The Yardbirds

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Biography

The Yardbirds are an English rock music|rock band that had a string of hits in the mid 1960s, including " For Your Love ", " Over Under Sideways Down " and " Heart Full of Soul ". The group is notable for having started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton , Jeff Beck , and Jimmy Page , all of whom were in the top five of ''Rolling Stone's 100 Top Guitarists list (Clapton as #2, Page as #3, and Beck at #5). A blues -based band that broadened its range into pop and rock, The Yardbirds were pioneers in guitar innovations of the 1960s: Distortion (music)|fuzz tone , audio feedback|feedback , Distortion (guitar)|distortion , backwards echo, improved amplification, etc. Pat Pemberton, writing for Spinner (website)|Spinner , holds that the Yardbirds were "the most impressive guitar band in rock music".Pat Pemberton. . Spinner (website)|Spinner . Retrieved 21 June 2010. After the Yardbirds broke up in 1968, their current lead guitarist Jimmy Page founded what became Led Zeppelin .

The bulk of the band's most successful self-written songs came from bassist/producer Paul Samwell-Smith who, with singer/harmonica player Keith Relf , drummer Jim McCarty and rhythm guitarist/bassist Chris Dreja , constituted the core of the group. The band reformed in the 1990s, featuring McCarty, Dreja and new members. The Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

History

Beginnings

The band formed in the south-west London suburbs. Relf and Samwell-Smith were originally in a band named the Metropolitan Blues Quartet. After being joined by Dreja, McCarty and Topham in late May 1963, they decided to change the name, and after a couple of gigs in September 1963 as the Blue-Sounds, they settled on The Yardbird s, which was both an expression for hobos hanging around rail yards waiting for a train and also a reference to the jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker|Charlie "Yardbird" Parker .

At Kingston Art School in late May 1963 they first performed as a backup band for Cyril Davies , and achieved notice on the burgeoning British rhythm and blues scene in September 1963 when they took over as the house band at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, London|Richmond , succeeding The Rolling Stones . They drew their repertoire from the Chicago blues of Howlin' Wolf , Muddy Waters , Bo Diddley , Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James , including " Smokestack Lightning ", " Good Morning, School Girl|Good Morning Little School Girl ", " Boom Boom (John Lee Hooker song)|Boom Boom ", " I Wish You Would ", " Rollin' and Tumblin' ", and " I'm a Man (Bo Diddley song)|I'm a Man ".

Original lead guitarist (Anthony) Top Topham left and was replaced by Eric Clapton in October 1963. Crawdaddy Club impresario Giorgio Gomelsky became the Yardbirds' manager and first record producer. Under Gomelsky's guidance the Yardbirds signed to EMI 's Columbia Graphophone Company|Columbia label in February 1964. Their first album was the "live", Five Live Yardbirds , recorded at the legendary Marquee Club in London. Blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson II invited the group to tour England and Germany with him, a union that later engendered another live album.

Breakthrough success and Clapton departure

The quintet cut two singles, " I Wish You Would " and " Good Morning, School Girl ", before their third, " For Your Love ", a Graham Gouldman composition, provided their first major hit. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a music recording sales certification|gold disc . Clapton, at the time a blues purist, left the group in protestSchumacher, Michael (2003). Crossroads: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton , pp. 44-45. Citadel Press. ISBN 0806524669. to join John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers . Clapton recommended Jimmy Page , a prominent young studio session guitarist, as his replacement. Page, uncertain about giving up his lucrative studio work and worried about his health, recommended in turn his friend Jeff Beck . April 1966: Hit Parader He played his first gig with the Yardbirds only two days after Clapton's departure in May 1965.

Jeff Beck's tenure

Beck's experiments with fuzz tone , feedback, and distortion fit well into the increasingly raw style of British beat music and the Yardbirds began to experiment, producing arrangements reminiscent of Gregorian chant and various European and Asian styles ("Still I'm Sad", "Turn Into Earth", "Hot House of Omagarashid", "Farewell", "Ever Since The World Began") though their commercial appeal began to wane. Beck was voted #1 lead guitarist of 1966 in the British music magazine Beat Instrumental .

