At some point, he felt that the band wasn't going in a direction in which he wanted to be heading... He was wanting to play more blues so he left The Yardbirds to go to join John Mayhall's Bluesbreakers...
Eric Clapton's role with The Yardbirds was filled by a young fellow named Jeff Beck... Go figure... of course, at this time, both of these fellows were unknowns... at least to the extent that they later became famous... The 45 Sleeve above is for "Heart Full of Soul" and of course, has Clapton in the photo, but in the video below, Jeff Beck is playing lead guitar...
At some point, Jeff Beck decided he wanted to do other things... so The Yardbirds started looking for a new guitarist and found a young fellow by the name of Jimmy Page... There was a period of time in which Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck were both in the band... but it wasn't that long before Jeff Beck left to form The Jeff Beck Group... leaving Jimmy Page as the lead guitarist shown in this video...
In the months to come, the band fell apart... Liking the traditional blues sound that The Yardbirds had become famous for, Page went about recruiting new members... and reformed the band using the name, The New Yardbirds...
There was another band on the British scene at the time by the name of The Who... and their drummer, Keith Moon, made some kind of disparaging remark about this new band going over like a lead balloon...
After the comment was made, The New Yardbirds changed their name and became Led Zeppelin...
It's amazing that musicians and bands have 'family trees'... and their successes/failures can be charted as if one was tracing a bloodline...
God I love music...
~shoes~
Cool lesson!!
ReplyDeleteYou sure do know about music history of the 60's and 70's. Everybody famous starts out small and unknown.
ReplyDeleteYeh, I am more familiar with the trees of that time period even though I have forsaken the music for today's sound :)
ReplyDeleteOK - No, IIIII love music :) and The Who was like my mostest favorite band ever. Beck, Clapton and Page - what icons. But damn Moon baby was da bomb, never ever could anyone reach that.
ReplyDeleteAnd I did not know that's how the name came(the quote you referenced).
Great line too about musician spacing through their family trees - so true.
I knew some of that history, but not all of it. Thanks for all the info!
ReplyDelete* Hi there, JenJen... you are very welcome... thank you for reading it... :o)
ReplyDelete* Secretia... I just LOVE the music of that time... I don't sense the same energy, or the same... hmmm... desire to create music as they did then...
* Bathwater... I don't know anything about the trees from that time... :oD
* SouthernGirl.. yeah, Keith Moon was one of that generation's original 'bad boys'... I think he tried to burn the candle in the middle as well as at both ends...
As for family tree stuff, when Clapton was a member of The Bluesbreakers, other members of the band who went on to other important bands, besides John Mayhall, was Mick Fleetwood and John McVey... who both went on to Fleetwood Mac...
* Catch Her... you are very welcome... I do have to admit that I got the idea of using some videos from your usage in your blog... I've enjoyed it so... :o)
~shoes~