Some great points made about the Syd Barrett situation. I didn't know that the rest of the band considered keeping him "on staff" as a songwriter (per a suggestion of mine in an earlier post), until I passed the time this afternoon, by watching a Pink Floyd documentary this afternoon, where David Gilmour, or Nick Mason mentioned that they wanted to keep him around as sort Pink Floyd's version of Brian Wilson, but that it turned out to be a totally unworkable proposition.
Actually Jimmy Paige passed once on playing with the Yardbirds - back in 1965, when they offered the lead guitar slot to him, after Eric Claption left in a snit, due to the hit song "For Your Love", not being enough of a blues song for his tastes. Paige had a nice session musician career going on at the time, and didn't want to end it, to play with a band. So, he referred Jeff Beck to the group. Ironically, Jimmy ended up joining the Yardbirds a year later, to play bass (which was only done for a short time - he switched over to guitar, and Chris Dreja, the rhythm guitarist, was moved to bass), because he was sick of doing session musician work and desperately wanted to join a decent band (he happened to be on hand after a Yerdbirds show, when Paul Samwell-Smith said he was quitting the band, so he offered to take over playing bass).
Paige stuck with the Yardbirds to the bitter end in 1968, and seems to have tried to keep his musical avenues open for other things after the band called it quits, due to the fact that he played guitar in the recording session for Joe Cocker's version of the Beatles' song "With a Little Help From My Friends", that was a big hit. Paige also tried forming a super group that would have had Keith Moon on drums, John Entwhistle on bass, and either Terry Reid or (preferrably) Steve Marriot as the singer. Jimmy jammed with Keith and John, and things looked good musically, but they couldn't get any of the singers they wanted to commit, so the venture fell throough.
Maybe Jimmy decided that he didn't really want to do session work again, and with regards to the band thing, since it looked like he was going to have to start a band with basically unknown musicians (or little known musicians in the case of John Paul Jones, who was a session basisst, but unknown to the general public), what better way for the new band to get some stage time, than to play as a faux version of the Yardbirds, to meet remaining contractual obligations for shows that had been booked before the real Yardbirds called it quits?
In The Vein of The Yardbirds, here's another what if - back in 1984, Jim McCarty, Paul Samwell-Smith, and Chris Dreja, who were all members of the Yardbirds during their heyday in the 60s, formed a group, and released an eponymously titled album called "Box of Frogs." They even got Jeff Beck (who of course played guitar with the Yardbirds in 1965 & 1966, on some of their most successfull albums), and Rory Gallagher (I cut a goodly amount of my lead guitar teeth in the early 80s, by learning Rory Gallalgher - the guy was a fantastic guitar player) to play guitar on some of the album's tracks. John Fiddler provided vocals (and was a good match for the band - Keith Relf was no longer alive, due to having electrocuted himself, while working on a guitar amp in 1976). While the album wasn't a smash hit, it did reasonably well. The song "Back Where I Started was a Top 10 hit in the US. In short, the Yardbirds (albeit under a different name), had a very good chance to sucessfully revive the band.
There was talk of doing a tour, and Jeff Beck even said he was willing to do one, but surprisingly, Dreja, McCarty and Samwell-Smith, nixed the idea of touring. Jeff Beck and John Fiddler got fed up, and basically walked away from Box of Frogs, never having anything to do with McCarty, Dreja, and Samwell-Smith. Another Box of Frogs album was released, but it did nowhere near as good as the first one did, and the group broke up.
The Yardbirds did eventually re-form in the early 90s, and they're still active musically, but they're nowhere near as big as they were in the 60s, or as they were for that short period of time (1983-84) as Box of Frogs. What if they had decided to do the tour that was suggested, after the first Box of Frogs album was successful? Would it have truly catapulted the Yardbirds back into the bigtime?
How about 'Career Divergences'
Jimmy Paige passes on the Yardbirds contract & trys working his vision in different venues & contacts.
Actually Jimmy Paige passed once on playing with the Yardbirds - back in 1965, when they offered the lead guitar slot to him, after Eric Claption left in a snit, due to the hit song "For Your Love", not being enough of a blues song for his tastes. Paige had a nice session musician career going on at the time, and didn't want to end it, to play with a band. So, he referred Jeff Beck to the group. Ironically, Jimmy ended up joining the Yardbirds a year later, to play bass (which was only done for a short time - he switched over to guitar, and Chris Dreja, the rhythm guitarist, was moved to bass), because he was sick of doing session musician work and desperately wanted to join a decent band (he happened to be on hand after a Yerdbirds show, when Paul Samwell-Smith said he was quitting the band, so he offered to take over playing bass).
Paige stuck with the Yardbirds to the bitter end in 1968, and seems to have tried to keep his musical avenues open for other things after the band called it quits, due to the fact that he played guitar in the recording session for Joe Cocker's version of the Beatles' song "With a Little Help From My Friends", that was a big hit. Paige also tried forming a super group that would have had Keith Moon on drums, John Entwhistle on bass, and either Terry Reid or (preferrably) Steve Marriot as the singer. Jimmy jammed with Keith and John, and things looked good musically, but they couldn't get any of the singers they wanted to commit, so the venture fell throough.
Maybe Jimmy decided that he didn't really want to do session work again, and with regards to the band thing, since it looked like he was going to have to start a band with basically unknown musicians (or little known musicians in the case of John Paul Jones, who was a session basisst, but unknown to the general public), what better way for the new band to get some stage time, than to play as a faux version of the Yardbirds, to meet remaining contractual obligations for shows that had been booked before the real Yardbirds called it quits?
In The Vein of The Yardbirds, here's another what if - back in 1984, Jim McCarty, Paul Samwell-Smith, and Chris Dreja, who were all members of the Yardbirds during their heyday in the 60s, formed a group, and released an eponymously titled album called "Box of Frogs." They even got Jeff Beck (who of course played guitar with the Yardbirds in 1965 & 1966, on some of their most successfull albums), and Rory Gallagher (I cut a goodly amount of my lead guitar teeth in the early 80s, by learning Rory Gallalgher - the guy was a fantastic guitar player) to play guitar on some of the album's tracks. John Fiddler provided vocals (and was a good match for the band - Keith Relf was no longer alive, due to having electrocuted himself, while working on a guitar amp in 1976). While the album wasn't a smash hit, it did reasonably well. The song "Back Where I Started was a Top 10 hit in the US. In short, the Yardbirds (albeit under a different name), had a very good chance to sucessfully revive the band.
There was talk of doing a tour, and Jeff Beck even said he was willing to do one, but surprisingly, Dreja, McCarty and Samwell-Smith, nixed the idea of touring. Jeff Beck and John Fiddler got fed up, and basically walked away from Box of Frogs, never having anything to do with McCarty, Dreja, and Samwell-Smith. Another Box of Frogs album was released, but it did nowhere near as good as the first one did, and the group broke up.
The Yardbirds did eventually re-form in the early 90s, and they're still active musically, but they're nowhere near as big as they were in the 60s, or as they were for that short period of time (1983-84) as Box of Frogs. What if they had decided to do the tour that was suggested, after the first Box of Frogs album was successful? Would it have truly catapulted the Yardbirds back into the bigtime?