The Beck-era Yardbirds produced a number of memorable recordings, single hits like "Heart Full of Soul", Bo Diddley's " I'm a Man (Bo Diddley song)|I'm A Man ", and " Shapes of Things " and the Roger the Engineer|Yardbirds album (known popularly as Roger the Engineer and first issued in the U.S. in an abridged version called Over Under Sideways Down ).

The Yardbirds embarked on their first U.S. tour in late August, 1965. A pair of albums was put together for the U.S. market; For Your Love (which included an early take of "My Girl Sloopy"), and ''Havin' A Rave Up With The Yardbirds , half of which came from Five Live Yardbirds''. There were three more U.S. tours during Beck's time with the group. A brief European tour took place in April 1966.

The Beck/Page line-up

In June 1966, shortly after the sessions that produced Yardbirds (aka, Roger The Engineer ), Samwell-Smith decided to leave the group and work as a record producer. Jimmy Page agreed to play bass until rhythm guitarist Dreja had rehearsed on that instrument. The Beck-Page tandem is heard on the single " Happenings Ten Years Time Ago " (a psychedelic rock highlight), though this featured Beck and Page on twin lead guitar, with John Paul Jones (musician)|John Paul Jones on bass: it was backed with "Psycho Daisies", which featured Beck on lead guitar and Page on bass (the B-side of the U.S. single, "The Nazz Are Blue", features a rare lead vocal by Beck).
The Beck-Page era Yardbirds also recorded "Stroll On", a rendering of " Train Kept A-Rollin' " recorded for the Michelangelo Antonioni film Blowup , though Relf changed the lyrics and title to avoid seeking permission from the copyright holder. "Stroll On" features a twin lead-guitar break by Beck and Page. Their appearance in Blowup came after The Who declined and Tomorrow (band)|The In-Crowd were unable to attend the filming. The Velvet Underground were also considered for the part but were unable to acquire UK work permits.Bockris, Victor; Malanga, Gerard. Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story (2002): 107 Director Michelangelo Antonioni instructed Beck to smash his guitar in emulation of The Who's Pete Townshend : the guitar that Beck smashes at the end of their set is a cheap German-made Hofner instrument.

The Beck-Page lineup recorded little else in the studio and no live recordings of the dual-lead guitar lineup have surfaced (save a scratchy cover of the Velvet Underground's " I'm Waiting for the Man "). The Beck-Page Yardbirds recorded a commercial for a milkshake product "Great Shakes" using the opening riff of "Over Under Sideways Down", featured on 1992's Little Games Sessions & More compilation.

There was also one recording made by Beck and Page with John Paul Jones (musician)|John Paul Jones on bass, Keith Moon on drums and Nicky Hopkins on piano — " Beck's Bolero ", a piece inspired by Maurice Ravel|Ravel 's "Bolero", credited to Page (Beck also claims to have written the song). "Beck's Bolero" was first released as the B-side of Beck's first solo single, " Hi Ho Silver Lining " and was included on his first album, Truth (Jeff Beck album)|Truth .

The Yardbirds' final days: the Page era

Jeff Beck|Beck was fired from the group after a tour stop in Texas in late October 1966; as such, the Yardbirds continued as a quartet for the remainder of their career. Page became the new lead guitarist and introduced his technique of playing with a Bow (music)|cello bow (suggested to him by session musician David McCallum, Sr. Fricke, David. Rolling Stone 12 June 2008) and the use of a wah-wah pedal .

Meanwhile, the Yardbirds' commercial fortunes were declining. "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" had only reached No. 30 on the U.S. Hot 100 and had fared even worse in Britain. A partnership with Columbia's hit-making producer, Mickie Most , failed to reignite their commercial success. The "Little Games" single released in spring 1967 flopped so badly in the UK that EMI did not release another Yardbirds record there until after the band broke up (a UK release of the "Goodnight Sweet Josephine" single was planned the following year, but was eventually cancelled). A version of Tony Hazzard 's "Ha Ha Said the Clown" — on which only one band member, Relf, actually performed — was the band's last single to crack the U.S. Top 50, peaking at No. 44 in Billboard in the summer of 1967. Their final album, Little Games , released in America in July, was a commercial and critical non-entity. A cover of Harry Nilsson 's " Ten Little Indians (Harry Nilsson song)|Ten Little Indians " hit the U.S. in the fall of 1967 and quickly sank.

