Yardbirds' biographer Gregg Russo describes the conditions and equipment for recording at the club as less than ideal, but they were able to capitalise on their greater popularity compared to the Crawdaddy.

[3] He adds: The recording date for the album has been previously listed as Tuesday, 10 March, 1964, but Gomelsky distinctly remembers the show taking place at Wardour Street.

[6] Clapton biographer David Bowling described the album as "a lot of straight electric blues, but at times they come close to a rock sound.

[8] Bo Diddley's "Here 'Tis" and the Isley Brothers' "Respectable" are high-energy tunes, which represent the use of the double-time feature of the rave up for the entire songs.

[8] AllMusic critic Matthew Greenwald describes "Here 'Tis" as "driven by a furious "Bo Diddley" beat and rhythm ... Clapton's interplay with bassist Paul Samwell-Smith is one of the great moments in the band's recorded history".

[10] The slow blues standard, "Five Long Years", features extended guitar soloing by Clapton in a style he further developed with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers.

[11] Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man" (which became a hit when the Yardbirds later recorded it with Jeff Beck) and songs by Slim Harpo and John Lee Hooker round out the album.

[1] Clapton biographer Christopher Sandford writes that when the album was released "to generally favourable reviews ('Raucous interplay ... great guitar ... feral energy of the ensemble') it, too, failed to materially benefit [sic] the group.

AllMusic's Eder awarded it four and a half out of five stars and described it as "the first important – indeed, essential – live album to come out of the 1960s British rock & roll boom.

[13] In a separate review for AllMusic, Rick Clark noted "Smokestack Lightning" [and other songs] were open-ended improvisations that helped lay the groundwork for groups like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.