#0074: The Yarbirds - Roger the Engineer [**]

I was given to understand that the Yardbirds were the yardstick of Blues.  Well, while the presence of blues influence is unmistakably felt on many of the songs, this is a lot more of a pop album than in it is a 101 of blues mastery.

Rather than gravel bitten solo lamentations from the well of despair, the vocals are enriched with harmonies that even though nowhere near the red zone are definitely on the Beach Boys/Beatles spectrum.  The guitars, also, do not play the dominant role they usually have in blues music.  There are tracks with even a tinge of the psychedelic about them, almost foreshadowing the early sound of Pink Floyd.  Not such a surprise, you may say, Floyd having combined the names of blues musicians to make their name.

Standing out from the generic sixtiesness is Hot House Of Omagarashid - a straight, snare-on-the-one driver, which in spite of the weak vocal is the most interesting melody and progression on the album.

None of it was really offensive though until Turn Into Earth, which is only a two minute song but whose first 90 seconds yawns into eternity before snapping back into a godawful trite play-out section that shouts "we've run out of ideas" as loud as any seventeen minute experimental finale.  Thank the good lord for small mercies, there isn't one of those but the trippy, trying-way-too-hard-to-be-deep Ever Since The World Began at 2:56 is more than a bit testing on the old patience.