The Yardbirds
| Yardbirds | |
|---|---|
 The Yardbirds 2006 |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Rock , blues rock , psychedelic rock |
| founding | 1962, 1992 |
| resolution | 1968, 2014 |
| Website | http://www.theyardbirds.com/ |
| Founding members | |
| Keith Relf († June 14, 1976) | |
| Anthony "Top" Topham (until 1963) | |
| Chris Dreja | |
| Paul Samwell-Smith (until 1966) | |
| Jim McCarty | |
| Last occupation | |
Vocals, rhythm guitar |
Top Topham (2013 to 2014) |
Drums |
Jim McCarty |
Vocals, bass |
John Idan (1994 to 2014) guitar |
bass |
David Smale (2009 to 2014) |
Vocals, lead guitar |
Ben King (2004 to 2014) |
| former members | |
Lead guitar |
Eric Clapton (1963-1965) |
Lead guitar |
Jeff Beck (1965, 1966) |
Lead guitar |
Jimmy Page (1966-1968) |
Bass, harmonica |
Rod Demick (1992-1994) |
harmonica |
Laurie Garman (1994-1997) |
Lead guitar, vocals |
Ray Majors (1994-1996) |
Lead guitar, vocals |
Gypie Mayo (1996-2004) († October 23, 2013) |
harmonica |
Alan Glen (2001-2003) |
harmonica |
Billy Boy Miskimmin (2003 to 2008) |
The Yardbirds were a British rock band . In the 1960s, the band had several single hits. Rock guitarists Eric Clapton , Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page were members of the Yardbirds early in their careers.
Band history
The group's first line- up consisted of Keith Relf , Anthony "Top" Topham , Chris Dreja , Paul Samwell-Smith and Jim McCarty . Topham was replaced by Eric Clapton after just a few months. The blues-oriented band had their first appearance in this composition on September 29, 1963 in London's Crawdaddy Club . On December 8, 1963, the band accompanied Sonny Boy Williamson II during a live recording by Horst Lippmann . Released as an album in 1966, these gigs were again held as part of the American Folk Blues Festival at the Crawdaddy Club and on February 28, 1964 at Birmingham Town Hall , England, during the first R&B Festival .
The first own album was recorded on October 3rd, 1963 in the Marquee Club and final mixed on October 18th, 1963 in the Olympic Studios . It appeared under the title Five Live Yardbirds in December 1964. In January 1964, the first recording sessions took place in the recording studio R. G. Jones Studios (Morden / Surrey), where the first single I Wish You Would / A Certain Girl was created and appeared in May 1964; it missed the British charts . Only her second single Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl was able to reach 44th place as the highest ranking. Both titles were cover versions of American blues songs. Under music producer Giorgio Gomelsky , the group decided in December 1964 for a composition by the still unknown British songwriter Graham Gouldman entitled For Your Love , which was arranged more commercially with its bongo rhythms and was created in the IBC studios by January 1965. It made it to number 3 in the British charts and - as part of the British Invasion - also to number 6 on the US charts. Over a million copies have been sold worldwide.
Since Eric Clapton didn't like this rather poppy course, he left the band in March 1965 and switched to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers . He was replaced by Jeff Beck . It was with him that the Yardbirds experienced their most commercially successful period. Beck's experimental guitar work fitted seamlessly into the group. With their novel sounds, the band made it into the hit parade several times , for example with Heart Full of Soul , Still I'm Sad / Evil Hearted You , Shapes of Things and Over, Under, Sideways, Down . The Yardbirds did pioneering work by being one of the first British bands to incorporate oriental-sounding tone sequences or the fuzz into their songs.
In June 1966 Paul Samwell-Smith left the band to work as a producer and was replaced by Jimmy Page, who initially played bass. With Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page on guitars, the Yardbirds had an appearance in the cult film Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni in 1966 with their piece Stroll On (premiere on December 18, 1966). Originally, Antonioni wanted to get The Who involved in the scene. But because they refused, he had the Yardbirds simply imitate The Who - including the destruction of guitars and amplifiers . In late 1966, the Yardbirds split from their guitarist due to tension between Jeff Beck and the rest of the band, and Jimmy Page took over the reins of the band.
The band's progressive, avant-garde style of music was at the expense of their commercial success, so that after several studio changes, EMI decided on a new music producer . The choice fell on the in England successful US producer Mickie Most , whose first studio recording for the Yardbirds took place on March 5, 1967 for the single Little Games . The album of the same name, released in July 1967, was a failure and could no longer build on previous successes. This also applied to the Harry Nilsson composition Ten Little Indians , published in October 1967 . The Yardbirds continued to tour successfully around the world, but stopped landing hits and broke up in July 1968.
Aftermath
_-_Rock_and_Roll_Hall_of_Fame_handprints_(2014_photograph).jpg)
Because the band still had contracts to perform on a Scandinavian tour, Jimmy Page gathered new musicians with Robert Plant , John Paul Jones and John Bonham and initially continued under the band name The New Yardbirds from September 1968, but then decided on Led Zeppelin as a name for the new rock formation. The idea for this name did not come from the members of the band themselves, but rather goes back to a statement by The Who drummer Keith Moon . Moon said a band around Jimmy Page would "crash like a leaden airship" ("The band will go over like a lead zeppelin").
In 1983 Jim McCarty, Paul Samwell-Smith and Chris Dreja gathered in the Box of Frogs formation .
