No...**I** didn’t know anything about Jeff Beck! I’ll admit it. I know the name and he’s a guitarist. If I heard his music, I didn’t know it was him. After tonight, I know a tiny bit more.
Les Paul invented the electric guitar but in some quite amazing bit of kismet it was really invented so Jeff Beck could wail on it.
Have you heard of Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page? They were bandmates of Jeff beck in the Yardbirds. A great old British invasion band from the 60s. Check them out on youtube if you’re not familiar.
Is your name Roberto Gaspar because that’s who wrote this right? That’s who *I* was referring to.
A teenaged Eric Clapton was brought on to the Yardbirds when they turned professional — their original guitarist, Top Topham, had parents that wouldn’t let him devote himself to a musical career (he still plays, btw).
Clapton got bent because “For Your Love” was “commercial”, quit, got hired by John Mayall for The Bluesbreakers (I think Mick Taylor got hired by Mayall as a consequence of Clapton’s taking off to form Cream).
Clapton and Beck were never in the Yardbirds together. They toured together a few years ago.
Jeff Beck was brought into the Yardbirds as their third lead guitarist.
Eventually, near the end of their run, they wanted Jimmy Page in the band (which must have bumped Jeff bigtime), as a consequence of Paul Samwell-Smith’s departure into fulltime producer. Chris Dreja was to learn bass (PSS’ instrument) so the dual lead guitarists could be used together (YB were probably the first ‘name’ act to try this, but it became somewhat common during the 1970s — Skynyrd, Alice Cooper, Bowie, etc).
Meanwhile, Page played bass.
There’s actually footage of the Yardbirds with Beck and Page playing together, from the movie “Blow Up” — it’s been pirated to YouTube, lots of fun.
BTW, the Yardbirds are my favorite band from the 1960s. :’)
Their lead singer and frontman, Keith Relf, had only one lung; he also had a bit of a substance abuse problem, which may account in part for the personnel changes in the band.
He and drummer Jim McCarty started another band, Renaissance — it became much better known with the later personnel — and after that Armageddon (again with Jim McCarty). Relf died in a very rock and roll way, playing his electric guitar in a damp basement (electrocution). Whoops.
If you like this kind of beautiful, evocative style of music, you might also like Brian Eno's "Another Green World." Eno's another great, but not well known, musician.
Start with the last two songs, then try the rest of the album.
13. Everything merges with the night - 34:18
14. Spirits drifting - 38:18