VIDEO'S OF THE WEEK - THE YARDBIRDS

[Niels (Mod)]

VOTW - YARDBIRDS Special

The Yardbirds is widely know for being the band, that at some point had either Clapton, Beck and/or Page in the line-up, and the band that eventually developed into Led Zeppelin. If you were supposed to put up a top-5 of Yardbirds-songs, could you then do it? I couldn't. I own a double (or triple, can't remember?) "Best of The Yardbirds"-CD, that I bought some 12-13 years ago. I don't think, I've heard all the music more than once. Maybe I should give it another shot? Anyway, below are some examples of Yardbirds with different line-ups:

THE YARDBIRDS - LOUISE

"Louise" by The Yardbirds from the debut album Five Live Yardbirds (1964) line-up with Eric Clapton. The song was written by John Lee Hooker.

THE YARDBIRDS - FOR YOUR LOVE

"For Your Love" is a 1965 single written by future 10cc member Graham Gouldman and performed by the British Invasion band The Yardbirds. It peaked at number three on UK Singles Chart, and became their highest charting single in the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number six. Clapton did not approve of playing pop-songs, instead of blues, and left the band. Page was offered the job, but refused at first, since he was very busy with his session-work in the studio, and his health wasn't up for longer tours at that point, so he suggested Jeff Beck to the band.

THE YARDBIRDS - STROLL ON (TRAIN KEPT A ROLLIN)

A monster-riff. This clip is from the movie "Blow Out". I remember, I saw this movie before I knew of The Yardbirds, and I thought it was a "fake band". I always liked this version of the song, and the band with both Beck and Page is classic. Page was now feeling ready to be joining a band, and off course he chose The Yardbirds, and started out as the bass-player, and later shifted to "2.nd. guitar".

THE YARDBIRDS - HEART FULL OF SOUL

Probably the other Yardbirds-song (not including "Dazed And Confused, which I consider a "Zeppelin-track"), I would put on my top 5. Some Wikipedia-info: "Heart Full of Soul" is a 1965 single by the English rock band The Yardbirds. It was written by Graham Gouldman (again), who would later have a successful career as a member of 10cc. It charted in the United States at number nine and at number two in the United Kingdom. The song makes an early use of the fuzz box by guitarist Jeff Beck during the guitar solo. In one way or another, all three of The Yardbirds' key guitarists were involved with "Heart Full of Soul". Although it is Beck that plays on the song, the US single was released with a picture sleeve erroneously showing the Eric Clapton line-up. A March 1968 appearance on the music show Upbeat featured the final line-up with Jimmy Page miming to the record.

THE YARDBIRDS - DAZED AND CONFUSED

The group 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", 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 further revised lyrics and Page credited as writer.

 Following Beck's departure in October 1966, the Yardbirds, tired from constant touring and recording, began to wind down.Page wanted to form a supergroup with him and Beck on guitars, and the Whos' Keith Moon and John Entwhistle on drums and bass, respectively. Vocalists Steve Winwood and STEVE Marriott were also considered for the project. The group never formed, although Page, Beck, and Moon did record a song together in 1966, "Becks' Bolero", in a session that also included bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones.

The Yardbirds played their final gig in July 1968 at Luton College of Technology in Bedfordshire. They were still committed to several concerts in Scandinavia, so drummer Jim McCarty and vocalist Keith Relf authorised Page and bassist Chris Dreja to use "the Yardbirds" name to fulfill the band's obligations. Page and Dreja began putting a new line-up together. Page's first choice for the lead singer was Terry Reid, but Reid declined the offer and suggested Robert Plant, a singer for the Band of Joy and Hobbstweedle. Plant eventually accepted the position, recommending former Band of Joy drummer John Bonham. Jones inquired about the vacant position at the suggestion of his wife after Dreja dropped out of the project to become a photographer. Page had known Jones since they were both session musicians and agreed to let him join as the final member.

The band completed the Scandinavian tour as the New Yardbirds, playing together for the first time in front of a live audience at Gladsaxe Teen Clubs in Gladsaxe, Denmark, on 7 September 1968.

