After defining the Yardbirds' sound for a year and a half through several groundbreaking,  singles and one masterpiece of an album, Jeff Beck boarded a plane in Corpus Christi, Texas on this date in 1966, leaving the Yardbirds midway through a Dick Clark Caravan of Stars Tour. As the band finished recording Roger the Engineer in June, original bassist Paul Samwell Smith left the band. Jimmy Page was brought in first as a replacement on bass and later - after rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja shifted to bass - as co-lead guitarist. The band toured the US and then returned to London in the fall, where they recorded three songs.  The first, " Happenings Ten Years Time Ago " (with John Paul Jones on bass) had been started a few months earlier. It is a frenetic bit of freakbeat, featuring the eastern motifs, distortion, and feedback fans had come to expect of Beck. Page's playing is distinctive. Released late in October, it didn't do well on the charts. The flip side, ...

 Sixty five years ago, on October 26, the Miles Davis Quintet assembled for a recording session that yielded most of the Cookin' and Relaxin' albums and a tune apiece that appeared on the Workin' and Steamin'  discs. The other tracks on those albums were recorded in a one day session earlier that year. Four quality albums, not bad for two days of work.

What's the best concert film?  That's a tough one. It depends. Many would say Stop Making Sense , it's a good performance, but it is edited together from three separate shows. Others would say The Last Waltz , but the running order of the show has been altered, probably timed to give viewers a bathroom break during Neil Diamond's segment. Consider, however, Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Rust Never Sleeps, filmed this week (10-22) in 1978 at the Cow Palace. It is a single show. Neil has some sort of concept in mind. the Jawas from Star Wars manage the stage. There are some gigantic trunks that Neil climbs around on. I guess he is a child, or maybe an action figure to fit in with the Jawas. The title was suggested by one of the guys from Devo. We get a flashback to Woodstock. It seems to be uncut. Note that there are some slow parts as Neil washes the spit out of his harmonica by sloshing it around in a bucket of water. It sounds like the bucket is miked.  It's Nei...