Roger the Engineer

by

The Yardbirds

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Only recently made available stateside, this is the only Yardbirds' album to feature all original material. The standout track is the No. 13 hit "Over, Under, Sideways, Down" propelled by Jeff Beck's cutting lead guitar. Equally impressive are blues-derived numbers like "Lost Woman," "The Nazz Are Blue," "Jeff's Boogie" and "Psycho Daisies," one of only two tracks to feature both Jeff Beck AND Jimmy Page (on bass). The other track is "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," which features Beck and Page both on guitar. It would be the band's last U.S. hit (#30 in 1966), and its psychedlic quality was representative of many songs on the album. There's the slightly trippy "I Can't Make Your Way," the mantra-like vocal and stinging lead guitar of "Hot House of Omagarashid," the chanting vocal of "Turn Into Earth." While the band's experimentations in the studio were not all successes, other than Rhino's greatest hits package, this is the one complete Yardbirds album to own. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

To solve the confusion, this version of this classic rock standard has the first 12 tracks in both stereo and mono and includes stereo versions of two other tracks: "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" and "Psycho Daisies". Also, the album was called "Roger the Engineer" in the U.K. but "Over Under Sideways Down" in the U.S. Whatever you call it though, the content is just pure Jeff Beck genius as you can clearly hear him improve from album to album and the band has certainly come a long way since "For Your Love" up to this point.

The tracks here are all very musically interesting from the Eastern influenced "Over Under Sideways Down" the riff of which is all played on one string with hammer-ons, pull-offs and controlled bending to the ultimate flash a.k.a. show-off piece guitar instrumental "Jeff's Boogie" in which Jeff pulls out all the stops in showcasing his vast abilities on the guitar. The second guitar solo on "Rack My Mind" is one of the best guitar solos I have ever heard and believe me, I've heard many, many solos over the years.

As for this mlps version of the album, the shame is that the design couldn't match the quality of the content. The cardboard used is very thin and flimsy and it looks like it will fall apart any time soon. This is strange as the "For Your Love" version is very well designed and put together which begs the question as to why couldn't they just do the same for this album?

The sound quality is good which is a testament to the great job they did with the remastering. Also included is a 20-page booklet with all the lyrics in both English and Japanese. Overall, if you don't mind the poorly designed mlps packaging, the good sound quality and content makes this a must have for all aspiring blues rock guitarists.