Originally a blues-based band noted for their signature "rave-up" instrumental breaks, the Yardbirds broadened their range into pop, pioneering psychedelic rock and early hard rock; and contributed to many electric guitar innovations of the mid-1960s. Some rock critics and historians also cite their influence on the later punk rock, progressive rock and heavy metal trends. Following the band's split in 1968, Relf and McCarty formed Renaissance and guitarist Jimmy Page formed Led Zeppelin - the latter of which was initially intended as a direct successor to the Yardbirds.
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. They were included at number 89 in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" and ranked number 37 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.
The Yardbirds re-formed in the 1990s, featuring drummer Jim McCarty and rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja as the only original members. Dreja left the band in 2012, leaving McCarty as the sole original member of the band in the present lineup.
The band formed in the south-west London suburbs in 1963. Relf and Samwell-Smith were originally in a band named the Metropolitan Blues Quartet. After being joined by Dreja, McCarty and Top Topham, they performed at Kingston Art School in late May 1963 as a backup band for Cyril Davies. Following a couple of gigs in September 1963 as the Blue-Sounds, they changed their name to the Yardbirds. McCarty claims that Relf was the first to use the name; he may have got it from Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road, where it referred to rail yard hobos. He adds that Topham identified it as a nickname for jazz saxophonist Charlie "Yardbird" Parker.
The quintet achieved notice on the burgeoning British rhythm and blues scene when they took over as the house band at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, succeeding the Rolling Stones. Their repertoire drew from the Chicago blues of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James, including "Smokestack Lightning", "Good Morning Little School Girl", "Boom Boom", "I Wish You Would", "Rollin' and Tumblin'", "Got Love if You Want It" and "I'm a Man".
Original lead guitarist Topham left and was replaced by Eric Clapton in October 1963. Crawdaddy Club impresario Giorgio Gomelsky became the Yardbirds manager and first record producer. Under Gomelsky's guidance the Yardbirds toured Britain as the back-up band for blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson II in December 1963 and early 1964, recording live tracks on 8 December and other dates. The recordings would be released two years later during the height of the Yardbirds popularity on the album Sonny Boy Williamson and the Yardbirds.
After the tours with Williamson, the Yardbirds signed to EMI's Columbia label in February 1964, and recorded more live tracks on 20 March at the legendary Marquee Club in London. The resulting album of mostly American blues and R&B covers, Five Live Yardbirds, was released by Columbia nine months later, and it failed to enter the UK Albums Chart. Over time, Five Live gained stature as one of the few high-quality live recordings of the era and as a historical document of both the British rock and roll boom of the 1960s and Clapton's time in the band.
Along with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, The Yardbirds were part of the British blues scene of the 1960s. As the blues rock genre developed, some acts like Chicken Shack were playing a louder and more aggressive style, while the Yardbirds emphasized instrumental textures and extended instrumental improvisations. They covered blues classics like Howlin' Wolf's Smokestack Lightning (1956) and Bo Diddley's I'm a Man (1955) which had a repetitive structure where instrumental solos were brief breaks between repetition of verses. The Yardbirds often extended these instrumental sections into "heavy jams".
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
The Yardbirds Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Seemingly I've known one day
Familiarity of things
That my dreaming always brings
Happenings ten years time ago
Situations we really know
But the knowing is in the mind
Sinking deep into the well of time
Walking in the room, I see
Things that mean a lot to me
Why they do I never know
Memories don't strike me so
Memories don't strike me so
It seems to me I've been here before
The sounds I heard and the sights I saw
Was it real? Was it in my dreams?
I need to know what it all means
Happenings ten years time ago
Situations we really know
But the knowing is in the mind
Sinking deep into the well of time
Sinking deep into the well of time
The Yardbirds's Happenings Ten Years Time Ago is a song that contemplates the peculiarity of memory and how it influences our interpretation of past occurrences. The song's first verse starts with the singer walking through life, contemplating things that seem to be familiar but he does not quite understand why, aside from the fact that they are perhaps memories from a previous life or dreams. The chorus "Happenings ten years time ago, situations we really know, but the knowing is in the mind, sinking deep into the well of time" reaffirms the idea that the memory of things from the past is deeply ingrained in the mind, and while people can recall past events, it's impossible to know whether they are truly authentic or just products of the mind.
