Driving home from work, I turned on my XM radio and found myself listening to a live performance by the Yardbirds, one of my favorite bands of the 60's.
Except that none of the original lead guitarists--Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, or Jimmy Page--were there. And, of course, Keith Relph was still critically dead, having been fatally electrocuted in the 70's. I remember hearing, by the way, that he left the group because he was going blind. I don't know about that.
It turns out that only two of the original Yardbirds, guitarist Chris Dreja and drummer Jim McCarty, are in the new line-up. Beck played a cut or two on the new album.
They sounded good, but were they really the Yardbirds? The spokesman, I assume one of the originals, introduced the familiar hits as songs "we" did back in the 60's. But the new lead guitarist is a young guy in his 20's. So he didn't "do" anything back in the 60's.
So I don't know. While the two original Yardbirds certainly have the right to recreate the music of their old band, shouldn't they call themselves by a new name?
The same thing has happened with the Doors (two original members and a couple of new guys) Creedance Clearwater Revival (two guys who didn't write any of the hits, but at least have the grace to bill themselves as Creedance Clearwater Revisited).
Two of the surviving Who are touring as the Who. But all of the Who were pretty high-profile within the band and remained legends long after the Who broke up.
Anyway, these new Yardbirds sounded really good. And I guess they have the right to bill themselves as more than just a tribute band. And I guess for them to be marketable, they have to use the name Yardbirds in some way.
But are they the Yardbirds?
4 comments:
Chrish Dreja and Jim McCarty certainly have the right to the name "The Yardbirds" and the right to continue using it, if for no other reason, the fact that they co-wrote most of the original Yardbirds' material 'back in t he day' ...!
Check the songwriting credits....
AnOpinionatedBastard~
I stand corrected. Thanks for the verbal spanking.
Reminds me of the time the band I was in opened for Eric Burdon and the Animals and the Buffalo Springfield all in one night. Burdon was the only real animal left. The Buff Springfield only had the original drummer. His name was Dewey Martin or Dewey Webber (one made surfboards, the other was the drummer I can never remember which). Andy Summers was the guitar that night for the Animals, way before the Police picked him up.
Can you name two people who would rush out to buy tickets for a Dreja/McCarty concert? Even if they added Samwell-Smith?
I saw the post-Morrison doors once at the Hollywood Bowl. For some reason Charles Lloyd had been added to the Band. Absolutely pathetic. During the solos in Light My Fire, Manzarek chanted over and over "Rise up Morrison!" There oughta be a law.
Please ignore the word in in the first sentence of the previous post. I was not in the Animals. I was way to tall.
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