The group introduced the idea of mid-song tempo shifts, breaking into amphetamine-paced double-time segments or raunchy syncopations for solos, choruses, or bridges. With Beck onboard, the guitar solos in Yardbirds songs started to become set pieces in and of themselves, a common practice today, but something that was unheard of until the Yardbirds came along. It grew by leaps and bounds, really Jimmy Pageīeck became the Yardbirds’ lead guitar player during the group’s golden period, from 1965 through ’66, racking up hits like Heart Full of Soul, Evil Hearted You, I’m a Man, and Shapes of Things, recordings that managed to be both innovative and commercially successful. Jeff’s time with the Yardbirds was the most groundbreaking era for that band. Instead, he recommended his old friend Jeff Beck for the gig. Page, however, was doing far too well as a session musician and calculated that he could actually make more money that way than he could as a member of a hit-making group. The Yardbirds had just scored their first chart-topping hit, For Your Love. In 1965, Page received an offer from the Yardbirds’ manager, Giorgio Gomelsky, to replace Eric Clapton, who was leaving the group. And believe me, I played on some horrendous things.“ I learned things even on my worst sessions. ![]() They’d just count the song off, and you couldn’t make any mistakes. And I rarely ever knew in advance what I was going to be playing. “At one point I was playing at least three sessions a day, six days a week. ![]() “My session work was invaluable,“ Page says. The British Invasion was in full force, and young Jimmy Page went to work for many of the top producers of the day, including Shel Talmy (who produced the Kinks and the Who, among others) and Mickie Most (who racked up major hits with the Animals, Herman’s Hermits, and others). Page succeeded first, becoming one of London’s most sought-after studio guitarists. Jimmy Page (far left) performs with Keith Relf (center) and Jeff Beck (right) of the Yardbirds at Green's Pavilion in Manitou Beach, Michigan on Aug(Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)īoth friends set out to make their mark in rock and roll. So meeting Jimmy was great – like meeting your long-lost brother. And she came home and said, ‘There’s a guy with a goofy guitar like yours at college.’ And I went, ‘Where is he? Take me to him!’ ’Cause there was nobody else in my block or even in my town who even knew what a Fender Strat was. “Jimmy and I have known one another since we were 14 or so,“ Beck says. It is also very much the story of two adolescent friends, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. The story of his alchemy in transforming the Yardbirds into Led Zeppelin is an archetypal rock narrative, filled with backroom deals and sheer brilliance wrested from rock and roll mayhem. “I was never ashamed of playing in the Yardbirds.“ How could they be otherwise, with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page passing through their ranks between 1963 and ’68? ![]() These days, the Yardbirds are perhaps not as well known as Led Zeppelin, but in their time, they were the ultimate guitar band. Indeed, when Page, Plant, Jones, and Bonham were in the studio recording the disc, they were planning to call themselves the New Yardbirds. It is very much the outcome of musical and production ideas that Jimmy Page had formulated with his previous band, the Yardbirds. The first Led Zeppelin album, however, didn’t spring into existence from nothing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |