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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Billy G. Spradlin" <bgspradlin@cablelynx.com> |
| Subject | Re: Birthday Number Ones |
| Date | Mon, 30 Jun 2003 17:17:14 -0500 |
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Like the Who and Small Faces, the Yardbirds played at such a LOUD volume that
the tube microphones, control boards and tape recorders at the time just
couldnt handle the volume. So everything wound up compressed and
super-distorted. I think the biggest problems were the engineers, who were
trained to handle classical, jazz and MOR and didnt know how to record
rock. No
wonder why renagade producers like Joe Meek and Phil Spector freaked them
out.
It wasnt until younger UK engineers that understood rock got behind the boards
that UK recordings started sounding better. Geoff Emerick (Beatles), Eddie
Kramer (Stones, Small Faces and of course Jimi Hendrix) and Gus Dudgeon (who
worked for Decca before becoming Elton John's producer - he engineered the
first Bluesbreakers LP with Eric Clapton, and also recorded The Zombies)
The Yardbirds first manager and producer Giorgio Gomelsky was a notorious
cheapskate and recorded the band as quickly as possible. The best sounding
early Yarbirds album is "Five Live Yardbirds".. one of my favorite live
albums.
Billy
>PS just picked up Rhino's "Ultimate Yardbirds" 2CD comp in a sale at the
>weekend. Just my tuppence worth here, but does anyone else agree that The
>Yardbirds were the most shambolically recorded/produced "mainstream" band
>of the 60s. Even Rhino's remastering treatment fails to raise the sound
>quality from shrill and tinny in the extreme. Half the tracks sound like
>they are being played from a slightly off-wavelength AM radio station!
>
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