yardbirds - i'm a man

speaking of the yardbirds and bo diddley, here's a song they stole from him to great effect. in the wake of their version came a generation of u.s. teen-snot garage bands like the count five of "psychotic reaction" fame and all the bands on those fort worth teen scene comps. this first clip is live and while yeah, they do look like douchebags, especially the guy with the maracas, you can see how jeff beck pioneered the use of electric gtrs as noise generators -- a useful concept.



in this clip, they're lip-synching, but you can hear how powerful the record sounded. hearing it when i was 13 hit me as hard as live at leeds, hendrix at monterey, kick out the jams, and the tv broadcast of the stooges at the cincinnati pop festival. after this, i was _hooked_.