Our tribute page is ultimately about those great 1960s pioneers of rock, who despite their significant talents refused to chase the pop dollar, and instead walked a different, more satisfying path. In recent years Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty have taken The Yardbirds name back on the road again. However rather than just reprising or reworking a great history, they have uniquely built a new and energetic group, without seeing the need to chase old rock stars to somehow consolidate their legendary status. I was nervous a few years ago when I heard about a Yardbirds revival, but I needn't have been. Click the picture below to visit the official Yarbdirds website, and you'll see that it is possible to maintain a respectful past, while creating a dynamic and exciting future.
The Yardbirds are without a doubt one of the world greatest rock bands. Often referred to as the first 'supergroup', although this title is not entirely appropriate. As any music fan with a respectable level of knowledge can tell you The Yardbirds are these days known as the starting point for three of the greatest rock guitarists in history: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. Yet there is much more to them than this...
No one could have predicted the band's metamorphosis from their humble beginnings in the early '60s in the London suburbs as the Metropolis Blues Quartet. By 1963, they were calling themselves The Yardbirds, with a lineup featuring Keith Relf (vocals), Paul Samwell-Smith (bass), Chris Dreja (rhythm guitar), Jim McCarty (drums), and Anthony "Top" Topham (lead guitar). The 16-year-old Topham was only to last for a very short time, pressured to leave by his family. His replacement was an art-college classmate of Relf's, Eric Clapton.
The Yardbirds quickly made a name for themselves in London's rapidly exploding R&B circuit, taking over the Rolling Stones' residency at the famous Crawdaddy club. The band took similar guitar-based, frenetic approaches to classic blues/R&B as the Stones.
The Yardbirds made their first recordings as a backup band for Chicago blues great Sonny Boy Williamson, and little of their future greatness is evident in these sides, in which they were still developing their basic chops. (Some tapes of these live shows were issued after the group had become international stars; the material has been reissued ad infinitum since then.) But they really didn't find their footing until 1964, when they stretched out from straight R&B into extended, frantic guitar-harmonica instrumental passages. Calling these ad hoc jams "raveups," the Yardbirds were basically making the blues their own by applying a fiercer, heavily amplified electric base. Taking some cues from improvisational jazz by inserting their own impassioned solos, they would turn their source material inside out and sideways, heightening the restless tension by building the tempo and heated exchange of instrumental riffs to a feverish finale, expertly cooling down and switching to a lower gear just at the point where the energy seemed uncontrollable. The live 1964 album Five Live Yardbirds is the best document of their early years, consisting entirely of reckless interpretations of U.S. R&B/blues numbers, and displaying the increasing confidence and imagination of Clapton's guitar work.
The Yardbirds did make efforts to crack the pop market in the beginning. A couple of fine studio singles of R&B covers were recorded with Clapton that gave the band's sound a slight polish without sacrificing its power. The commercial impact was modest in the U.K. and non-existent in the US, and the group decided to change direction radically on their third single. Turning away from their blues roots entirely, "For Your Love" introduced many traits that would characterize the Yardbirds' work over the next two years. The melodies were strange twisted combinations of minor chords; tempos slowed, speeded up, or ground to a halt unpredictably; the harmonies were droning, the arrangements were, by the standards of the time, utterly weird, though retaining enough pop appeal to generate chart action. It reached number two in Britain, and number six in the US.
For all its brilliance, "For Your Love" precipitated a major crisis in the band. Eric Clapton wanted to stick close to the blues, and for that matter didn't like "For Your Love," barely playing on the record. Shortly afterward, around the beginning of 1965, he left the band in order to keep playing blues guitar. Clapton's spot was first offered to Jimmy Page, one of the hottest session players in Britain; Page turned it down, but did recommend another guitarist, Jeff Beck, then playing with the Tridents, as well as having worked sessions himself.
