The Yardbirds In The 1960's

In the 1960’s there were many cultural changes in music. Rock and roll has been around for decades and has inspired many artists around the world such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Pink Floyd, The Who, and The Monkees. One of the great rock and roll bands that influenced new styles of rock is The Yardbirds. The Yardbirds formed in the 1960’s and had Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page play in the band, all of which were legendary guitarist. These three figures did much to shape the group's sound, but throughout their career, the Yardbirds were very much a unit (Larkin 479). The backbone of The Yardbirds consisted of vocalist Keith Relf, rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja, bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, and drummer Jim McCarty (Larkin 479). However, they were most famous for their succession of lead guitarists, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. These three musicians would soon become superstars after their appearance with The Yardbirds. Under Eric Clapton the Yardbirds played R&B with long improvisations called "rave-ups" in which they would alter tempo and volume. Turning away from their blues roots entirely The Yardbirds then recorded the pop song, "For Your Love," and this became their first hit. Uncomfortable with the band's commercial direction,
Clapton left to pursue pure blues in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (Warren 92). Guitar wizard Jeff Beck then joined the band replacing Eric Clapton and transformed the Yardbirds into trailblazing musical pioneers (Warren 92).
Innovating with fuzztone and feedback, they produced classics. When Samwell-Smith left the band, musician Jimmy Page was recruited as bassist until Dreja could learn the bass. After Dreja mastered the bass Page then moved up as second lead guitarist alongside Beck. The new lineup recorded only four songs, which they preformed a couple of times. Then Beck decided to leave and go off on his own. While Beck's stint with the band only lasted about 18 months, in this period he did a lot to influence the sound of 1960’s rock
guitar. When Beck left the group, Page moved up to the new lead guitarist and introduced his own musical visions and recorded the album “Little Games”. An odd mixture of pop songs and genius guitar playing, this album is most intriguing as a document of Page's early development, displaying many riffs and effects which were later redeveloped in Led Zeppelin. When the remaining members left, Page recruited vocalist Robert Plant, bassist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham, and debuted the band as the New Yardbirds, later renamed Led Zeppelin. The Yardbirds are considered "legendary", for although their recordings have lapsed into obscurity, their influence on guitar-driven rock is enduring and pervasive (Larkin 480). Clapton, Beck, and Page gave rise to the "guitar hero" displacing the singer as the focal point of the rock and roll band, and a legion of 1970s guitarists cited the Yardbirds as a major influence. In spite of their uneven recording history, the Yardbirds' small, experimental body of work places them just behind the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Who as a major band of the British Invasion.