Little Games [Bonus Tracks] - The Yardbirds

This is a case study of how a fair album turns into a near-indispensable reissue. Little Games was the least-appreciated of all long-players issued by the Yardbirds -- it died a death on the charts in 1967, peaking at number 80, and satisfied neither the fans nor the members of the band. In contrast to their preceding album, Over Under Sideways Down/The Yardbirds/Roger the Engineer, which had been totally a group effort, Little Games was almost as much the work of producer Mickie Most and various session musicians as it was of the bandmembers; and unlike such slapped-together U.S. albums as For Your Love or Having a Rave Up, Little Games didn't have the tight focus on blues that allowed those two 12" platters to hold together. What it did have were some very good musical ideas and intermittently excellent playing. That's the only way to explain the fact that this CD marks the third distinct reissue of Little Games -- even more important, it's finally elevated this period in the group's musical output to as important and essential a body of work as the members could have hoped for in 1967-1968. The new digital transfer is a significant improvement over the two earlier reissues -- the improved sound, coupled with some very judicious remixing of a couple of tracks (thus compensating for the rushed mixing on the original, as well as the fine-tuning of some improvements from EMI's 1992 double-CD set), has given listeners a richer, better version of Little Games, with a much closer and fuller sound. Some of the songs, such as the title track and "No Excess Baggage," still seem as though they weren't really worthy of the time of these musicians; by contrast, Keith Relf's haunting "Only the Black Rose" -- its gossamer-textured arrangement exposed properly -- finally comes into its own here, and allows one to appreciate the delicacy of Jimmy Page's acoustic guitar playing; and the clarity of this release does permit one to better-hear Page's playing on "Little Soldier Boy." The bonus tracks include the same post-Little Games studio recordings from late 1967 and 1968 that were on Little Games Sessions & More, remastered for improved sound, of which "Puzzles" and "Think About It" (which still sounds a just a bit tinny, even here) are the highlights. Where this disc takes a leap far beyond the boundaries of its double-CD predecessor is the inclusion of eight BBC-recorded songs from 1968, among them the group's rendition of "Dazed and Confused" (properly credited in the songwriting) as well as their interpretation of Bob Dylan's "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)," which was a highlight of their stage act at the time. The other essential cuts in this body of work include the best-extant rendition of "Drinkin' Muddy Water" and a live version of "Think About It" that blows away the studio recording. The sound is a little shaky on some of these BBC tracks, but they're still a welcome extension of the group's late-studio history, which suddenly seems tangibly more impressive. What's more, this release slots very nicely in with Little Games Sessions & More without supplanting it for true completists; the latter still has some ancillary cuts that aren't on this release, as well as little touches such as the presence of the mono version of "Drinkin' Muddy Water (the stereo version, with a different guitar solo, is here). ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide