The Yardbirds are a fabled group because of their trio of lead guitar players--Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. I stumbled across them in the Beck era; I wore out the grooves of their Having a Rave Up With the Yardbirds LP. My favorite song from that album was "Train Kept A-Rollin,'" which, fortunately, is one of the few Yardbirds live (not lip-synched) performances preserved from that era at a concert sponsored by a British publication. The song is always notable because of the way Beck on guitar and Keith Relf on harmonica imitate the eponymous train and trade licks with each other. But in this performance, Relf at one point looks like he's ready to blow that lonesome whistle, while Beck goes softer.
Fast forward to--well, the same year, 1966. Michaelangelo Antonioni is filming his indictment of Swinging London, Blow Up. He wants to get the Velvet Underground, but can't, so he gets the Yardbirds. By now their bassist, Paul Samwell-Smith, has left the group (to produce, among other people, Cat Stevens), so their rhythm guitarist, Chris Dreja, becomes the bassist, and the new guitar player is a rather callow but enormously talented Jimmy Page. For their scene, the group does "Train Kept A-Rollin,'" but probably for copyright purposes it is titled "Stroll On." This clip has become so famous that one version of it on YouTube claims it comes from the Yardbirds movie.
Another poster claims that this is an accurate portrayal of London in the Sixties. Bull. It's Antonioni riding his hobby-horse that modern Western society is vapid and vacuous. The audience stares listlessly at the group, two people dance as though they were stepping on ants, and one girl has regressed to an infantile state. The crowd only emerges from its narcolepsy when Beck destroys his guitar--then it's a bunch of savages. I liked this message better in L'Avventura.
To show that even film commentators can be full of the same material as posters, I listened to the commentary track for this scene on the DVD. The commentator said that the Yardbirds were a proto-punk group known for destroying their instruments. Sorry--that's the Who. I'm surprised he didn't talk about the neo-colonial implications of the club's name (Ricky Tick).
The most interesting fact to me is that I have always thought that the bystander who picks up the guitar neck and throws it down after Hemmings has discarded it was played by--Jeff Beck.
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3 comments:
"Blow Up" didn't impress me too much; it was "L'Avventura" that REALLY got to me, and fortunately Antonioni didn't have to misrepresent a rock band to make his point in that movie.
I'm afraid that Yardbirds/Jeff Beck/Eric Clapton slipped through my consciouness without leaving much behind. Beyond that Cream album with Layla on it, and Clapton singing "Cocaine" and doing "Eyesight to the Blind" in the "Tommy" film, I can only think of him during the '80s & '90s, mainly guesting on other people's albums (Roger Waters comes to mind).
As for Jeff Beck, I just remember my mother watching the video for "People Get Ready" over and over again. But she also liked early Bruce Springsteen...something we couldn't agree on.
Clapton's history has been interesting. To me he always did his best work when he was paired with someone of talent approaching his own--Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker in Cream, George Harrison on "All Things Must Pass," Stevie Windwood and Ginger Baker in Blind Faith, and especially Duane Allman in Derek and the Dominoes on "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs." That album is so dense with double-and triple-tracked guitars--all of them playing interesting melodies--that it wasn't until they came out with a 5.1 mix that you could hear all of it. He was also driven by his love for Patti Boyd Harrison on that album.
After that, he wanted to be self-effacing--the whole "Clapton is God" thing got to him--and he reportedly wanted to be in The Band (with those four Ontario natives) after he heard "Music from Big Pink." I saw him with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends--very tasteful, no ten-minute solos. Supposedly George Harrison was on that tour, but would play from backstage. I never heard him.
Beck is even more talented in my mind, but never lived up to it. He gave Rod Stewart has first major gig in the Jeff Beck Group. There's a clip on YouTube of Beck playing "A Day in the Life" in 2004 at the Albert Hall (fitting, eh what?) entirely on the guitar. Shows how he can combine lyricism with power.
Oh, almost forgot--"pt. 1" of this topic is your blog entry on "Sgt. Pepper's" the movie. :)
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