The Yardbirds

:For the American chain of home improvement stores see: Yardbirds Home Center

Beck Leaves, Page Takes the Reigns

The powerful synergy between Beck and Page proved short-lived, Beck either quit or was fired from the group in mid-1966, and the Yardbirds continued as a quartet for the remainder of their career. Page became the new lead guitarist and he was just as bent toward experimentation as Beck, particularly his striking technique of scraping a violin or cello bow across his guitar strings to induce a round of odd and surreal sounds, and his dextrous use of a wah-wah pedal. He also proved an adept finger-style guitarist, as evident on the shimmering "White Summer," a raga- and folk-styled instrumental composition.

Related Topics:
Beck - 1966 - Violin - Cello

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Increasing chart indifference, record company pressure (their British label EMI pressed hitmaking producer Mickie Most upon them in a failed bid to re-ignite their commercial success), and drug-related problems meant that by 1967, the Yardbirds' days were numbered. The "Little Games" single released in the spring flopped so badly in the UK that EMI didn't release another Yardbirds record in Britain for another year. A cover of Manfred Mann's "Ha Ha Said The Clown" -- on which only one band member, Relf, actually performed -- was the band's last single to crack the U.S. Top 50, peaking at No. 44 in Billboard in the summer of '67. Their final album, the badly-produced Little Games, a pastiche of K-mart psychedelia released in the U.S. that July, tanked. The Yardbirds spent most of the rest of that year touring in the States with new manager Peter Grant while living a schizophrenic pop life: Their records became more benign (A cover of Harry Nilsson's "Ten Little Indians" hit the U.S. in the fall of '67 and quickly sank) as their live shows were becoming heavier and more experimental. The band rarely played their 1967 singles live, preferring to mix the Beck-era hits with blues standards and covers by groups such as the Velvet Underground and an American folk singer named Jake Holmes. Holmes' "Dazed and Confused," with lyrics rewritten by Relf and cranked up to a blues-metal frenzy by Page, McCarty and Dreja, was a live staple of the Yardbirds' last two American tours -- and it went down so well that Page decided to keep it in the quiver even after the band's demise.

Related Topics:
1967 - Little Games - Velvet Underground - Jake Holmes

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A concert and some album tracks were recorded in New York City in March 1968. All were shelved at the band's request, although once Led Zeppelin hit big, Epic tried to cash in by releasing the concert material as the infamous LP "Live Yardbirds! Featuring Jimmy Page." The album, which featured a hoarse Relf, awful miking and over-dubbed cheers, was quickly withdrawn after Page's lawyers slapped an injunction on it. The Yardbirds' final single, "Goodnight Sweet Josephine," was recorded in January 1968. Released two months later, it failed to crack the Billboard Top 100 but is notable in retrospect for its B-side, "Think About It," which featured a proto-Zeppelin Page riff and snippets of the "Dazed" guitar solo in the break. Too little, too late. The band had split in spirit by the end of 1967: Relf and McCarty wanted to go folk, Page wanted to play louder, and ne'er the twain. The Yardbirds played their final gig in Luton in July 1968.

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