In 1992 the Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . In the same year the re-establishment took place.
In 2003 the album Birdland was released again under the name Yardbirds , on which Jim McCarty and Chris Dreja also participated from the founding members.
In the summer of 2008, shortly after the release of his solo album The Folly, John Idan announced that he would be leaving the band at the end of the year. Since the band could not find a replacement for him until May 2009, he played one last tour in Canada in February 2009. Now John Idan is touring with his band, the John Idan Group, or with the Topham-John Idan Blues Band .
On October 23, 2013, the former guitarist Gypie Mayo passed away after a long illness at the age of 62.
In July 2013, Chris Dreja left the band after suffering multiple strokes. He was replaced by Top Topham, who was the first guitarist to be a founding member of the band.
McCarty announced the breakup of the Yardbirds in December 2014.
The Rolling Stone listed the Yardbirds at number 89 of the 100 greatest musicians of all time .
Occupations
The line-up changes in the Yardbirds are shown in chronological order below. Also included are the line-ups of the bands closely related to the Yardbirds, The New Yardbirds , Led Zeppelin and Box of Frogs .
Discography
Albums
|
Chart positions Explanation of the data |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Albums | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Singles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| album | year | Label | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Five Live Yardbirds | December 1964 | Columbia | Released in 1999 as a re-release by Repertoire Records with 8 bonus tracks |
| For your love | July 1965 | Epic | only released in the USA (released in 1999 as a re-release by Repertoire Records with 13 bonus tracks) |
| Sonny Boy Williamson and the Yardbirds | January 1966 | Fontana Records | Released in 1999 as a re-release with 7 bonus tracks by Repertoire Records |
| Having a rave up | November 1965 | Epic | only released in the USA and Germany (released in 1999 as a re-release by Repertoire Records with 11 bonus tracks) |
| The Yardbirds | July 1966 | Columbia | also known as Roger the Engineer , published in the USA and Germany on Epic under the title "Over Under Sideways Down" (released in 1998 as a re-release by Repertoire Records with 10 bonus tracks) |
| Little Games | July 1967 | Epic | only released in the USA and Germany (released in 1991 as a re-release by EMI with 8 bonus titles) |
| Live yardbirds | September 1971 | Epic | only released in the US, re-released on Living Legend Records (1988) |
| London 65-67 - The BBC Sessions | 1997 | New Millennium / EFA | |
| The Complete BBC Sessions | 1999 | Abraxas / BBC | |
| BBC sessions | 1999 | Repertoire Records | |
| Birdland | 2003 | Favored Nations | |
| Live at BB King Blues Club | 2007 | Favored Nations | |
| Making tracks | 2013 | Favored Nations | Not a real album, only released on DVD with live recordings from 2010 to 2012 |
| Live at the BBC | 2016 | Repertoire Records |
Singles
(In brackets: recording date and recording studio)
- A Certain Girl / I Wish You Would (March 1964; Olympic Sound Studios )
- Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl / I Ain't Got You (March / September 1964; Olympic Sound Studios)
- For Your Love / Got To Hurry (December 1964 / January 1965; IBC Studios)
- Heart Full of Soul / Steeled Blues (April 20, 1965; Advision Sound Studios)
- I'm a Man / The Train Kept A-Rollin '(September 19, 1965; Chess Studios, Chicago)
- Evil Hearted You / Still I'm Sad (July 27, 1965; IBC and Olympic Studios)
- Shapes of Things / You're a Better Man Than I (December 21 and 22, 1965; Chess Studios, Chicago; January 7, 1966, Columbia Recording Studios, Hollywood / January 10, 1966; RCA Victor's Music Center Of The World, Hollywood)
- Over, Under, Sideways Down / Jeff's Boogie (April 19 and 20, 1966; Advision Sound Studios)
- Happenings Ten Years Time Ago / Psycho Daisies (September 20 and October 10, 1966; De Lane Lea Studios )
- Little Games / Puzzles (March 5, 1967; Olympic Sound Studios)
- Ha! Ha! Said the Clown / Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor (June 13, 1967; Columbia Recording Studios, New York City; June 19, 1967, Abbey Road Studios )
- Ten Little Indians / Drinking Muddy Water (September 25, 1967; Olympic Studios)
- Goodnight, Sweet Josephine / Think About It (March 1968; De Lane Lea Studios )
literature
- Shaw, Greg: The Yardbirds . In: ders. (Ed.): The British are coming. From the childhood days of English rock music . From the American by Walle Bengs. Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1983, pp. 159–162.
- Stambler, Irwin: The Encyclopedia Of Pop, Rock And Soul . 3rd Revised Edition, New York City, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989, pp. 755-757, ISBN 0-312-02573-4 .
- Morrison, Craig: American Popular Music. Rock and roll . Preface by Kevin J. Holm-Hudson. New York / NY: Checkmark Books, 2006, pp. 251-253.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Greg Russo, Yardbirds: The Ultimate Rave-Up , 1997, p. 95.
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 215.
- ↑ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Yardbirds in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- ↑ Dr. Feelgood guitarist Gypie Mayo has died ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 25, 2013.
- ↑ Vintage Guitar Magazine: Topham Replaces Dreja in Yardbirds
- ↑ Psychedelic Sight: Yardbirds disband after half century
- ↑ 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 2, 2010, accessed August 8, 2017 .
- ↑ Charts DE Charts UK Charts US
