Yardbirds (Roger The Engineer)
by The Yardbirds

"Over, Under, Sideways, Down" or "The Yardbirds" or "Roger the Engineer" was the Yardbirds' first real album released in 1966. They had released two albums in America in 1965 "For Your Love" and "Having a Rave Up", but they were merely compilations of singles, EP's , live-recordings or obscure recording which were included to fill up the albums to reach an acceptable playing-time.

For the first time they were given the opportunity to record a real album. The were not given unlimited studio-time; on the contrary; the album was recorded during a very short time-period; I believe it was about 2 weeks. This makes the result even more impressive. It's no exaggeration to call this album one a the greatest of the mid-sixties. Very tight playing by everyone, impressive and innovative guitar-work from Jeff Beck, solid vocals and great songs.

In my opinion there is no doubt that it's Jeff Beck who makes the difference. I love the sounds he can get out of his guitar. It's not difficult to imagine who stunned people would we when listening to his guitar back in 66. The great mixture of traditional blues and the new psychedelic sounds has never been surpassed.

Even classic 12 bar blues tracks like "Lost Woman","Over, Under, Sideways, Down", "The Nazz Are Blue", "Rack My Mind", "Jeff's Boogie" and "What Do You Want" sounded (sounds) new; and these recordings still sound uplifting and full of energy today.

On songs like "Ever Since The World Began", "Turn Into Earth", "Hot House" and "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" showed a purer progressive side of the band. In fact "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" was not originally included on the album, as it was recorded shortly after, at a time when Jimmy Page had also joined the group. "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" was released as a single with "Psycho Daisies" as the b-side. These two songs have been featured on most re-releases of the album, and can almost be considered as originals. The moving "Farewell" is a another favourite; makes you think of the sad destiny of Keith Relf who died electrocuted in 1976 by his own guitar while practising at his home. Unfortunately this 2 lead-guitarist period would last very short, as Jeff Beck soon left. As far as I know, they only recorded 3 songs; with "Stroll On" from the movie "Blow Up" as the third.

The bonus tracks make the CD an even better buy. The Keith Relf solo tracks a all solid; in fact they are really the Yardbirds backing singer Relf. "Mr Zero" is not far from later Yardbirds recordings like "Little Soldier Boy".

If you're even the least interested in the music that came out of the 1960's this milestone is a must hear!

From mdbaxter TOP 100 COMMENTER 12/12/2019 19:01 | #245633 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I really like this album. The guitars are the clear driving force of the album and it's sometimes hard to focus on anything else because of how good Jeff Beck is. The vocals are good and the songwriting has a whimsical element to it that gained more popularity in years to come. They were clearly trying a lot of different things when making this record as is evidenced by the litany of different sounds throughout the album. It's chaotic and fun. I find that some of the inadequacies of the recording come off as quirky. I like the poorly recorded electric guitar on "I Can't Make Your Way" for example. "He's Always There" (which would be sampled by the Pussycat Dolls some 40 years later) on the other hand suffers at the hands of poor production in my opinion. Beck's guitar could be higher in the mix on some songs. Thought neither mix is particularly great, I prefer the stereo to the mono. "Eccentric" would be good word to describe this album. (Edited)

Rovers said pretty much everything I would have liked to say about this record. Though The Yardbirds were not known as an album-oriented band, Roger and the later Little Games show the band at their most adventurous and innovative. To me, there are some down moments here, but the highs are very high indeed—among the best music of the decade: "Lost Woman," "Rack My Mind," "Jeff's Boogie," "Over, Under, Sideways, Down," and especially the bonus tracks "Mr. Zero" and the psychedelic rave-up "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," which contains one of my favorite guitar solos ever. Come to think of it, that solo may be surpassed only by the outro guitar solo on "Rack My Mind." Oh, my! Jeff Beck and Company are superb.

From AndrewJFisher 04/14/2019 23:16 | #235004 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I was a bit partial to The Yardbirds e.g "Heart Full of Soul", but didn't expect this album would be anything special, despite it being ranked in Rolling Stone mag's top 500, thought it would be standard British, '60s pop/rock, a little alien to me. I found it to be a great listen, better than much of the British pop before it and the psychedelia after it. Just better riffs, melodies, lyrics, concepts, everything. Of course it's notable that before this album, The Yardbirds' albums did not contain many of their own compositions at all. Suddenly they were releasing all originals and some very interesting ones at that, especially for the time. (Edited)

The best Yardbirds album. Consistently good tunes and playing (Jeff Beck on lead for this edition of the group)with effective period psychedelic overtones. The standout tune is "Over, Under, Sideways, Down."