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The Yardbirds—Live in France—Repertoire Repuk 1387

This is exactly what it says, material recorded by The Yardbirds
for television and radio shows in France between 1965 and 1968.
With such a time-span, note that the guitarists include Jeff Beck
and Jimmy Page, both now legendary performers of course, and

fans of the latter should note that there is an early version of the
later Led Zeppelin standard, ‘Dazed And Confused’.

So yes, we are in the grey area between rock and blues. The 15
tracks include a rather breakneck cover of Billy Boy Arnold’s ‘I
Wish You Would’, with lead vocalist Keith Relf wailing away on
harp, as he frequently does elsewhere - the band was known for

its “rave-ups”. There are also no less than three versions of showstopper ‘Train Kept A-Rollin’’,
originally by R’n’B bandleader Tiny Bradshaw, though they probably got their version from Johnny
Burnette’s rocking 1956 version. Whatever, it is a real tour-de-force. There is also a cover of Garnet
Mimms’ soul hit ‘My Baby’ - recorded in 1967, this is a near contemporary cover. It is a little rockier
than the original but still worth a listen.

We are at the origins of blues-rock here, of course. There is the proto-psychedelia of the Yardbirds

mid-60s hits (“freakbeat” it is sometimes called, tracks like ‘Over, Under, Sideways Down’ and ‘For
Your Love’), though there are some blues influences on these too – these are sometimes very
deeply-hidden though.

Not one for the blues purists, as Eric Clapton pointed out in 1965. However, there are plenty of
bluesy sounds here, in front of a wildly enthusiastic audience. This is exciting, energetic music and
far more than just an historical document.

Norman Darwen

Quinn Sullivan—Wide Awake—Provogue

The Provogue label’s strapline of “where blues meets rock” is
certainly apt for this release, though in this case that does not
generally mean “hard rock”. Twenty-one year old Massachusetts
singer and guitarist Quinn has a relatively mellow sound on the
opening ‘All Around The World’ which is a little like the non-
blues material BB King used to cut later in his career, building up
quite a head of steam and with some nice BB flavoured guitar

work.

This is Quinn’s fourth album overall. He was touring at age
eleven, and working with Buddy Guy a year later. He names
Buddy as a huge influence and mentor, but this set presents Quinn more as a songwriter rather than
a guitar ace, though there is plenty of fine playing, of course. There are various styles on this set: a
touch of Prince on ‘She’s So Irresistible’, Curtis Mayfield maybe on ‘How Many Tears’, ‘In A World
Without You’ has a subtle Latin-tinge and a tougher, bluesy sound, a lovely, mellow-soul vibe on
‘Baby Please’, is Queen’s Brian May the inspiration for the guitar sound of ‘You’re The One’, and
classic blues-rock on the heavy, riff-driven ‘Strawberry Rain’ (and maybe a tinge of Manchester’s

Oasis in the melody).