Wow, I had no IDEA the Yardbirds was such a huge band!
A kind of side saddle to this thread
is in fact, the Yardbirds. In the NME encyclopaedia of rock, circa 1976, the writer on the Yardbird entry said "in retrospect the Yardbirds were the prototype of both the guitar dominated and heavy metal psychedelic bands of the later 60s and early 70s. Their status as one of the truly legendary rock bands is beyond question".
The two key words in that are "in retrospect". They were never regarded that way while they were an active band. Jeff Beck wasn't a well known player before he joined them. Nor was Clapton. He became well known and had people graffiti'ing "Clapton is God" on London walls while he was with Mayall's Bluesbreakers. As earlier stated, Page joined the band as a bass player. When he was first approached to replace old Clappers, he said forget it ! The Yardbirds only really picked up this legendary status after Zeppelin were huge and then people remembered that Cream had been huge and then the Faces got huge and people remembered Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart were in the Jeff Beck group and that Beck had been a Yardbird.......
A few years ago, I was doing a delivery and the receptionist signed for the goods as something Samwell~Smith. So jokingly, I asked her if she was related to the Samwell Smith that was bassist with the Yardbirds {the one Page replced} and she said it was her Dad. She was flabbergasted that anyone in the 21st century had heard of her Dad or remembered he played in the Yardbirds.
Keith Relf's memory centres around death by electrocution, not lead singer of that band. If one is into photography from the 70s, one might have heard of Chris Dreja. But not in connection with the Yardies. And how many people have you ever heard rate Jim McCarty's drumming ?
Far from being this wonderful finishing school for wizard guitarists from the mid 60s, they were a walking disaster that rarely got it together to make a decent record and the fact that Clapton, Beck and Page all put together their own outfits (Cream, Beck group and Zeppelin) in the aftermath of their tenure with said Yardies, tells you something deep and immense. It makes good rock mythology to hold the Yardies in such high esteem, but on the London mid 60s blues rock scene, there was quite a bit of 'depping' and movement among bands. That Clappers was in the band is no big deal {he left when they released a pop single}. Page being asked to replace him is no big thing, given that he was a well known session man.
And that, as they say, is that !
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