“For Your Love” by The Yardbirds - album review

features in: Album Chart of 1965Album Chart of the Decade: 1960s

TJR says

The second Yardbirds album was compiled by Giorgio Gomelsky, the group’s impresario, for Epic in the United States. It was purposefully released in June 1965, just as the band were about to undertake a U.S. tour. Featured were all 6 sides of the first 3 Yardbirds singles, together with 6 new tracks – a real exclusive for the group’s American fans. With “For Your Love” having just peaked at no.6 in the Billboard 100, the album titled itself, in the eyes of the executives. The fantastic title-track opens up the LP in non-representative fashion – it’s a mile away from the group’s sound which remains entrenched in Blues Rockers. Despite the success of the single, it proved to be a deal-breaker for Eric Clapton who was unhappy with what he saw as a “pop” sell-out and, by the time of this album’s release he had joined John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. Despite Clapton’s negativity, it was a terrific single; oddly framed by the most unusual use of a harpsichord instead of an organ. By all accounts, this was one of those happy accidents. When booked session man Brian Auger arrived to play his organ part, it was realised that there had been an oversight in the arrangements and that there was no organ to be found in the studio. Undaunted, Auger crafted the intro as best he could, and recorded the track. Upon leaving, he later admitted to wondering: “Who, in their right mind, is going to buy a pop single with harpsichord on it?” He needn’t have worried. People like fresh new sounds. Unless they’re called Eric. Although Clapton played on that and, indeed, on 9 of the album’s tracks, he was 4 months gone by the time of the June release, and he was not pictured or talked about on the sleeves. His replacement guitarist, Jeff Beck, features on three songs: “I'm Not Talking”, “I Ain't Done Wrong”, and “My Girl Sloopy”. “I Ain’t Done Wrong” in particular is fantastic – real punchy guitar and drum power, with solos which behave themselves. It seems a shame the UK fans never got a chance to buy this LP; there were some strange transatlantic goings on back in the day…

The Jukebox Rebel
27–Jun–2008

Tracklist
A1 [02:31] 7.9.png The Yardbirds - For Your Love (Graham Gouldman) Cerebral Pop
A2 [02:33] 6.0.png The Yardbirds - I’m Not Talking [ep version] (Mose Allison) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
A3 [02:18] 7.4.png The Yardbirds - Putty (In Your Hands) (John Patton, Kay Rogers) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
A4 [02:00] 6.0.png The Yardbirds - I Ain’t Got You (Clarence Carter) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
A5 [02:33] 5.7.png The Yardbirds - Got To Hurry (Giorgio Gomelsky) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
A6 [03:39] 8.4.png The Yardbirds - I Ain’t Done Wrong (Keith Relf) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
B1 [02:19] 5.7.png The Yardbirds - I Wish You Would (Billy Boy Arnold) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
B2 [02:18] 5.6.png The Yardbirds - A Certain Girl (Allen Toussaint) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
B3 [02:30] 4.8.png The Yardbirds - Sweet Music (Walter Bowie, Otis Leavill Cobb, Major Lance) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
B4 [02:46] 5.7.png The Yardbirds - Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (Bob Love, Don Level) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
B5 [05:38] 6.1.png The Yardbirds - My Girl Sloopy (Bert Russell, Wes Farrell) Blues Rock / Soul Rock

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