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Little Games
Little Games is the fourth American album by the English rock band the Yardbirds. Recorded and released in 1967, it was their first album recorded after becoming a quartet with Jimmy Page as the sole guitarist and Chris Dreja switching to bass. It was also the only Yardbirds album produced by Mickie Most.
Although the new lineup was becoming more experimental with longer, improvised concert performances, the Yardbirds' record company brought in successful singles producer Most to coax out more commercial product. However, neither material that properly presented their new approach nor hit singles were forthcoming. The release of the title track "Little Games" that preceded the album did not reach the singles chart in the UK and consequently the album was not released there. However, the album saw limited release in the US, Germany, and New Zealand, but only reached number 80 in the US.
Little Games became the Yardbirds' final studio album, although Most continued to produce singles for the group. These were later collected and released with the original album along with outtakes and alternate mixes on an expanded edition titled Little Games Sessions & More in 1992.
After the commercially and critically successful Yardbirds' albums Having a Rave Up with The Yardbirds (1965) and Yardbirds/Over Under Sideways Down aka Roger the Engineer (1966), founder member and bassist/musical director Paul Samwell-Smith left the group to pursue a career as a record producer. He was replaced on bass by studio guitarist Jimmy Page, whom the Yardbirds had originally approached to replace Eric Clapton. Page's position as bassist was temporary and within a short while he switched to second lead guitarist alongside Jeff Beck, with rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja taking over on bass. In 1966, the Beck/Page dual lead guitar line-up produced the psychedelic "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago", "Psycho Daisies" and "Stroll On", the updated remake of "The Train Kept A-Rollin'" for their appearance in Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blow-Up. However, by the end of 1966, Beck was fired from the band due to an illness that was preventing him from playing gigs while on tour in the US, and they continued as a quartet with Page as the sole guitarist.
During 1966 and 1967, much of the rock audience began to shift interest from Top 40 singles to albums and concert presentations. During this period, the Yardbirds toured the US extensively, with frequent shows at popular counterculture venues such as the Fillmore. They became more experimental, with longer, improvised sets including light shows, film clips, and audio samples. Their material became more varied and introduced songs such as "Dazed and Confused", the Jimmy Page solo-guitar piece "White Summer", the Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man", and extended medleys with re-worked versions of "I'm a Man" and "Smokestack Lightning".
Despite this change in direction, Mickie Most, best known for producing hits for Herman's Hermits and Donovan, was brought in by EMI as the Yardbirds' new record producer. Most was not current with new music trends and although Page had worked earlier for Most as a session guitarist, he was reportedly displeased with Most taking on the production duties. According to biographer Gregg Russo, "the upshot of Most's involvement was that the Yardbirds' stage personality ended up becoming vastly different than their recording persona".
The first Mickie Most-involved recordings took place at Olympic Studios in London on 5 March 1967. This session produced the single "Little Games" backed with "Puzzles". Although Dreja and drummer Jim McCarty were present to record "Little Games", Most used studio musicians John Paul Jones (bass and cello arrangement) and Dougie Wright (drums) for their parts to cut down on studio time. The remainder of the songs for Little Games were recorded during a three-day session at London's De Lane Lea Studios from 29 April to 1 May 1967 and session musicians were used, including Jones (bass on "No Excess Baggage") and Ian Stewart (piano on "Drinking Muddy Water"). One song, an acoustic guitar instrumental titled "White Summer" is a Jimmy Page solo piece. It uses a "DADGAD" guitar tuning, giving it an Eastern music sound, which is enhanced with Indian-percussion tabla played by Chris Karan and an oboe melody line. Another instrumental, "Glimpses", features guitar parts with Page using a wah-wah pedal and sampled train station and children's playground sounds after a voice-manipulated reading of a poem. Page's guitar is also prominent on "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor", where he introduced his guitar-bowing technique; "Drinking Muddy Water", which uses a slide-guitar part to follow the vocal line (later used to greater effect on Led Zeppelin's "You Shook Me"); and the instrumental breaks on "Smile on Me", including a wah-wah guitar coda.
The recording schedule was so hurried that the group often did not even hear the playbacks. Page recalled, "It was just so bloody rushed. Everything was done in one take because Mickie Most was basically interested in singles and didn't believe it was worth the time to do the tracks right on the album". Yardbirds' chronicler Gregg Russo notes the result was that "many [of the songs] have a demo quality that time shortages would not allow them to change". In fact one song, the pop-ish "Little Soldier Boy" was issued with McCarty's rough vocal guide providing the part intended for a trumpet.
