Jahfin Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 From the Tower Records Facebook page: ON THIS DATE (44 YEARS AGO) July 24, 1967 - The Yardbirds Little Games is released. Allmusic 3/5 stars Little Games is an album by The Yardbirds, released on this date in 1967. Successful singles producer Mickie Most was called in to assist The Yardbirds on what was to be their final album before the group disbanded in 1968. Jimmy Page used his guitar-bowing technique on "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor" and "Glimpses". The song "White Summer" would later be performed live at Led Zeppelin concerts as a medley with "Black Mountain Side". The album peaked at #80 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. The album title track is the first of several tracks that producer Mickie Most would exempt Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty from participating in. The Yardbirds' U.S. Epic record label, having made several printing errors with Yardbirds material in the past, made yet several more with this album. Chris Dreja's surname on all his songwriting credits for this album was misspelled on the LP labels as "Ereja". This misprint also appears on the U.S. "Drinking Muddy Water" single and the tracks "Smile On Me" and "Drinking Muddy Water" from the 1970 Epic Records compilation The Yardbirds Featuring Performances By Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page. The U.S. single of "Little Games", written by Harold Spiro and Phil Wainman, only credits Phil Wainman as the writer. On top of this, his last name was misspelled on the label as "Wiemann" Epic Records (US) mistakenly released a number of stereo versions of the LP in mono version sleeves, with the mono version catalog number, and a mono version record label. The only ways to identify true mono copies is by listening to the album or by examining the 3-letter prefix of the master numbers on the record labels or in the LP trail-out grooves. "XEM" indicates genuine mono copies, stereo copies show an "XSB" prefix. Counterfeit copies of the album exist also. Genuine copies have deep, dark purple album covers, counterfeits have brighter or "bleached" purple covers. TRACKS Side one No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "Little Games" Spiro, Wainman 2:25 2. "Smile On Me" Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf 3:16 3. "White Summer" Page 3:56 4. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor" Page, McCarty 2:49 5. "Glimpses" Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf 4:24 Side two No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "Drinking Muddy Water" Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf 2:53 2. "No Excess Baggage" Atkins, D'Errico 2:32 3. "Stealing Stealing" trad. arr. Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf 2:42 4. "Only the Black Rose" Relf 2:52 5. "Little Soldier Boy" McCarty, Page, Relf 2:39 1992 Expanded edition An expanded Little Games edition entitled Little Games Sessions and More, was released as a 2 disc set featuring additional sessions and alternate takes from the period, plus the singles "Ha Ha Said the Clown", "Ten Little Indians", and "Goodnight Sweet Josephine". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvlz2 Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 I immediately liked this album. I think it was after I first picked up this album at the record store(80's) and heard it that I started looking for anything pre-zep from Jimmy Page to listen to... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jahfin Posted July 24, 2011 Author Share Posted July 24, 2011 I immediately liked this album. I think it was after I first picked up this album at the record store(80's) and heard it that I started looking for anything pre-zep from Jimmy Page to listen to... I need to expand my Yardbirds collection. All I have is the one recorded live at the Anderson Theatre, and a couple of cheap knockoffs on the Pickwick label, one with Jeff Beck and the other with Eric Clapton (all on vinyl). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SinceIveBeenLovingU Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 It's not what you might expect from the Yardbirds, but this album does have its moments of brilliance... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMV Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 From the Tower Records Facebook page: ON THIS DATE (44 YEARS AGO) July 24, 1967 - The Yardbirds Little Games is released. Allmusic 3/5 stars Little Games is an album by The Yardbirds, released on this date in 1967. Successful singles producer Mickie Most was called in to assist The Yardbirds on what was to be their final album before the group disbanded in 1968. Jimmy Page used his guitar-bowing technique on "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor" and "Glimpses". The song "White Summer" would later be performed live at Led Zeppelin concerts as a medley with "Black Mountain Side". The album peaked at #80 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. The album title track is the first of several tracks that producer Mickie Most would exempt Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty from participating in. The Yardbirds' U.S. Epic record label, having made several printing errors with Yardbirds material in the past, made yet several more with this album. Chris Dreja's surname on all his songwriting credits for this album was misspelled on the LP labels as "Ereja". This misprint also appears on the U.S. "Drinking Muddy Water" single and the tracks "Smile On Me" and "Drinking Muddy Water" from the 1970 Epic Records compilation The Yardbirds Featuring Performances By Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page. The U.S. single of "Little Games", written by Harold Spiro and Phil Wainman, only credits Phil Wainman as the writer. On top of this, his last name was misspelled on the label as "Wiemann" Epic Records (US) mistakenly released a number of stereo versions of the LP in mono version sleeves, with the mono version catalog number, and a mono version record label. The only ways to identify true mono copies is by listening to the album or by examining the 3-letter prefix of the master numbers on the record labels or in the LP trail-out grooves. "XEM" indicates genuine mono copies, stereo copies show an "XSB" prefix. Counterfeit copies of the album exist also. Genuine copies have deep, dark purple album covers, counterfeits have brighter or "bleached" purple covers. TRACKS Side one No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "Little Games" Spiro, Wainman 2:25 2. "Smile On Me" Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf 3:16 3. "White Summer" Page 3:56 4. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor" Page, McCarty 2:49 5. "Glimpses" Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf 4:24 Side two No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "Drinking Muddy Water" Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf 2:53 2. "No Excess Baggage" Atkins, D'Errico 2:32 3. "Stealing Stealing" trad. arr. Dreja, McCarty, Page, Relf 2:42 4. "Only the Black Rose" Relf 2:52 5. "Little Soldier Boy" McCarty, Page, Relf 2:39 1992 Expanded edition An expanded Little Games edition entitled Little Games Sessions and More, was released as a 2 disc set featuring additional sessions and alternate takes from the period, plus the singles "Ha Ha Said the Clown", "Ten Little Indians", and "Goodnight Sweet Josephine". This is some of Page's best work, for me. Glimpses is Page in space, very atmospheric and highly experimental. He had nothing to hold him back on that one. The slashed chords on Tinker Tailor, wow. The tone on Puzzles in amazing on rhythm. He has a mod sensibility on this album, very sharp. Great acoustic sound on White Summer. More so on Only The Black Rose. It sounds like the sun shimmering on rain drops. This is Page being intense before the heavy rock sensibility came in, fascinating. I really like Mod Page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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