Albums Analyzed: The Yardbirds Little Games

Little Games

Little Games was Jimmy Page's only studio album release with The Yardbirds, and was the bands final album before the broke up a year later. The album was produced by Mickie Most who had a gifted ear for a hit single, but butted heads with Jimmy Page and the rest of the band when it came time to record this album. Jimmy would recall this acrimony in an interview with Steve Rosen in 1977:

"One thing is it was chaotic in recording. I mean we did one tune and didn't really know what it was. We had Ian Stewart from The Stones on piano, and we'd just finished the take, and without even hearing it (producer) Mickie Most said, "Next." I said, "I've never worked like this in my life," and he said, "Don't worry about it." It was all done very quickly, as it sounds. It was things like that that really led to the general state of mind and depression of Relf and (drummer) Jim McCarty that broke the group up."

Drummer Jim McCarty echoed Jimmy's sentiment in a later interview:  “Working with Mickie Most was the kiss of death for the band.  Mickie never really got what we were about.  His attitude was that we were just another ‘60s band that needed a hit.  Consequently the songs he supplied us with (most notably the catchy but very un-Yardbirds-like Little Games and Ha, Ha Said The Clown went nowhere.”

Mickie Most

For one reason or another, Jim McCarty and bassist Chris Dreja were completely left off a number of tracks on this album, the title track being the most notable. Ha, Ha, Said The Clown would only feature vocalist Keith Relf. It's easy to imagine the rest of the band, including Jimmy, simply refusing to appear on that particular track, though the actual reason why remains a mystery.

Though much of the album was geared toward tracks that mirrored the three-minute single format that Mickie Most favored, there were some standouts that hinted toward the greater experimentation and forward thinking that Jimmy Page would exhibit in later years with Led Zeppelin. This album featured two tracks that had Jimmy using a violin bow on an electric guitar; "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor" and "Glimpses".

Another song on the album would follow Page to Led Zeppelin, the track titled "White Summer". The song itself is based on a traditional Irish folk song "She Moved Through the Fair". Page's version draws from a cover that was recorded and performed by folk guitarist Davey Graham. Jimmy's version is played in the DADGAD tuning, much like Graham's.

Davey Graham

Upon initial release the album was regarded as a flop reaching only number #80 on the Billboard Pop Charts. The singles off the album didn't do much better with "Little Games" only reaching as high as #51, "Ha, Ha, Said the Clown" made it to #45, and "Goodnight Sweet Josephine" barely made a dent at #127. In 1992, Little Games was re-released as Little Games Sessions and More. This re-release featured a number of B-sides, live performances, and alternate takes. This album goes a long way to understanding what was going on creatively with the band at the time both in the studio as well as in a live setting. I'd highly recommend picking up a copy.

This album has been credited with helping to cause a rift between the members of The Yardbirds (as they have freely admitted in various interviews) and has a reputation for being very bubblegum, and sporadic. However in subsequent years many people's opinions of Little Games has undergone a transition. In 2003, after it was re-released once again, BBC Music had this to say: "Not the disaster that legend has it. In fact, were it not for the indifference met in the UK by late 1967, these Yardbirds may well have flown on to better things. Their last B-side, ''Think About It'', features playing every bit as explosive as anything that Page was yet to achieve. Unfortunately it came too late to save the band."