NEW SHAPES OF THINGS
Continued from page 28
the band – so we got Eric Clapton. Eric
was in the band for 18 months. It was sad
for Top because he missed out on all the
hits and all that success but he was not too
upset about it because he became a good
artist. He was not on any recordings. Now
we have 2 founding members- and that
makes it a lot more authentic in my mind.
He is more of the authentic style. He is different to Ben King
IE: During the 1960s, The Yardbirds were
just as important to the merging of blues
and rock music as The Rolling Stones
were. Original lead vocalist Keith Relf
had the looks to be a pop star, but also
had the chops and harmonica skills to
give the band the musical cred it had.
What do you know about Keith's death in
1976? Was it really the freak studio accident that everyone was told?
Jim McCarty: With Eric it was a combination. He didn't really hit off too well with
Paul Samwell-Smith, to be honest. Paul
was a bit of a snob in those days and that
didn't go down that well with Eric. Eric
didn't like the way Paul took over on the
recording of "For Your Love," and did all
the production the way he wanted it. That
was part of it. Eric thought we were selling
out and he was very much a blues purist
in those days. He changed, however. After
that, and he made very commercial
records of his own.
IE: Jimmy Page never wanted to see The
Yardbirds break up, so much so, that he
originally called Led Zeppelin, The New
Yardbirds. In the end, Zeppelin certainly
owed a lot in the early days to The Yardbirds, musically.
Jim McCarty: Yeah, he was keen to keep
the band together. He did not want us to
split up. If we had stayed together – he
would have been happy. In the end we did
him a favor by splitting up – he got really
good musicians and went on to do fresh
Yardbirds, 1966: (L to R:) Beck, McCarty, Dreja, Page & Relf
Jim McCarty: He was playing guitar
through an old-fashioned moog synthesizer and he plugged it into the wall pretty
badly with matchsticks rather than a
proper plug on it. He didn't have it on a
lift (ground) and he just got belted. It was
a one in a million chance, apparently….
IE: Did you or any of the other Yardbirds
think there might be more to his death?
Jim McCarty: Well, he didn't have a very
strong constitution. He was very ill at the
time. He had asthma and emphysema,
and all those chest problems. He had
fought a lot of illness while in The Yardbirds and he had a low immune system.
All the years of abuse to his body on the
road also probably weakened his heart.
IE: His death must have come as a complete shock to everyone who knew and
had worked with him….
Jim McCarty: Oh yeah, it did. It came
right out of the blue. We had gotten together to form that new band Illusion, and
we decided to go anyway after Keith
passed away. We did a couple of albums
as Illusion.
IE: The Yardbirds had several key personnel changes during its heyday, which
would have sunk most bands, but in the
case of this band it was a usually for the
better, or at least allowed for no loss of
momentum. Would you say those key
changes with Clapton, Beck and Page had
more to do with musical differences rather
than personality clashes and egos?
new stuff with Zeppelin. The Yardbirds
were a hit singles band. It was frustrating
doing a hit single all the time and that is
why we broke up in some ways. Just after
we broke up, FM Rock came along and
you didn't need a hit single. It was coming
from Keith and myself and we had been
doing for so long and we were so shattered from it. It was night after night touring for 5 years not really knowing where
we were.
IE: How does it feel now to be playing
those classic Yardbirds songs again such
as "Over Under Sideways Down" and
"Heart Full of Soul," once again…?
Jim McCarty: It's always such a good set.
That group of songs that we put together
over the years