A Brief History of the Yardbirds
The Stomping Ground of Guitar Gods
The name ‘The Yardbirds’ might only vaguely strike a chord with many music listeners, whereas anyone who is the least bit familiar with rock music (or music in general) will know the names and be familiar with the work of Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin. The work of Cream and Derek and the Dominoes lives on, as does Jeff Beck’s solo work.
Yet the band that saw Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck rise to notoriety has been lost in the shadow cast by its most prolific alums.
An Early History and Eric Clapton
Formed in London in 1962, the original guitar-godless Yardbirds, featuring Keith Relf on vocals, Chris Dreja on rhythm guitar, Paul Samwell-Smith on bass, Jim McCarty on drums and Anthony ‘Top’ Topham on lead guitar, build a following in local blues clubs with their renditions of blues staples.
They had established themselves as a reputable blues-rock band by the time Eric Clapton stepped in to replace Topham on lead guitar and added the necessary extra talent to the original lineup that could not be ignored.
The Yardbirds signed with EMI and released a live album, Five Live Yardbirds, in 1964. From there the band began to diverge from their blues roots, releasing the more radio-friendly pop gem ‘For Your Love’ in 1965 and garnering much more attention in the UK and in the United States for the first time as well. This deviation from the blues was unacceptable for Clapton and his tenure with the band ended in early 1965.
A New Direction with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page
Clapton had recommended London studio musician Jimmy Page as his replacement in the Yardbirds but, as Alan Di Perna writes in 'Rising Stars' in the March 2009 issue of Guitar World Page was currently doing well enough as a studio musician that joining the Yardbirds was not as lucrative as his work as a session guitarist. Page declined the offer and in turn recommended his friend Jeff Beck (Page and Beck were old friends, Page having attended art school with Beck’s older sister).
Thus began Jeff Beck’s stint as lead guitarist for the Yardbirds.
With the less conventional Beck on lead guitar, the Yardbirds began to experiment with a variety of new musical sounds and styles. In 'Beck to the Future,' Guitar World June 20009, Di Perna points out that Beck’s overdriven, feedback-drenched guitar sounds were a key element of this new sound, breaking from the blues-structured playing of Clapton for songs built around lengthier guitar solos and tempo shifts.
The band’s sound further changed when bassist Samwell-Smith quit the group in June 1966 and Jimmy Page was again asked to join the group. This time Page was ready to leave behind session work for a more creative environment. He briefly served as bassist for the Yardbirds before guitarist Chris Dreja switched to bass, leaving Beck and Page to handle guitar duties for the band.
The dual guitar sounds of Beck and Page were short lived, producing a handful of live shows and a few recordings, such as the standout ‘Happenings Ten Years Time Ago,’ before Beck left the group mid-tour in October 1966. Page was left to lead the rest of the group as a quartet for the remainder of the tour and their 1960s recording career.
The Yardbirds Become Led Zeppelin
The Yardbirds soldiered on as a four-piece band, having memorable live shows in which Page continued to push the experimental envelope through, utilizing, among other things, the sounds produced by a wah-wah pedal and by raking a violin bow across the strings of his guitar, a technique he would later implement in Led Zeppelin.
The Yardbirds were touching on material that would become songs such as Led Zeppelin’s ‘Dazed and Confused’ and yet they were releasing pop singles which were failing to chart anywhere near as high as singles released in the Clapton and Beck era Yardbirds.
By July 1968 Keith Relf and Jim McCarty left the band and Page and Dreja decided to continue the band in a new heavier rock format. The search for a new lead singer for the Yardbirds led to Robert Plant, a then-unknown singer from Birmingham. Plant recommended his friend John Bonham as the new drummer for the band.
As Di Perna points out in 'Rising Stars,' when Dreja decided to leave the band Page brought in fellow session musician John Paul Jones to play bass in the new Yardbirds lineup. The lineup of Page, Plant, Bonham, and Jones, which would shortly take the world by storm as Led Zeppelin, began touring as ‘The Yardbirds, Featuring Jimmy Page.’
It wasn’t until after recordings with this new lineup began that the name Led Zeppelin came into existence and the Yardbirds ceased to exist.
A Reformation of the Yardbirds
In the 1990s original band members Jim McCarty and Chris Dreja reformed the Yardbirds. They released the album ‘Birdland’ in 2003 and a live album, ‘Live at B.B. King Blues Club,’ in 2007. The band's official website, www.theyardbirds.com, provides further details as to the current lineup and activities of the band.
And though they are again without a guitar giant along the lines of Clapton, Beck or Page, the band that helped these greats cut their musical teeth plays on.
The Yardbirds- Clapron Era
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