The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds turned a Crawdaddy Club residency into the most improbable guitarist pipeline in rock history, running Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page through the band's lineup between 1963 and 1968 while pioneering the amplifier-scorching 'rave-up.' Built on hopped-up covers of Chicago blues records, the group pushed outward into fuzz, feedback, and Eastern-tinged psychedelia on singles like 'Shapes of Things,' previewing sounds hard rock and heavy metal would later run with. They split in 1968, but the rubble regrouped almost immediately as the New Yardbirds, soon renamed Led Zeppelin.
The Yardbirds covered Howlin' Wolf's 'Smokestack Lightning' as one of their most popular live numbers, stretching its droning, one-chord vamp into the extended 'rave-up' instrumental breaks that became their signature.
listen forPlay Howlin' Wolf's hypnotic original 'Smokestack Lightning,' then the Yardbirds' own live version from Five Live Yardbirds — the moaning vocal hook survives intact, wrapped in a much longer, faster instrumental frenzy.
The band's cover of Bo Diddley's 'I'm a Man' became a live showcase, with Keith Relf's harmonica and Jeff Beck's guitar racing through the tempo-doubling 'rave-up' that defined the Yardbirds' sound.
listen forHear the stomping, elemental groove of Bo Diddley's 'I'm a Man,' then the Yardbirds' own live version — same braggadocio riff, blown open into a much longer, wilder jam.
The Yardbirds built their earliest live sets almost entirely from amplified Chicago blues covers, and the driving, electrified blues template Muddy Waters set on record in the 1950s underpins the band's whole early sound.
listen forHear the churning, electrified stomp of Muddy Waters's 'Hoochie Coochie Man,' then the Yardbirds' own 'Shapes of Things' — the Chicago blues backbone is still there, just pushed through fuzztone and feedback into something stranger.