left and Jimmy Page had joined the band as second guitarist and occasional bass player, and two solo singles released by Keith Relf as a side project.

Overlooked classic album

At some point in the recent past someone has decided that this album needed a name as 'The Yardbirds' wasn't sufficient, and that because one of the figures on the cover has a caption 'Roger the Engineer' that would do. As far as I'm concerned the real title of this album is 'The Yardbirds', and I have a very early LP to prove it.

Regardless of that, it is an overlooked classic and an important addition to any collection of music from the era. The other reviews are spot on. Buy it now.

A 1966 Milestone
They had released two albums in America in 1965 "For Your Love" and "Having a Rave Up", but they were merely a compilations of singles, EP`s , live-recordings or obscure recording which were included to fill up the albums to reach an acceptable playing-time. "Over, Under, Sideways, Down" or "The Yardbirds" or "Roger the Engineer" was the Yardbirds` first real album released in 1966.

For the first time they were given the opportunity to record a real album. The were not given unlimited studio-time; on the contrary; the album was recorded during a very short time-period; I believe it was about 2 weeks. This makes the result even more impressive. It`s no exaggeration to call this album one a the greatest of the mid-sixties. Very tight playing by everyone, impressive and innovative guitar-work from Jeff Beck, solid vocals and great songs.

In my opinion there is no doubt that it`s Jeff Beck who makes the difference. I love the sounds he can get out of his guitar. It`s not difficult to imagine who stunned people would we when listening to his guitar back in 66. The great mixture of traditional blues and the new psychedelic sounds has never been surpassed.

Even classic 12 bar blues tracks like "Lost Woman","Over, Under, Sideways, Down", "The Nazz Are Blue", "Rack My Mind", "Jeff`s Boogie" and "What Do You Want" sounded (sounds) new; and these recordings still sound uplifting and full of energy today.

On songs like "Ever Since The World Began", "Turn Into Earth", "Hot House" and "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" showed a purer progressive side of the band. In fact "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" was not originally included on the album, as it was recorded shortly after, at a time when Jimmy Page had also joined the group. "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" was released as a single with "Psycho Daisies" as the b-side. These two songs have been featured on most re-releases of the album, and can almost be considered as originals. The moving "Farewell" is a another favourite; makes you think of the sad destiny of Keith Relf who died electrocuted in 1976 by his own guitar while practising at his home.

Unfortunately this 2 lead-guitarist period would last very short, as Jeff Beck soon left. As far as I know, they only recorded 3 songs; with "Stroll On" from the movie "Blow Up" as the third.

The bonus tracks make the CD an even better buy. The Keith Relf solo tracks a all solid; in fact they are really the Yardbirds backing singer Relf. "Mr Zero" is not far from later Yardbirds recordings like "Little Soldier Boy".

If you`re even the least interested in the music that came out of the 1960`s this milestone is a must buy!.

A 1966 Milestone
They had released two albums in America in 1965 "For Your Love" and "Having a Rave Up", but they were merely compilations of singles, EP's , live-recordings or obscure recording which were included to fill up the albums to reach an acceptable playing-time. "Over, Under, Sideways, Down" or "The Yardbirds" or "Roger the Engineer" was the Yardbirds' first real album released in 1966.

For the first time they were given the opportunity to record a real album. The were not given unlimited studio-time; on the contrary; the album was recorded during a very short time-period; I believe it was about 2 weeks. This makes the result even more impressive. It's no exaggeration to call this album one a the greatest of the mid-sixties. Very tight playing by everyone, impressive and innovative guitar-work from Jeff Beck, solid vocals and great songs.

In my opinion there is no doubt that it's Jeff Beck who makes the difference. I love the sounds he can get out of his guitar. It's not difficult to imagine who stunned people would we when listening to his guitar back in 66. The great mixture of traditional blues and the new psychedelic sounds has never been surpassed.

Even classic 12 bar blues tracks like "Lost Woman","Over, Under, Sideways, Down", "The Nazz Are Blue", "Rack My Mind", "Jeff's Boogie" and "What Do You Want" sounded (sounds) new; and these recordings still sound uplifting and full of energy today.

Unfortunately this 2 lead-guitarist period would last very short, as Jeff Beck soon left. As far as I know, they only recorded 3 songs; with "Stroll On" from the movie "Blow Up" as the third.

If you're even the least interested in the music that came out of the 1960's this milestone is a must buy!.

You can see a complete list of all The Yardbirds discography, or go back to the The Yardbirds tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.