Yardbirds - Train Kept A Rollin'/You're a Better Man Than I

Anderson Theatre March 03 1968 featuring a fresh Jimmy Page on solo guitar.But this night, it was the Yardbirds' turn. Like on the group's first series of albums, the machines of loving grace had long been set up, all prepared to perform their god-given function, which was to take down in meticulous detail the events about to transpire, as unobtrusively as possible. All the wires were checked, amps switched on, the house lights beginning to dim, the crowd instinctively bringing its hands together, the surge forward: (mumble mumble) "live on Epic Records at the Anderson Theatre The Yardbirds!" And then there was Keith walking out, a little stiff (is he getting older?), and it's his voice that's next--"Thank you very much indeed thank you we're gonna start off with a thing called 'The Train Kept A-Rollin'.'" And then they've begun. And from the very start, you know it's about to happen. The Greatest Concert Ever, at least of this week, and if you think of the Yardbirds like I do... which is to say that there were groups that came out of England and there were Groups That Came Out Of England and the Yardbirds were a GTCOOE... well, you get the picture. Jimmy Page, already in the process of forming the New Yardbirds (which would eventually become a combination called Led Zeppelin, and if you listen to "I'm Confused" on the first side, you'll understand how that little number works), plays guitar on this album like you would not believe. There's a point toward the end of "I'm A Man" where he literally becomes possessed by strange, unknowable forces, and if you don't believe me, it comes somewhere during the second break. He also bows his instrument like a violin on two separate occasions, and the sound is as sweet as if it were a Stradivarius in his hands.