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Little Games
Little Games is the fourth American album by the English rock band the Yardbirds. Recorded and released in 1967, it was their first album recorded after becoming a quartet with Jimmy Page as the sole guitarist and Chris Dreja switching to bass. It was also the only Yardbirds album produced by Mickie Most.
Although the new lineup was becoming more experimental with longer, improvised concert performances, the Yardbirds' record company brought in successful singles producer Most to coax out more commercial product. However, neither material that properly presented their new approach nor hit singles were forthcoming. The release of the title track "Little Games" that preceded the album did not reach the singles chart in the UK and consequently the album was not released there. However, the album saw limited release in the US, Germany, and New Zealand, but only reached number 80 in the US.
Little Games became the Yardbirds' final studio album, although Most continued to produce singles for the group. These were later collected and released with the original album along with outtakes and alternate mixes on an expanded edition titled Little Games Sessions & More in 1992.
After the commercially and critically successful Yardbirds' albums Having a Rave Up with The Yardbirds (1965) and Yardbirds/Over Under Sideways Down aka Roger the Engineer (1966), founder member and bassist/musical director Paul Samwell-Smith left the group to pursue a career as a record producer. He was replaced on bass by studio guitarist Jimmy Page, whom the Yardbirds had originally approached to replace Eric Clapton. Page's position as bassist was temporary and within a short while he switched to second lead guitarist alongside Jeff Beck, with rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja taking over on bass. In 1966, the Beck/Page dual lead guitar line-up produced the psychedelic "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago", "Psycho Daisies" and "Stroll On", the updated remake of "The Train Kept A-Rollin'" for their appearance in Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blow-Up. However, by the end of 1966, Beck was fired from the band due to an illness that was preventing him from playing gigs while on tour in the US, and they continued as a quartet with Page as the sole guitarist.
During 1966 and 1967, much of the rock audience began to shift interest from Top 40 singles to albums and concert presentations. During this period, the Yardbirds toured the US extensively, with frequent shows at popular counterculture venues such as the Fillmore. They became more experimental, with longer, improvised sets including light shows, film clips, and audio samples. Their material became more varied and introduced songs such as "Dazed and Confused", the Jimmy Page solo-guitar piece "White Summer", the Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man", and extended medleys with re-worked versions of "I'm a Man" and "Smokestack Lightning".
Despite this change in direction, Mickie Most, best known for producing hits for Herman's Hermits and Donovan, was brought in by EMI as the Yardbirds' new record producer. Most was not current with new music trends and although Page had worked earlier for Most as a session guitarist, he was reportedly displeased with Most taking on the production duties. According to biographer Gregg Russo, "the upshot of Most's involvement was that the Yardbirds' stage personality ended up becoming vastly different than their recording persona".
The first Mickie Most-involved recordings took place at Olympic Studios in London on 5 March 1967. This session produced the single "Little Games" backed with "Puzzles". Although Dreja and drummer Jim McCarty were present to record "Little Games", Most used studio musicians John Paul Jones (bass and cello arrangement) and Dougie Wright (drums) for their parts to cut down on studio time. The remainder of the songs for Little Games were recorded during a three-day session at London's De Lane Lea Studios from 29 April to 1 May 1967 and session musicians were used, including Jones (bass on "No Excess Baggage") and Ian Stewart (piano on "Drinking Muddy Water"). One song, an acoustic guitar instrumental titled "White Summer" is a Jimmy Page solo piece. It uses a "DADGAD" guitar tuning, giving it an Eastern music sound, which is enhanced with Indian-percussion tabla played by Chris Karan and an oboe melody line. Another instrumental, "Glimpses", features guitar parts with Page using a wah-wah pedal and sampled train station and children's playground sounds after a voice-manipulated reading of a poem. Page's guitar is also prominent on "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor", where he introduced his guitar-bowing technique; "Drinking Muddy Water", which uses a slide-guitar part to follow the vocal line (later used to greater effect on Led Zeppelin's "You Shook Me"); and the instrumental breaks on "Smile on Me", including a wah-wah guitar coda.
The recording schedule was so hurried that the group often did not even hear the playbacks. Page recalled, "It was just so bloody rushed. Everything was done in one take because Mickie Most was basically interested in singles and didn't believe it was worth the time to do the tracks right on the album". Yardbirds' chronicler Gregg Russo notes the result was that "many [of the songs] have a demo quality that time shortages would not allow them to change". In fact one song, the pop-ish "Little Soldier Boy" was issued with McCarty's rough vocal guide providing the part intended for a trumpet.