FRIDAY FLASHBACK âOver Under Sideways Downâ 55 years ago today there was an earth-shaking 45rpm shout-out, a greeting in 786 languages: "Hey!" It had the power to soldier dry bones and shatter despair in the rats alley of the poetâs heart. "Hey!" is battle cry, alarm, seduction, and party yell, heard in sports arenas, bazaars, bedrooms, street corners, and houses of worship. Itâs the "Hey!" in âOver Under Sideways Downâ by The Yardbirds.
"(Hey) Over under sideways down,
"(Hey) Backwards forwards square and round.
"When will it end? When will it end?"
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into manâs heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end."âSolomon, Book of Ecclesiastes.
The American version of the 60s was about busting away from The Establishment, inflamed by assassinations and racism. Conversely, the English version sought after a New Establishment, run by resilient entrepreneurs, able to absorb and transform culture into a thrilling invention of celebrity, crime, cuisine, fashion, film, fine art, media, satire, scandal, sexuality, and spirituality. "âOver Under Sideways Downâ was very much about the mood of the day," said Yardbirds co-founder/drummer Jim McCarty. The first verse is Keith Relfâs mudwrestling in self-judgement amidst the clamor of âSwinging Londonâ:
"Hey! Cars and girls are easy come by in this day and age,
"Laughing, joking, drinking, smoking, till I've spent my wage.
"When I was young, people spoke of immorality,
"All the things they said were wrong are what I want to be"
In his day, Relf voiced some fearlessly profound lyrics, touching on prejudice ((âMister Youâre a Better Man Than Iâ), the sin nature of man (âEver Since the World Beganâ), and the search for wisdom (âShapes of Thingsâ). Relf was photogenic but attempts to market him as a teen idol didnât fly. Instead, a mystique grew around him, perhaps caused by his scarcity of face time in the pages of 16 and Teen Beat.
"I find comments 'bout my looks irrelativity,
"Think I'll go and have some fun, âcos it's all for free.
Iâm not searching for a reason to enjoy myself
Seems itâs better than to argue with somebody elseâ
Guitar-titans Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page had career-launches in The Yardbirds. The band came with Relf and the sturdy rhythm section of drummer McCarty, bassist/guitarist Chris Dreja and bassist/producer Paul Samwell-Smith, and band members later laid hands on the careers of Cream, Led Zeppelin, Manfred Mann, Renaissance, Cat Stevens, and others.
âOver Under Sideways Downâ came about after the band was in a van on a drive after a gig. The radio was set to a 1950s rockânâroll program. Bill Haley & the Cometsâ âRock Around the Clockâ came on, with the walking bass line that informed âOUSD.â McCarty said they all cried, "Wow, if we could only write a song that good." The song has become a theme for art exhibits, and a median in a 2005 college course on philosophy. One student wrote, "Culture, or the arts, often beats out science to a âqualitativeâ explanation over a strictly formalized explanation (though it may be said that artists themselves haven't a clue as to what the meaning is)."
At 2:21 in the original recording, the "Heys!" get longer, like a Valhallan prayer reverberating long past the fade out, or like an echo of King Davidâs 39th Psalm. Like Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, Relf died "too young," but beyond their mortal coils, musicians of this caliber keep transmitting the art of what is possible.
"I thought Beck's signature riff on âOUSD was an electric violin! I had never heard an electric sound like that," said guitarist/singer-songwriter Michael Roe of the seminal California band, The 77s. Their muscular remake heightens the metaphysical rustle of the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UuxEuSA5Lo
#yardbirds #overundersidewaysdown #jeffbeck #jimmypage #keithrelf #jimmccarty #ledzeppelin #mikeroe #michaelroe #the77s #johnnyjblair
