The Yardbirds

The Yardbirds are touring with two original members, you say? Commerce and vanity 're funny!

If the Stones were suddenly Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, and the Joe Blow Triplets, that's one thing . . . but Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty with the Joe Blow Triplets? I think not, I think not . . .

The Joe Blow Boys: John Idan (bass, lead vocals), Gypie Mayo (lead guitar, backing vocals), Alan Glen (harmonica, backing vocals)in case you're interested.

Chris Dreja? Never exactly a household name, he was their original rhythm guitar (backing vocals). Jim McCarty: drums and b.v.

I actually SAW the Yardbirds onceat the tail end, in '67, when they had Jimmy Pageand they weren't such great shakes then either . . . and I liked everything in those days, honest. In the most ultragenerous of hindsights, the maximum face you can put on them as a bandas opposed to a sequence of celebrity players (Page, Beck, Clapton)is they're the band that did Roger the Engineer aka Over Under Sideways Down, one of the top 30 or 40 Brit Invasion sonic documents. (Having a Rave Up led willy-nilly to jammingand where did that ever get us?)

Altho hey . . . whuddo I care? Go see 'emit's your roll-o-bills!

(What's next, a Stu Sutcliffe-Pete Best Beatles?)

The Yardbirds play the Showbox at 8 p.m. Wed., July 2. $15adv/$18

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