Why is The Yardbirds’ Having A Rave Up on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Yeah, smokestack lightning. Don’t you hear me calling?
Some stats & info about The Yardbirds – Having A Rave Up
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? British Bands, British Invasion, Rock Music, Blues Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Having A Rave Up released? 1965
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #639 out of 1,000
The Yardbirds’ Having A Rave Up on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.
What does The Yardbirds’ Having A Rave Up mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
At some point during my childhood, I was reading about the 1960s rock scene and stumbled across the term “conservative mod” with regard to fashion (it was probably something to do with The Doors and Ray Manzarek but I can’t quite recall).
That term always stuck with me, and it’s something I think about in terms of both style and music with respect to the mid-1960s particularly. It’s one of my most favorite musical eras. Things are changing during that era quickly in terms of culture and society, but we’re still far off from the late ‘60s, with the counterculture fully subsuming popular culture.
Conservative mod fashion to me representatives hair getting a little longer and shaggier but still pretty kempt. Bands still often wore coats and ties, but they were cool as hell coats and ties. And the music kind of has that feel as well in some ways. There are tinges of experimentation and psychedelia and influences streaming in – ranging wildly from surf rock from the U.S. west coast to India in the east – but overall there are still traditional structures in rock music, with a heavy influence of the blues.
The Yardbirds’ “Heart Full of Soul,” off of Having A Rave Up (sometimes called Having A Rave Up With the Yardbirds) is the perfect example of conservative mod-in-music. It’s got a dusting of psychedelic rock influence while overall it’s a fun, stomping rock ‘n roll ride with great soaring vocals from the band.
“Evil Hearted You” has a similar vibe, though it’s worth mentioning that The Yardbirds’ musicianship and song writing chops are way in the upper tier of bands from this era (which makes perfect sense when you consider the lineup overtime included the likes of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and a gentleman named Jimmy Page), which conjures an absolutely unique sound.
Having A Rave Up includes several live tracks. “I’m A Man” is fun, though the studio version (also on the album) is far better. The best live track is called “Smokestack Lightning,” a fun, rollicking British blues rock number.
Also see: The Yardbirds – For Your Love: #761 of best 1,000 albums ever