The second verse brings to light that memories don't strike the singer so much, but interestingly enough, he views the things he sees within his current setting as having a great deal of significance. He concludes by questioning whether he has seen it all before, whether it was real or just a figment of his imagination. The last verse and chorus recapitulate the same themes as before, humans are limited by their own memories, and past events are not wholly reliable.
Line by Line Meaning
Meeting people on my way
Encountering individuals in my path of life
Seemingly I've known one day
Appears as if I had met them in the past
Familiarity of things
Sensing familiarity in surroundings
That my dreaming always brings
That I've dreamt about before
Happenings ten years time ago
Events that occurred a decade ago
Situations we really know
Circumstances that are genuinely familiar
But the knowing is in the mind
Being aware through mental recognition
Sinking deep into the well of time
Fading into distant memories
Walking in the room I see
Observing the space as I enter
Things that mean a lot to me
Objects of emotional significance
Why they do I'll never know
Unclear as to the reasoning behind it
Memories don't strike me so
Recollection not triggered in that moment
It seems to me I've been here before
A sense of deja vu in the setting
The sounds I heard, and the sights I saw
Recognizing auditory and visual stimuli
Was it real, was it in my dreams
Questioning the authenticity of the experience
I need to know what it all means
Desire to comprehend the significance
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Jeff Beck, Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page, Keith Relf
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Alex Petrachkov
Jeff Beck, Father of Rock Guitar
Since Jeff Beck's untimely death in January 2023, many of his peers hailed him as the greatest rock guitarist of all, "the guitarists' guitarist". Much deserved praise has been given to Beck's inimitable skills, musical taste and perpetual evolution. His works, including albums Truth and Blow by Blow, are both pioneering and influential.
However, one key aspect of Jeff Beck's legacy is often overlooked and is probably unknown to many music fans.
In the mid-1960s, a distinctive new genre - rock - began to emerge from British pop music. The electric lead guitar with sound distortion was at the heart of it. In August1964 Dave Davies of the Kinks slashed the cones of the speaker cones to alter the sound of his guitar in You Really Got Me. The two-note riff was primitive but attracted huge attention: guitar distortion entered British pop. Messing with the razor, however, was not the way forward. The new music era that was about to begin required quality equipment and guitar prodigies to master it.
At that time, Eric Clapton was playing blues, Jimmy Page was busy as session guitarist and Jimi Hendrix was nowhere until October 1966. It was Jeff Beck who became Britain's most respected and influential guitar player in the nascent rock scene. Four episodes illustrate how Jeff Beck laid the foundations of rock guitar playing during his eighteen-month spell with the Yardbirds.
Episode 1. The Riff. Heart Full of Soul (recorded in April 1965)
For the riff, Jeff Beck used a novel device – a “fuzz box” - to distort the guitar's sound to a particular effect, in this case, echoing the Indian sitar (which was new for pop music at the time; George Harrison actually played the sitar six months later in Norwegian Wood). Since then, the guitar riff with distortion became one of the fundamentals of rock music. Keith Richards used the fuzz box for the recording of Satisfaction in May 1965 (and his riff deserved worldwide praise as one of defining moments of rock music). Paul McCartney pioneered the fuzz bass in Think for Yourself in November 1965. Many other memorable fuzz-box riffs followed, nonetheless Jeff’s elegant guitar in Heart Full of Soul was the first very first to go on record and to-date remains an iconic sound of the sixties.
Episode 2. The Solo. Shapes of Things (recorded in January 1966)
It could have been just another British pop song, albeit with dark avant-garde lyrics. However, the ferocious 25-second guitar solo imagined and performed by Jeff beck established the song's legacy. It probably contributed more than any other piece of music to the birth of rock from British pop. Psychedelic rock is also counted down from Shapes of Things. Since then, every composition in rock music had to have a distorted guitar solo. To feel an early impact, one should listen to Paul McCartney's guitar in Taxman (April 1966). In May 1968, Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart imagined a "dirty and evil" (in Jeff’s words) rendition of Shapes of Things, probably the first song in hard rock recorded in Britain. Comparing both versions allows seeing the immense progress of rock music in Britain over just a two-year period.
