Though this 1960s very British band is not so famous it indirectly gave birth to a musical revolution. Indeed, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page all started playing in the Yardbirds at the youth of their musical careers. The Yarbirds was one of those successful bands that met a regular audience but did not manage to go beyond Europe. It seems surprising because they had an incredible potential. Just listen to Stroll on or Train kept a rollin’ to realize the energy they could spread.
I think that the Yardbirds was quite a “teaching band”. Through it those three amazing guitarists learnt the last elements they needed to reach their best. They faced the musical rigor, the hardships, the audience fluctuant mood, the tensions… And they efficiently dealt with that. Little by little they started to get well known by the professionals and earned enough musical credit to fly with their own wings.
Most of all, through the Yardbirds they defined their musical directions. They turned their backs to the successful pop music and aimed towards the music that appealed to them and that would be the core of their future fantastic creations: The Blues.
Eric Clapton played with Cream and met a worldwide success. Jeff Beck started an irregular solo career, but made some astonishingly beautiful albums. And obviously Jimmy Page gave birth to the amazing Led Zeppelin.
Hail to the Yardbirds!
Here are a few images that I selected and modified to illustrate the incredible atmosphere of this song (Led Zeppelin).
I planned to put the video on youtube, but there is a copyright issue with the music.
Anyway, I found it thrilling to work on expressing music with images, I hope that you will feel a bit of the song through the images, or a bit of the images through the song…
Led Zeppelin was my revolution. I discovered this band when I was 14 and I did not know anything about rock, blues, funk and all these things encompassed by the word music. Then came this scream over the deep gloomy bass line: “Been dazed and confused, soooooo long it’s not true”. Definitely amazing! But after the intro, it became something very very strange…
This is Led Zeppelin’s lure. These four guys were such great musicians that they could utterly let their creativity flow away. They had this ability to create something entirely different and weird while maintaining their credibility through thundering blues or groovy hard rock. Therefore one could go beyond the basic feeling of liking and not liking. Robert Plant’s voice is definitely not of the kind that you love at first hearing (especially after long years of pop music…). Yet, little by little I got addicted to it and I found the daily “radio singers” disappointing. Every listening brought new details and new experiences (and it still does!). I discovered another way of listening to music and it opened loads of new doors.
Today I have the feeling that we cannot judge music (and any other kind of art) with tangible facts. We cannot assess art, what only seems to matter is sensitivity. I do not know if it is right or wrong, but it is surely annoying. The “good taste” has been erased, thus there is no more trustful value. A simple “I do not like it” beats all your arguments. However, when I listen to L.Z. -do not worry, sometimes I also listen to other bands :)- I like to feel that this is genuinely good, though one can hate the sound; I like to think that he can understand why I love it. As music is globally becoming more commercial and basic, I think that bands that help you to listen differently are paramount. Though you cannot assert the goodness of your taste, I think that walking new paths and striving to remain open is the best way to develop the most accurate opinion.
No more serious talking! Enjoy:
