After defining the Yardbirds' sound for a year and a half through several groundbreaking,  singles and one masterpiece of an album, Jeff Beck boarded a plane in Corpus Christi, Texas on this date in 1966, leaving the Yardbirds midway through a Dick Clark Caravan of Stars Tour. As the band finished recording Roger the Engineer in June, original bassist Paul Samwell Smith left the band. Jimmy Page was brought in first as a replacement on bass and later - after rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja shifted to bass - as co-lead guitarist. The band toured the US and then returned to London in the fall, where they recorded three songs.  The first, " Happenings Ten Years Time Ago " (with John Paul Jones on bass) had been started a few months earlier. It is a frenetic bit of freakbeat, featuring the eastern motifs, distortion, and feedback fans had come to expect of Beck. Page's playing is distinctive. Released late in October, it didn't do well on the charts. The flip side, ...

Fifty five years ago the Yardbirds released their follow up to "Shapes of Things",  "Over, Under, Sideways, Down",   The original featured Jeff Beck on guitar. Here is the band performing live with his replacement, Jimmy Page. Of their enduring hits, it was always the hardest to find in the vinyl and early CD eras.

On this day in 1975, Pink Floyd released Wish You Were Here . One of the songs  - which many fans had heard during that summer's tour - now featured a guest vocalist, Roy Harper. The same Roy Harper to whom Led Zeppelin tipped their hats with 3:40 of nonsense on Led Zeppelin III . His composition, " Another Day ", is one of the songs on the first This Mortal Coil album. He's a bit of a big deal, or was, among the rock elite in England. He opened up for Led Zeppelin, but the crowds just thought he was a weirdo. Each of his albums throughout the 1970s would have one song where he'd be backed by big names. Moon, Page, and Ronnie Lane back him on "Male Chauvinist Pig Blues". David Gilmour (returning the favor for "Cigar") and John Paul Jones play on " The Game ". " One of Those Days in England " features not only Paul and Linda, but Ronnie Lane, Alvin Lee and Jimmy McCulloch. Jimmy Page accompanies him on " Bank of the D...