Having a Rave Up with the Yardbirds, or simply Having a Rave Up, is the second American album by English rock group the Yardbirds. It was released in November 1965, eight months after Jeff Beck replaced Eric Clapton on guitar. It includes songs with both guitarists and reflects the group's blues rock roots and their early experimentations with psychedelic and hard rock. The title refers to the driving "rave up" arrangement the band used in several of their songs.
Eric Clapton replaced Topham in October 1963[5] and by early 1964, the Yardbirds had expanded their following on the home counties club circuit.[6] The group made several attempts at recording in the studio, but were unable to reproduce their live sound to their satisfaction.[7][8] Manager Giorgio Gomelsky then arranged to have a March performance at London's Marquee Club recorded.[1] A key element of the Yardbirds' live shows was an extended instrumental section during some songs.[7] Clapton recalled, "While most other bands were playing three-minute songs, we were taking three-minute numbers and stretching them out to five or six minutes, during which time the audience would go crazy".[9][a] Dubbed a "rave up", this musical arrangement usually came during the middle instrumental section, in which the band shifted the beat into double-time and built the instrumental improvisation to a climax.[10][11] The rave up has roots in jazz and became a signature part of the Yardbirds' sound.[12] Musicologist Michael Hicks describes it:
Having a Rave Up
Wherever it occurred, the rave-up made a small narrative curve that introduced a basic conflict (backbeat vs. off-beats), drove that conflict to a climax (by getting more and more raucous), then resolved it (by returning it to a 'normal' beat). Through this technique the Yardbirds created a rock mannerism; sometimes the rave-up seemed the whole point of the song.[13]
The remaining three live songs with Clapton feature extended instrumental improvisation.[37] Bo Diddley's "Here 'Tis" and the Isley Brothers' "Respectable" are fast-tempo, rhythmic-based songs that are essentially rave ups.[37] On "Here 'Tis", Clapton adds an uncharacteristically energetic rhythm guitar over Samwell-Smith's driving bass lines.[38] In his autobiography, Clapton identifies Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning" as the Yardbirds' most popular live number.[6] They usually played it every night[6] and performances of the song could last up to 30 minutes.[39] On the 5:35 album version, Clapton trades guitar licks with Relf's harmonica lines.[37] Howlin' Wolf reportedly referred to the group's "Smokestack Lightning" as "the definitive version of his song".[39]
The Yardbirds based their version of "The Train Kept A-Rollin'" on the 1956 rockabilly arrangement by Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio. However, their recording adds a brief rave up section, new guitar parts, and a harmonica solo.[40] Beck biographer Annette Carson notes, "the Yardbirds' recording plucked the old Rock & Roll Trio number from obscurity and turned it into a classic among classics".[41]
The album was produced by the Yardbirds' manager Gomelsky with Samwell-Smith.[24] Clapton acknowledges that Samwell-Smith was behind the group's rave up sound[9] and on "For Your Love", Samwell-Smith assumed the role of de facto producer.[45][17] He received a credit as "Musical Director" for their first American album[46] as well as Having a Rave Up.[24] By the time Samwell-Smith left the group in June 1966, Koda notes, "he was shouldering most, if not all, of the production and arranging responsibilities".[47]
Having a Rave Up was released in the US on 15 November 1965 by the Yardbirds' American label, Epic Records.[43] The album cover photo shows the group posing in matching black suits in a mock performance; Yardbirds' biographer Adam Clayson compares it to "more of a tea dance than a rave-up".[48][c] Clapton, who left the band eight months earlier, is not pictured on the album cover.[22] The liner note reads like ad copy, with no mention of the band members or recording information.[24] The album entered Billboard magazine's Top LPs chart in December 1965 at number 137 and reached number 53 in February 1966.[49] In total, it spent 33 weeks in the chart.[15][d] Having a Rave Up remained in print until 1972, longer than any other Yardbirds album on Epic.[51]
I do have a theory: the core band (the one pictured on the cover) consisted of members who shared past life experiences as trappist monks. As such, they spent long and dreary lives in almost total silence following the Benedictine rule of stability, fidelity and obedience. Furthermore, I believe that they all came from the trappist orders that did not produce beer. All this means that these guys were primed for bashes, orgies and rave-ups from the moment they flew down the vaginal chute and landed in the mid 20th century! What clued me to their monkish origins is their endless fascination with Gregorian chants, a topic we shall explore once I stop fucking around and get to the review, which I shall do right now.
I found the title of a 1965 album by the Yardbirds called Having a Rave Up quite funny when I first saw it. Dictionary.com defines "rave-up" as "a party, especially a wild one," and notes that this is an informal, British term. The reason it seems funny to me is because, although I have heard the term "rave" often, I have never heard "rave up" used.
There is a genre of music, which I guess also exists outside of the UK, known as "rave music". This is an up-beat, electronic dance genre and people who listen to this music often attend "rave parties". Historically, these parties were underground and due to the attendees' drug use often organised illegally.
In modern parlance you are likely to hear people say they "attended a rave" rather than "attended a rave-up", although if you said to me the latter, I would probably assume a boisterous party not necessarily linked to the rave genre.
A rave-up still has some use but it's most common, since around the 1990s, to simply say a rave. Rave-up is somewhat dated, and dates to 1967. Rave actually dates to 1960, but is more current and using rave-up sounds a bit like a not-with-it parent.
A search on the British National Corpus has only four results for rave up, but 55 for a rave: some are false hits like "rave group" or "rave review" or the related "rave party", but there's still a lot more than "rave up".
Greatr review, thanks! The AllMusic review mentions that the crowd noise has been enhanced. -a-rave-up-live-in-los-angeles-1978-r2459977/reviewDid you find this to be the case? If so, is it very intrusive? I am tempted to get this, but if the crowd noise is too obviously faked I might find it too distracting.
The Illinois State product "had no idea what to expect" when the Royals called his name in June, but he has embraced the adjustments to a long year of playing baseball."I couldn't ask for a better organization than the Royals," the 21-year-old outfielder said. "To be able to play with Lexington, they've made it a super-easy transition. You dream of nights like this as a kid. I'm having a lot of fun."The teams stay in Hickory for Game 2 at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday. 2ff7e9595c
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