[Meow]

This is a tremendous example of what made the Yardbirds such a unique group in modern music history - over a span of 5 years they had 3 different guitarists, all of whom have the distinction of being in Rolling Stones' "top 5 guitarists" list.  Just in the slim chance someone reading doesn't know, they would be Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page.

[Niels (Mod)]

Thanks for commenting, Meow.

[RJhog (Admin)]

No, I could not make a Top 5 list.  I could probably make a Top 1 list, with For Your Love being at the top...and bottom.

Louise - Nothing special as far as the video goes, and the song isn't really my style.  But the guitar playing is terrific.  So who is the second guitarist?  I have no clue.  But they are jamming on this song.

For Your Love - And there it is.  What a killer song.  The tempo change is so cool.  I guess that this is the version with Jeff Beck.  That looked like him on guitar, but I'm not sure.  You sort of mentioned it, but I wasn't sure.  The video kind of cracks me up.  The band reminds me of The Mosquitos.  Anybody remember that band?  I'm willing to bet that Jon does.

Stroll On - Never heard of this movie.  You are correct sir, the riff is monster, killer and classic, all rolled into one.  I think this may be the first time I've heard this version.  I've definitely heard the Aerosmith version.  So, at first I thought the amp messing up was not part of the script, but I guess it was.  Nice to hear this version.

Heart Full Of Soul - I lied, I have heard this song too.  And I really like it, I just didn't realize it was the Yardbirds.  My question is, which member of the band is Graham Gouldman (like I said, I know nothing about the band)?  That's two killer songs right there that he wrote.  I like this performance.   Page did a great job of playing air guitar on it.  And Beck's recording and tone is awesome.

Dazed And Confused -  This is the first time I've heard this version of this song as well.  Not to put this version down at all, but it is amazing what Plant brought to it.  He takes the vocals to a totally different level.  The video timing is way messed up and almost difficult to watch, but interesting to listen to.

So now, I can make a Top 4 Yardbirds list, and my former number one get's booted to number two:

1. Hear Full Of Soul

2. For Your Love

3. Train

4. Dazed

Nice job Niels.

[Niels (Mod)]

Thank you, Sir.

The second guitarist would be Chris Dreja. If I'm not mistaken, he was also the one taken the cover-photo of the band on the first Led Zeppelin-album.

And yes, Beck is on guitar on "For Your Love". That song was actually the reason for Clapton to leave (or at least one of the reasons), because he wanted to play the Blues, and not pop-songs. The Mosquitos? Nope!

Graham Gouldman was not a member of The Yardbirds. At that point, they used his writing-cability as a songwriter of pop-tunes. (Probably their managers idea, which actually was Peter Grant).

There was a much better video on Youtube of "Dazed", but I wasn't allowed to copy it?! I certainly agree about your comment about Plant.

[Scott]

Never heard of the mosquitoes....

[RJhog (Admin)]

You are about a year older than me, so you have definitely heard of them.

[Scott]

You've just doubled, maybe even tripled my Yardbirds knowledge!

Louise...  while not great it's still very cool to watch! Sounds exactly like what you'd expect from a band with Clapton as their lead guitar player.  And then For Your Love shows the 180 degree flip they did into the mainstream.

Loved watching Jimmy and Jeff on Train Kept a Rollin.  What great tune! But I must say that Aerosmiths version is the most familiar to me, but if I had to choose which version to watch?  This would be the one, even if the concept of the video escaped me...  Heart Full of Soul is familiar, but I must say that watching Page play pop music is hilarious! Probably the last 2:23 second song he ever played on!

Dazed and Confused...  had no idea this was a Yardbirds tune first... Certainly can hear what Page wanted to do but this is an understated, under-cooked Dazed and Confused.  Thankfully this band didn't work out, because we got Zeppelin out of this...

Way cool post!

[Niels (Mod)]

Thank you, Scott.

I actually heard the Yardbirds version of "Train" before Aerosmiths, because of this movie. I guess I saw it for the first time on TV in....197...something. The movie is VERY "1967-68"'ish.