Year 8, Day 326

Hey guys. Today's song is For Your Love by The Yardbirds.

Photo from: Virginia State Parks

Lots of bands are known for something, whether being the first female rock group like the Runaways or being the most inducted Hall of Fame artist like Eric Clapton (which is relevant for this post), but the Yardbirds are known for starting the careers of many famous guitarists. The band first formed in 1963 and was originally called the Metropolitan Blues Quartet. They played a couple gigs before changing the name, and there are some theories about why the Yardbirds, but nothing is confirmed. They gained traction after becoming the house band in the Crawdaddy Club which is also actually where they got their manager from. Their guitarist left, and was replaced by Eric Clapton before they toured with a blues legend. They signed with a label in 1964 and finally got a song that topped the charts. Clapton didn't like it, hating the commercial approach of pure blues and left, but recommended a new guitarist before he took off. That guitarist was Jimmy Page but he didn't feel prepared to enter the group for a number of reasons so he suggested Jeff Beck. Beck brought a different sound to the group which was on par with where British music was heading at the time, so the group took the opportunity to experiment with new genres, making some eclectic sounding music. This is when the band really hit their stride. In 1966 the bassist quit at a drunken gig and Jimmy Page, who was in attendance, agreed to play until another member was rehearsed enough to take over. Page went on tour with them, and ended up taking over guitar when Beck got sick, finishing out the tour. Once Beck was able to come back, they both stayed and it became a dual guitar band. With more popularity around the guitarists Beck ended up doing solo work, gravitating away from the band, and eventually left. Page stayed on as the guitarist, and the band continued to try more eclectic things, touring a lot, but their popularity was starting to wane. By 1968 all the members were drifting into other interests, either pursuing a different style of music or other artsy profession but they agreed to do one last tour together. Page and others briefly performed as the New Yardbirds before finally ending up with the Led Zeppelin name (which I think you all know by now). That was it for the Yardbirds until they made a comeback in 1992, releasing a new album in 2003, touring, and having all kinds of members switching in and out, continuing up into 2018. Quite the history to absorb.

Peace.