The Story Of Yardbirds (EU)

Originally done in the early '90s and not issued on DVD until about 15 years later, this is a fine 52-minute documentary on one of the greatest rock groups of the 1960s. Surprisingly given how many such projects fail to touch the essential bases, every single one of the Yardbirds -- including the legendary guitar hero triumvirate of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page -- was interviewed, with the exception of singer Keith Relf, who died in 1976. So too were managers Giorgio Gomelsky and Peter Grant, as well as producer Mickie Most. The interviewees' warm and witty comments pace the story well, and just as crucially, they're interspersed with plenty of exciting clips of all the lineups, even digging up one from the Clapton era. Those clips include most of their best and most famous songs, among them "For Your Love," "Heart Full of Soul," "I'm a Man," "Shapes of Things," "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," "The Train Kept A-Rollin'," and even bits of "Still I'm Sad" and (in the final days with the Jimmy Page lineup) "Dazed and Confused." Beck is especially hilarious when panning Blow-Up director Michelangelo Antonioni, calling him a "pompous oaf." Yardbirds fans may well wish the documentary were longer -- or at least that there might one day be a compilation of vintage Yardbirds performance film clips in their entirety -- but within the time allotted, this covers their story well and very enjoyably. As a notable bonus, the DVD adds their 15-minute performance on a 1967 episode of the German television show Beat Beat Beat, showing the four-man Page lineup running through "Over Under Sideways Down," "Shapes of Things," "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," and "I'm a Man." It's odd that much of the annotation in the booklet is devoted to a lengthy description of their 2003 album Birdland (on which Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty were the only remaining members from the '60s lineups), however. ~ Richie Unterberger|