Episode 3. Rock Rhapsody with Heavy Metal. Beck’s Bolero (recorded in May 1966)
In May 1966, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page with friends, all future rock legends (John Paul Jones, Keith Moon, Nicky Hopkins) recorded the cosmic Bolero. Nothing close to similar was recorded at that time. The avant-garde instrumental rock rhapsody was a powerful and varied display of electric guitar-playing at the cutting edge. At the time, Jeff Beck was probably the only person on Earth to perform this kind of music on guitar. Released only a year later, it was still ahead of its time, even though rock music evolved at incredible speed. Beck' Bolero is also "officially" the first record to feature heavy metal in its third movement (John Entwistle dropped the words "lead zeppelin" after hearing the studio recording).
Episode 4. Double Lead Guitar. Happenings Ten Years Time Ago (recorded in September 1966)
In the composition, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page presented two lead guitars engaged in a dialogue (“like dueling fighter planes", according to journalist Bob Stanley). This kind of musical setup was unheard of at the time, however, the legacy lives on. Since then and until now, double (or triple or more) lead guitars can be heard dialoguing at every on-stage reunion of the guitar’s greats. The dream team did not last long though: Jeff Beck and the Yardbirds parted ways shortly after, but not before being filmed in a cult scene in Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni. It was clear who the boss was on the stage. Jeff Beck did his part in defining the rock guitar and went on experimenting, like he did all his life. On September 24, 1966, Jimmy Hendrix embarked in London and the new guitar universe was born.
RIP Jeff Beck and thank you
bookworm
@doccyclopz
Your right. I could've sworn there was a organist backing this song.
I will tell you that at the time they cane out I was in 7th and 8th grade...I never bought an album. My buddies and I would only hear them at the burger joint.
Tinys
in Marysville Washington . There was no FM yet outta Seattle. The Yardbirds for me was rediscovered relatively recently- deep cuts - really excellent music.
Keith is like the perfect front man...Page, Beck, Clapton, were remarkably adroit. I was a fan of Led Zeppelin for only the first 3 albums. It surprised me to see Dazed and Confused played by Yardbirds years before Zeps first album. Truly a great great band, equal to the Stones, Beatles, the Animals in innovation.
Ya...
Back in the1967-68 period at the Roller Rink we had Bands come in that used Yardbirds material.....
Whalers
Them
The Turnabouts with Merilee Rush
Paul Revere
Sonics
Don and the Good Times
Seattle and the Northwest had some really good local music.
It simply was not available as FM wasn't invented or in use in our area then.
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago is just the coolest song
johnny zell
Meeting people along my way,
Seemingly I am among they
But in reality of things,
What my dreaming always brings.
Happenings ten years time ago,
Situations we really know
But the knowing is in the mind
Sinking deep into the world of time.
Looking in a room I see
Things that mean a lot to me
Why they do I never know
Memories don't strike me so.
It seems to me I've been here before
Those sounds I heard and the sights I saw
Was it for real, was it in my dreams
I need to know what it all means.
Rich Infinity
The epitome of psychedelia while staying primal rock. Loved this song since it was current.
D Livingston
I forgot about liking this so much until listening to it again. Really pristine psychedlia for sure...
BILL MURRAY
Rest In Power, Jeff Beck 🙏.
Tina Braxton
This song is a masterpiece.
Nick Sant Nicola Piacquadio
Agree !
nitropost
Greg Hubbard Well did it whit tne people that mattered, inside and outside of the box,
b bb
hell yeah
tucko11
Brilliant . I rarely hear it on classic rock radio stations
tucko11
@nitropost spell check please
tony tanner
This song, "Shapes Of Things", "Eight Miles High" by the Byrds, and "7 And 7 Is" by Love, all songs from the year 1966, were light years ahead of their time. They seem futuristic even today.