At Six O'Clock The Moon Came Out

Although the previous single had a very lackluster chart showing, Mickey Most used another tune by an outside writer to try to boost the Yardbirds flailing career.   This time he chose Ten Little Indians by up-and-coming singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson.  Released in October of 1967, what an odd little song this is, and this time around Jimmy Page was allowed to participate.   To a martial snare beat, there are some odd brass parts that pop in from nowhere then disappear into the darkness.  Between "six" and "five" Jimmy adds a strange pulsating guitar figure, then the song just builds and builds until the final verse drops to a scream and whisper (together) then the guitar goes bananas and the ever present drum beat continues until the song collapses.   It was all for naught as the song climbed no higher than #91 in the US charts.  But I find it weirdly intriguing and worth repeated listenings.  Certainly not in the class of their epic Jeff Beck-led guitar freak outs, but seemingly a better direction than their previous attempt at pop.