While Beck's stint with the band lasted only 18 months, in this period he did more to influence the sound of '60s rock guitar than anyone except Hendrix. Clapton saw the group's decision to record adventurous pop as a sellout. Beck, on the other hand, saw this material as a challenge that offered room for experimentation. But he was also capable R&B player as well; on tracks like "The Train Kept A-Rollin'" and "I'm Not Talking," he coaxed a sinister sustain from his instrument by bending the notes and using fuzz and distorted amplification. The Middle Eastern influence extended to his work on all of their material, including his first single with the band, "Heart Full of Soul". After initial attempts to record the song with a sitar had failed, Beck saved the day by emulating the instrument's exotic twang with fuzz riffs of his own. It became their second transatlantic Top Ten hit; the similar "Evil-Hearted You," gave them another big British hit later in 1965.
The chief criticism that could be levied against the band at this point was their shortage of quality original material, a gap addressed by "Still I'm Sad," a haunting group composition based around a Gregorian chant and Beck's sinewy, wicked guitar riffs. In the US it was coupled with "I'm a Man," a re-haul of a Bo Diddley classic that built to an astounding climax, Beck scraping the strings of the guitar for a purely percussive effect; it became a Top 20 hit in the US in early 1966. Beck's guitar pyrotechnics came to fruition with "Shapes of Things," which can justifiably be called one of the first psychadelic rock classics. Beck's explosively warped solo and feedback propelling the single near the US Top Ten. At this point the group were as innovative as any in rock, building their résumé with the follow-up "Over Under Sideways Down."
The Yardbirds couldn't claim to be as consistent as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, or The Kinks. 1966's Roger the Engineer was their first studio album, and comprised entirely of original material, it highlighted the group's erratic quality, between derivative blues rockers and numbers incorporating monks-of-doom chants, Oriental dance rhythms, and good old guitar raveups, sometimes in the same track. Its highlights, however, were truly thrilling. They serve as proof that the band was second to none in their appetite for taking risks.
At the same time, the group's cohesiveness began to unravel when bassist Samwell-Smith, who had shouldered most of the production responsibilities left the band in mid-1966. Jimmy Page, by this time fed up with session work, eagerly joined on bass. It quickly became apparent that Page had more to offer, and the group unexpectedly reorganized, Dreja switching from rhythm guitar to bass, and Page assuming dual lead guitar duties with Beck.
It was a lineup that was too good to be true, or at least to last long. Only one single was recorded with the Beck/Page lineup, "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," which, with its astral guitar leads, muffled explosions, eerie harmonies, and enigmatic lyrics, was psychedelia at its pinnacle.
Around this time, the group made a memorable appearance in Michaelangelo Antonioni's film classic Blow Up, playing a reworked version of "The Train Kept-A-Rollin'" (retitled "Stroll On"). But in late 1966, Beck, who had become increasingly unreliable, not turning up for some shows and suffering from nervous exhaustion — left the band.
The remaining Yardbirds were to continue as a quartet, but in hindsight it was Beck's departure that began to burn out a band that had already survived the loss of a couple important original members. Also to blame was their mysterious failure to summon original material on the order of their classic 1965-1966 tracks. The band's unbridled experimentalism would simmer in isolated moments on some b-sides and album tracks, like "Puzzles," the psychedelic U.F.O. instrumental "Glimpses," and the acoustic "White Summer," which would serve as a blueprint for Page's acoustic excursions with Led Zeppelin. "Little Games," "Ha Ha Said the Clown," and "Ten Little Indians" were all low-charting singles for the group in 1967. The Little Games album (issued in the US only) was little better.
The Yardbirds continued to be an exciting concert act, concentrating most of their energies upon the United States. The b-side of their final single "Think About It," was the best track of the entire Jimmy Page era, showing they were still capable of delivering intriguing, energetic psychedelia. By 1968 an artistic rift developed within the ranks. Relf and McCarty wanted to pursue more acoustic, melodic music, while Jimmy Page wanted to rock hard and loud. A live album was recorded in New York in early 1968, but scrapped; overdubbed with unbelievably cheesy crowd noises, it was briefly released in 1971 after Page had become a superstar, but was withdrawn in a matter of days. By this time the group was going through the motions, leaving Page holding the bag after a final show in mid-1968. Relf and McCarty formed the first incarnation of Renaissance. Page fulfilled existing contracts by assembling a "New Yardbirds" that, as many know, would soon change their name to Led Zeppelin.
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