Happenings 57 Years Time Ago

Today's news of the passing of guitarist Jeff Beck reminds me of the pivotal role he played, while in The Yardbirds, in creating the new sounds that so influenced pop and rock music in the mid-60s and specifically during 1966.

The British Invasion of 1964 brought a new sound and spirit into popular music and the next set of changes in '66 turned the music in a new direction.  Below are 6 songs from that year, arranged in chronological order of release, of which three are from The Yardbirds and Jeff Beck.  Five of the six were singles, but none were smash hits in the U.S., although four reached the top 20 on the charts.

February 1966 marks the release of Shapes Of Things by The Yardbirds.  Which reminds me, I need to check the 45s I have in storage as I think I still have the three Yardbirds singles.  Shapes was unlike anything I heard before, with the crazy guitar solo in the middle, the way they hit reverberating chord at solo's end, and the guitar sputtering out at the end.

The next month saw Eight Miles High by The Byrds.  This was a very heavy song for the time with the bass and rhythm guitar recorded loud, the odd, enigmatic lyrics, and the dissonant jazz-tinged lead guitar by Roger McGuinn.

The Yardbird's next single, Over Under Sideways Down, was released in July, with its unique sinewy guitar threading throughout.

That same month 7 And 7 Is was released by Love, an L.A. band.  Another first of a kind sound and ending.

In August, The Beatles released Revolver.  The last song on the second side, and the strangest on the entire album, was Tomorrow Never Knows, which was actually the first song recorded for the album back in April.  Things would never be the same.

And finally, in October, came Happenings Ten Years Time Ago from The Yardbirds, lyrically and sonically distinctive.  A word on Yardbirds guitarists is appropriate here.  The band's first guitarist was Eric Clapton, who quit in 1964 because he thought the band was becoming too commercial.  His replacement was Jeff Beck.  In the spring of '66, Jimmy Page joined the band and, until the fall, both Beck and Page served as guitarists.  Over Under and Happenings feature both.  That fall, Beck quit the band, leaving Page to carry on until Jimmy left to form a new band which became Led Zeppelin.