Discover Jimmy Page pt. 2
I'm gonna join a band: The Yardbirds days
One week after quitting his lucrative career as a session musician, Jimmy found himself at the right place and time - backstage at an Oxford Yardbirds show, just as bassist Paul Samwell-Smith announced he was leaving the band. Jeff Beck asked him if he would temporarily join in to replace Samwell-Smith, and Page agreed, not knowing that Beck had something else in mind.
Jimmy would keep showing up at the studio for session work throughout his entire career, every now and then, when his other musical commitments made it possible.
But this was not the first time Jimmy was offered to play in the Yardbirds: in fact, the other band members were trying to secure him a place in the band as early as 1964.
“The very first time … [Yardbirds manager] Giorgio Gomelsky said that Eric was going to have a ‘holiday,’ and I could step in and replace him. The way he put it to me, it just seemed really distasteful and I refused - Eric had been a friend of mine and I couldn’t possibly be party to that.”
– Jimmy Page, Trouser Press interview, 1977
When Clapton left the group in 1965, The Yardbirds again turned to Page, who turned them down a second time, recommending his pal Beck instead. However, by the time the infamous 1966 gig in Oxford took place, things seemed to have changed quite a bit.
Page got his third offer to join The Yardbirds in 1966 following Samwell-Smith's department, and on the way home from the show Jimmy had attended, Beck asked him if he’d finally join and take his place until they could find another bassist. Page agreed, thinking he’d sit in until they found someone to play the instrument. However, Beck's plans were different:
“Jimmy wasn’t a bass player, but the only way I could get him involved was by insisting that it would be okay for him to take over on bass in order for the band to continue. Gradually — within a week, I think — we were talking about doing dueling guitar leads.”
– Jeff Beck, from ‘Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page’
“Beck had often said to me, ‘It would be really great if you could join the band.’ But I just didn't think it was a possibility in any way. In addition, since I'd turned the offer down a couple of times already, I didn't know how the rest of them would feel about me joining.”
– Jimmy Page, Trouser Press interview, 1977
“[Yardbirds Drummer] Jim McCarty says I was so desperate to get out of the studio that I'd have played drums”
– Jimmy Page, Rolling Stone interview
The Yardbirds took the stage for the first time with Page as a member on June 21, 1966, at London’s Marquee Club. After that, rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja learned the bass guitar and Page played second guitar to his buddy Beck.
Sadly, the Page-Beck lineup was short-lived, with only a few recordings featuring their twin guitar style. I have collected each one of these tracks and put them in a little playlist, which I'm linking here:
Beck was booted from the band later in 1966. Page remained the band’s lead guitarist until the Yardbirds took on new members and morphed into Led Zeppelin two years later.
During these two years, Jimmy would transform The Yardbirds into psychedelic blues heaven, pushing them into new experimental territories, aided by his now famous violin bow. However, this would not appear on their only studio album recorded with him, in favour of a more radio friendly sound - as dictated by their new-hired producer Mickie Most. This would be one of the reasons for the band's demise.
The album, “Little Games” (released July 1967) was a commercial and critical non-entity, despite containing some interesting tracks. One of these is “Glimpses”, a piece featuring bowed guitars, pre-recorded noise loops and a hypnotic wah-wah guitar groove with Page credited as the main writer.
By 1968, everyone in the band was inspired to pursue other projects - except for Jimmy.
The band's final single was “Goodnight Sweet Josephine”, with an interesting B-side, “Think About It”, featuring a proto-Zeppelin riff and snippets of the “Dazed and Confused” guitar solo.
The Yardbirds played their final shows on 31 May and 1 June at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, and on 4 and 5 June at the Spring Fair at the Montgomery International Speedway in Alabama. The Los Angeles shows were documented in the bootleg “Last Rave-Up in L.A”:
The Yardbirds announced the departure of Relf and McCarty in a press release on 12 June, and Rolling Stone magazine announced the break-up by saying that Page “intends to go into solo recording work”.
I absolutely recommend listening to Yardbirds '68, an album containing live tracks recorded at the Anderson Theater on 30 March 1968, as well as demos from the Columbia Recording Studio sessions in April of the same year - released in November 2017 on Jimmy's own record label.
“We thought this might be lost forever, but we’ve rediscovered it, re-mixed it. It’s of great historical importance. We’re delighted to see the release.”
– Jim McCarty, Chris Dreja and Jimmy Page, November 2017
As Jimmy joined The Yardbirds, the time he dedicated to session work understandably decreased, but a few gems were nonetheless recorded around this time. A few worth citing are “Hurdy Gurdy Man” by Donovan, his stunning contribution to Joe Cocker's album “With A Little Help From My Friends” (I recommend listening to the title track & the song “Something's Coming On”) and the soundtrack album for the film A Degree Of Murder featuring Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones and the famous pianist Nicky Hopkins:
Some memorable live performances that are available on YouTube are this one, recorded on July 22, 1966, featuring Jimmy on bass, Chris Dreja on rythm guitar and Jeff Beck on lead guitar:
Another performance close to my heart is this live version of “Dazed and Confused”, filmed on March 9, 1968:
There's also a short Jimmy interview available on Spotify, where he talks about touring and The Yardbirds' situation in 1968:
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