Eric Clapton.
Jimmy Page.
Jeff Beck.
They might be the Holy Trinity of rock guitar gods. This trio has two things in common: Each is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and each first really came to fame with theYardbirds.
“The kind of music we played, blues, R&B and rock was a big platform for lead guitar,” said Jim McCarty, an original Yardbird. He will be here with the band that plays Savannah Center Thursday at 8 p.m.
Back in the mid ‘60s, during the height of the British Invasion, the Yardbirds took the States by storm.
“America was always the place for us,” McCarty said.
“When we were kids, we watched American movies and listened to American music,” McCarty said. “Kids in London loved America.”
And the kids livin’ in Chuck Berry’s USA loved the Yardbirds. The band—inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 — combined blues, rock, R&B and jazz elements, with piercing guitar solos by Clapton, Beck and Page.
The Yardbirds’ hit list includes: “For Your Love,” “Heart Full of Soul,” “I’m A Man,” “Shapes of Things,” “Over Under Sideways Down,” “Happenings 10 Years Ago,” “Smokestack Lightning,” and “You’re A Better Man Than I.”
Here is a video with Page playing on “Heart Full of Soul.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Rolling Stone magazine stated the Yardbirds “virtually wrote the book on guitar-oriented, blues-based rock and roll. They were a crucial link between mid-Sixties British R&B and late-Sixties psychedelia, setting the groundwork for heavy metal.”
Clapton was the first Yardbirds’ guitar man. He was passionate about the blues and left the band when Clapton claimed he felt it was becoming too commercial. Clapton, best known for his solo work, went on to more fame with the band Cream, a band influenced by the Yardbirds.
Jeff Beck came along and was a big factor on the Yardbirds’ rise up the music charts. Most of the Yardbirds’ hit singles feature Beck.
“Jeff Beck was every bit as good as Eric,” McCarty said.
Eventually, Jimmy Page turned up and teamed with Beck for awhile.
“They had a rivalry, not on the surface but underneath,” McCarty said. “They were quite different personalities. Jimmy had been playing on sessions for other artists. He had everything all worked out.
“Jeff played off the top of his head. He liked to improvise. Jimmy loved playing in a band. Jeff loved to solo.”
Page and Beck can be seen playing with the Yardbirds in Michelangelo Antonioni’s classic ‘60s’ film, “Blow Up.” The Yardbirds play “Stroll On,” in the movie.
Eventually, something had to give between Page and Beck. Both left the Yardbirds and Beck formed his own band.
“Jimmy and Jeff had to be their own guy,” McCarty said.
Page left for a new band, Led Zeppelin. Zep took the Yardbirds’ sound and expanded it.
McCarty was asked when he first heard a Led Zeppelin record, did he think, “that’s us.”
“Yes,” McCarty replied. “We were part of all that. Jimmy asked me to hear some of the things he was working on. I felt 50 percent of it was just like us.”
Keith Relf, the late lead singer of the Yardbirds, is often overlooked due to the famed guitar players. But McCarty believes Relf was a big part of the band’s success.
It was Relf’s bluesy, hypnotic vocal on “For Your Love” and “Heart Full of Soul,” that helped the band breakthrough in America.
“Keith had an unusual, unique voice and always gave everything he had during a show,” McCarty said. Relf, who died in 1976, had suffered from emphysema and had only one lung.
“But he was an amazing singer and I miss him,” McCarty said.
McCarty was asked to comment on some of the Yardbirds songs:
Heart Full of Soul: “A real, moody song. A great guitar riff by Jeff.”
For Your Love: “Another moody song. Quite different and quite daring for its time. Up ‘till then we had just been a blues band. Eric didn’t think it was right.” (Clapton played on the song, but was upset about the “pop” sound and left soon after).
Happenings 10 Years Ago: “Sort of a social commentary and very spiritual in a way. It’s about looking back, and being reborn.”
Shapes of Things: “A great group composition. I think its as relevant today as it was then. I’m quite proud of this song.”
