The Yardbirds lived in the era of Mersey-beat ditties and of teenage idols,
but represented a far more mature kind of rock music. Their experiments
were several years ahead of their time.
Their three successive guitarists would start three
of the most influential British bands of all time: Jeff Beck Group, Cream,
and Led Zeppelin.
Although never as famous as other bands of the British Invasion, the
Yardbirds were innovators of momentous importance.
First and foremost, the Yardbirds are the band that
established the supremacy of the guitar, granting
dignity to the rock solo and pioneering the use of dissonant techniques
such as feedback and fuzztone.
They invented the "rave-up," the fast, wild, reckless blues spasm that would
serve as the foundation of rock music for the rest of the decade.
Roger The Engineer (Epic, 1966) was a tour de force of guitar
and rhythm experimentation. Garage-rock, hard-rock,
progressive-rock and acid-rock all owe their existence to the Yardbirds.
It is not a coincidence that their three successive guitarists would start three
of the most influential British bands of all time: Jeff Beck Group, Cream,
Led Zeppelin.
(Translated by Ornella C. Grannis from
my original Italian text)
In the beginning (1963) they were simply the best versed and the most
faithful disciples of Chicago blues. They were the ones to replace the
Rolling Stones in the blues clubs in the London neighborhood of Richmond
when Jagger and Co. became stars. But the Yardbirds, unlike the Stones,
had a clean sound and a more serious attitude, both professionally and
personally. Nor were they like the the Animals, whose sound centered
around the singer and the organ.The Yardbirds' focus on the the guitar
was an exquisitely technical contribution to the evolution of rock style.
Prodigy Eric Clapton was at the guitar, and around his sound the rhythm
guitar of Chris Dreja, the drums of Jim McCarty and the harmonica of the
singer Keith Relf served as able collaborators. The structure of the band
and their choice of repertoire got them close to black musicians. They
secured a friendship with American bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller),
with whom they toured. After booking a long engagement at George Gomelsky's
Crawdaddy Club, the band made their first recordings there, as Williamson's
backup band, although those tracks were released some years later.
Their first record on their own was Five Live Yardbirds (1964), full of
hyper-kinetic blues, which yielded them a discreet following in the United
States. Most memorable are the skillful jams graced by Clapton's solos,
in particular the one in Smokestack Lightning, with a spectacular
call-and-response between guitar and harmonica.
In march 1965 they reached the charts with For Your Love, written
by Graham Gouldman and produced by Gomelsky, a piece full of special
effects: bongo tapping, ringing guitars, and Brian Auger's crackling
harpsichord. It was backed with
the instrumental Got To Hurry, recorded in the summer of 1964,
that boasted one of the first guitar feedbacks of rock music
(Johnny Watson had pioneered feedback in the 1950s).
The followup album, For Your Love (1965), exploited the
success of the 45, presenting a much more watered down blues, as in I
Wish You Would.
The band abandoned that rigid imitative vision of the blues when Jeff
Beck and his guitar distortions succeeded Clapton. Beck conceived the
guitar not only as an electric instrument but as an electronic one as
well. With him the band developed a more creative and exciting sound,
taking inspiration from Gregorian chants and all sorts of sound effects.
Producers Gouldman and Gomelsky are the brains behind Heart Full Of Soul
and Evil Hearted You (June and October of 1965), with yet another
passionate guitar solo and ethereal vocalization. Having A Rave Up,
released in november 1965 (no January 1966 like some sources say,
my source is an eyewitness, Allan Peters), also features Still I'm Sad, a dark depressive
vortex accompanied by
a Gregorian chant of low voices, and a reved-up classic blues, I'm A Man.
In August they released their second studio album Yardbirds '65 (Epic,
1966), one of the best of the year. Also known as Roger The Engineer and as
Over Under Sideways Down,
this record is full of feedback and tribalism, as in Hot House Of
Omagarashid, swinging instrumentals, such as Jeff's Boogie, acid and
oriental sound, as in Over Under Sideways Down, dreamy melodies such
as Turn Into Earth, Chuck Berry style rock and roll such as What Do You
Want, and old style blues as in Lost Woman. This eclectic range of
experiments culminates with Happening Ten Years Time Ago (the 45 of the
fall of 1966), an historic duet between Beck and then veteran session-man Jimmy
Page that transcends itself, becoming a piece of chamber music a la Edgar
Varese. Few albums of 1966 are so imbued with psychedelic and Indian music.
Beck's guitar is a solid emulation of the sitar.
Their last hit was the psychedelic Shapes Of Things (written by Mike
Hugg, Manfred Mann's drummer) with a rhythmic and melodic crescendo
built distortion by distortion. Their last fabulous blues is New York
City Blues (May 1966).
In 1967, after rearranging the lineup, with Page in place of Beck, the
Yardbirds recorded mediocre cuts. The year after they disbanded.
That was the year of Dazed And Confused, characterized by a sound effect
obtained by drawing a violin bow across the strings of the guitar. The
song, and the special effect, appeared two years later on the first album
by Led Zeppelin.
The three guitarists continued to be celebrated in their respective bands:
the Jeff Beck Group, Cream
and Led Zeppelin. Singer Keith Relf died
in 1976.
The double CD Ultimate (Rhino, 2001) is an anthology (finally!) of their
entire career.
Keith Relf and Jim McCarty later formed Renaissance and finally Armageddon (1974 - Esoteric, 2009),
a supergroup with drummer Bobby Caldwell of Captain Beyond and Steamhammer's guitarist Martin Pugh and bassist Louis Cennamo.
Keith Relf died in 1976.
Giorgio Gomelsky died in january 2016.
