The Yardbirds were part of that whole British Invasion thing back in the 1960's. They had a few songs that were big hits in both the UK and the US. You'd probably know some of these songs if you'd heard them but you most likely had no idea who recorded them. For some reason, they never reached the Rolling Stones/Animals/Kinks level in the consciousness of popular music. However, for those in the know (which in this case i am not claiming to be), Yardbirds may have been the best group of blues-lovin' Brits to ever plug in.I was not very familiar with these chaps until just a couple of years ago. Like most casual music fans, my knowledge was limited to knowing just enough to be able to answer a common trivia question about their guitarists. Despite not being a household name themselves, they managed to produce three household names from their ranks: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck & Jimmy Page. When you really think about that, it's kind of mind-blowing. Those three names would be included on anybody's "Top 20 Greatest Guitarists" list (well maybe not mine) and they all got their start in the same band.
Clapton was the first of these three, joining the in late 1963 and exiting in early 1965. After having a breakthrough hit and a gold record with "For Your Love," Clapton left out of protest because (get this) he was a "blues purist." So after ol' Slowhand headed out to join John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, he recommended Page. Page was making some good cash as a session guy so he suggested Beck. Yardbirds said ok. Beck did his thing from '65 to '66 then Page came in, originally on bass, a few months before Beck was fired. He stayed until the end of the group in '68 before forming a new Yardbirds lineup, later changing their name to Led Zeppelin.
Birthing three guitar gods made Yardbirds legendary but y'know what didn't? Their singer. Keith Relf was a good singer...and rice is good food. It's not that he was a bad singer by any means but he was just missing that extra something. Ray Davies had a snide punch to his vocals, Eric Burdon could sing the blues better than any other white boy, and Mick Jagger...is Mick Jagger. Whether it's fair or not, the vocalist is the key factor in a band becoming a hit. While musicians might pick out individual instruments, it's the vocals that stick in the common listener's heads. Without a singer who really stood out, the Yardbirds had their hits, still get played on the oldies station and 99 percent of the people you meet in a year have no idea who they are.
However, what they lacked in a stand-out vocalist was more than covered by their six-strings. There's a reason these guys are legends (though someone will have to explain one of those reasons to me). The Stones had swagger, The Animals had the blues and The Kinks had the hooks but none of them really pushed the boundaries. In The Yardbirds, you find two of the most inventive guitar players of all time (and Eric Clapton). These songs hold up in casual listens so if you're just singing along, you may occasionally miss the guitars but when you really pay attention, you notice some amazing stuff here. Even more importantly, you have to put these recordings into context. This album was released in 1965. That's the same year The Beatles released Help! and Rubber Soul. And just like those two albums, the sounds on this one laid the groundwork for things to come. This is the beginning of psychedelia, distortion and feedback in songs. This was when bands broke out of the sock-hops to make some noise. That perfect combination of familiarity and forward thinking is what makes the Yardbirds important.
Well, that and Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.
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The Youtube video i wanted to post won't allow me to embed so please follow the link and watch this amazing version of "I'm a Man" complete with raucous maracas, the Shindig dancers and an actual guitar god.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrABhokOxTQ
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