The Yardbirds spent most of the rest of that year touring in the States with new manager Peter Grant (music manager)|Peter Grant , their live shows becoming heavier and more experimental. The band rarely played their 1967 singles on stage, preferring to mix the Beck-era hits with blues standards and covers from groups such as The Velvet Underground and American folk singer Jake Holmes , whose " Dazed and Confused (song)|Dazed and Confused ", with lyrics rewritten by Relf, was a live staple of the Yardbirds' last two American tours. The latter went down so well that Page selected it for the first Led Zeppelin record, on which it appears with Page credited as writer.

By 1968 Relf and McCarty wished to pursue a style influenced by folk and classical music while Page, at a time when the psychedelic blues-rock of Cream (band)|Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience was enormously popular, wanted to continue with the kind of "heavy" music for which Led Zeppelin would become famous. Dreja was developing an interest in photography. By March, Relf and McCarty had decided to leave, though the other two managed to persuade them to stay at least for one more American tour. The Yardbirds' final single, recorded in January and released two months later, reflected these divergences. The A-side, " Goodnight Sweet Josephine ", was in the same vein as their Mickie Most-produced singles of the previous year, while its B-side, "Think About It", featured a proto-Zeppelin Page riff and snippets of the "Dazed" guitar solo. This last single did not even crack the Hot 100.

A concert and some album tracks were recorded in New York City in March (including the currently unreleased song "Knowing That I'm Losing You", an early version of a track that would be re-recorded by Led Zeppelin as " Tangerine (Led Zeppelin song)|Tangerine ").Dave Lewis (1994), The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin , Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9. All were shelved at the band's request, although once Led Zeppelin were successful Epic tried to release the concert material as Live Yardbirds: Featuring Jimmy Page . The album was quickly withdrawn after Page's lawyers filed an injunction.

On 7 July 1968, the Yardbirds played their final gig at Luton College of Technology in Bedfordshire, England.Buckley, Peter (ed.) (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock , p. 1198. ISBN 1843531054.

The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin

Jimmy Page and Chris Dreja , with a tour slated for the fall in Scandinavia, saw the break-up as an opportunity to put a new lineup together with Page as producer and Grant as manager. Procol Harum 's B.J. Wilson, Paul Francis, and session man Clem Cattini , who'd guested on more than a few Yardbirds tracks under Most's supervision, were considered as drummers. Young vocalist and composer Terry Reid was asked to replace Relf but declined because of a new recording contract with Most and recommended the then-unknown Robert Plant .Dave Schulps, , Trouser Press , October 1977. Plant, in turn, recommended his childhood friend John Bonham on drums. Dreja bowed out to pursue a career as a rock photographer and bassist/keyboardist/arranger John Paul Jones (musician)|John Paul Jones — who, like Cattini, had worked with Page on countless sessions, including several with the Yardbirds — was recruited.Dominick A. Miserandino, , TheCelebrityCafe.com. Rehearsals began in August; in early September, Page's revised Yardbirds embarked on the Led Zeppelin Scandinavian Tour 1968|Scandinavian tour after which the group returned to England to produce an Led Zeppelin (album)|album , still billed as The Yardbirds as late as October 1968.

While Page's new roster still played a few songs from the Yardbirds' canon—usually "Train Kept A-Rollin'," "Dazed and Confused," or "For Your Love" — a name (and identity) change was in order as the fall of 1968 drew to a close. This may have been motivated, at least in part, by a cease-and-desist order from Dreja, who claimed that he maintained legal rights to the "Yardbirds" name;Wall, Mick. When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin (2009): 72 other reports indicate it was Page's desire to wipe the slate clean. Whatever the reason, the band restyled itself " Led Zeppelin ", a term believed to have been coined, originally, by Keith Moon in reference to the "supergroup" that had performed on "Beck's Bolero." Moon had quipped that a Page/Beck/Moon/Jones/Hopkins lineup would go down "like a "lead zeppelin." The spelling of "lead" was changed to avoid confusion over its pronunciation. This effectively closed the books on the Yardbirds — at least by name — for the next 24 years.

