The Yardbirds: The Band That Launched Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page

Rating:
Summary: Dull
Review: Conveyed new information, so was worth the read for an avid fan, but it dragged on and on.

Rating:
Summary: Beat Merchant
Review: High class bio of the Most Blueswailins, immaculately designed with dozens of rare photos (though precious little of the LITTLE GAMES era band). Author Alan Clayson makes it clear his book is a stylized, highly-personal take on the band, so it came as no surprise the pages were filled with empurpled hipster prose. Yet Clayson succeeds in eliciting trenchant quotes (both archival and new) from each member of the group, and captures the band's seat-of-the-pants creativity with eloquence and humor. On the downside, Clayson can't maintain a narrative and wastes too much ink on irrelevent details about other artists---especially aesthetic peewees like Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich and the Downliners Sect, both of whom make the Seeds look like the Beatles. There are also a number of factual errors (though only a pedant would care that Keith Relf didn't write "Shapes In My Mind") and a puny chronology almost entirely cribbed from Greg Russo's superior (though more workmanlike) ULTIMATE RAVE UP. The biggest problem with the book is Clayson's unwillingess to allow the band's story to unfold on its own. Virtually every paragraph is crammed to the gills with snoozy hyperbole that says more about the writer's fascination with his prose than it does about the subject. Nevetheless, it's a worthy pick up for fans of the Yardbirds, who have waited eons for the kind of journalistic respect accorded to the Who, Cream, Beatles, Stones and their other rivals. Where before we had to trawl through [the webites] to hunt down a battered copy of John Platt's 1983 book and pay [good money], now we have two quality reads---and despite his pretentions, Clayson's love for the band that gave us "For Your Love" and "Shapes of Things" shines through brightly. I can't knock him for that.

Rating:
Summary: Too Much Monkey Business
Review: I didn't really learn anything new about the Yardbirds after reading this. Considering they were one of the most exciting and important bands in rock history, I would have expected more 'meat'. I felt Alan Clayson's writing style got in the way at times, distracting somewhat. However, the photos are really outstanding, particularly the cover shot showing them at Studio 51 in London (I think). What a classic moment frozen in time. Glad I read it. Any Yardbird book is better than no Yardbird book, however, there are better ones.

Rating:
Summary: Review of Clayson's THE YARDBIRDS
Review: With great anticipation I ordered Mr. Clayson's book, however having finished it last evening I would have to say that I am somewhat disappointed.

There is certainly no lack of research or knowledge on Mr. Clayson's part, but perhaps it was his style of prose that put me off. He writes not necessarily in a high-minded manner, but perhaps it is English dry-wit which makes it hard for an American to slog through; in many cases I could almost picture Mr. Clayson and another UK resident nodding and winking at each other across the bar. Annette Carson's JEFF BECK: CRAZY FINGERS was written in a much easier-to-digest style.

The Yardbirds were known, at least in my youth here in the USA, as a band much better seen in person than to hear on record. Mr. Clayson certainly explains to the reader why that is so. The description of life on the road, for The Yardbirds, should be enough to put off any youngster with delusions of trying the same; that is, if he could get through to that point in the book.

Being somewhat of a "gearhead," I missed discussion of the bands' equipment or more technical side. The photographs printed in this book are quite wonderful though, and to a degree appeased my appetite; Chris Dreja certainly went through some guitars! It is just a pity that things such as this were not spoken of in the text.

I can see where this book would appeal much more to the English market than the American, given the discussion of musical groups never heard of here, and in that way the work is much like Mo Foster's 17 WATTS, where one must sort through that tedium.

All in all, not a bad book, but not an easy read. That said, the overleaf shows that Mr. Clayson has published many works on music of the era, so he certainly has the authority of his research behind him. THE YARDBIRDS and his other work are surely the "go-to" source for any trivia you may wish to ferret out.