After the Yardbirds

Vocalist Keith Relf and drummer Jim McCarty formed an acoustic rock group called Together and then Renaissance (band)|Renaissance , which recorded two albums for Island Records over a two-year period. McCarty formed the group Shoot in 1973. Keith Relf, after producing albums for Medicine Head (with whom he also played bass) and Saturnalia (band)|Saturnalia , resurfaced in 1975 with a new quartet, Armageddon (A& M band)|Armageddon ; a hybrid of heavy metal music|heavy metal , hard rock and Folk music|folk influences, which now included former Renaissance bandmate Louis Cennamo . They recorded one promising album before Relf died in an electrical accident in his home studio on 14 May 1976. In 1977, Illusion (UK band)|Illusion was formed, featuring a reunited lineup of the original Renaissance, including drummer Jim McCarty and Keith's sister Jane Relf .

In the 1980s Jim McCarty, Chris Dreja and Paul Samwell-Smith formed a short-lived but fun Yardbirds semi-reunion called Box of Frogs , which occasionally included Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page plus various friends with whom they had all recorded over the years. Jim McCarty was also part of 'The British Invasion All-Stars' with members of Procol Harum , Creation, Nashville Teens, The Downliners Sect and The Pretty Things . Phil May (singer)|Phil May and Dick Taylor of The Pretty Things, together with drummer Jim McCarty, recorded 2 albums in Chicago as The Pretty Things-Yardbirds Blues Band "The Chicago Blues Tapes 1991" and "Wine, Women, Whiskey", both produced by George Paulus .

The Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. Nearly all the original surviving musicians who had been part of the group's heyday, including Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, appeared at the ceremony. Eric Clapton, whose Hall Of Fame induction here was the first of three, was unable to attend because of his obligations while recording and working on a show for the MTV Unplugged series. Accepting the induction on behalf of the late Keith Relf were his wife April and son Danny.

Reformation

In 1992 Peter Barton from Rock Artist Management contacted Jim McCarty about the prospect of reforming The Yardbirds. Jim was interested but only if Chris Dreja would agree, but at the time Jim thought it highly unlikely that Chris would want to tour again. Peter Barton then contacted Chris Dreja, who after some gentle persuasion agreed to give it a try. Their debut gig was booked at The Marquee club in London along with the newly reformed Animals. It was a great success.The lineup featured John Idan handling bass and lead vocals. Peter Barton managed the band and booked all their dates for over a decade. Peter still works with the band on occasion.

In 2003, a new album, Birdland (2003 Yardbirds recording)|Birdland , was released under the Yardbirds name on the Favored Nations label by a lineup including Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, and new members Gypie Mayo (lead guitar, backing vocals), John Idan (bass, lead vocals) and Alan Glen (harmonica, backing vocals), which consisted of a mixture of new material mostly penned by McCarty and re-recordings of some of their greatest hits, with guest appearances by Joe Satriani , Steve Vai , Slash (musician)|Slash , Brian May , Steve Lukather , Jeff "Skunk" Baxter , John Rzeznik , Martin Ditchum and Simon McCarty. Also, Jeff Beck reunited with his former bandmates on the song "My Blind Life". And then there was the rare and improbable guest appearance on stage in 2005 by their first guitarist from the sixties, Top Topham.

Since the release of Birdland, Gypie Mayo has been briefly replaced by Jerry Donahue , and subsequently in 2005 by the then 22-year-old Ben King (guitarist)|Ben King , while Alan Glen has been replaced by Billy Boy Miskimmin from Nine Below Zero fame.

In 2007 the Yardbirds released a live CD, recorded on July 19, 2006, entitled Live At B.B. King Blues Club (Favored Nations), featuring the McCarty, Dreja, Idan, King and Miskimmin line-up.

The first episode of the 2007/2008 season for The Simpsons featured The Yardbirds' "I'm A Man" from the CD "Live At B.B. King Blues Club" (Favored Nations).

According to his website, John Idan resigned from the Yardbirds in August 2008, although his last gig with them was on Friday 24 April 2009, when they headlined the first concert in the new Live Room venue at Twickenham rugby stadium. This was also Alan Glen's last gig with the band after temporarily standing in when Billy Boy Miskimmin was unavailable.

Idan and Glen were replaced by Andy Mitchell (lead vocals, harmonica, acoustic guitar) and David Smale (bass, backing vocals), brother of the virtuoso guitarist Jonathan Smale.

Members

Discography

: See The Yardbirds discography

Copyright Citations

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