Released: 1965
Like magnets all pointing at each other, The Yardbirds played host to arguably three of the twentieth century’s most exciting guitar talents – but only two of them at the same, and even then not for long. Later incarnations of the band would feature Jeff Beck and briefly Beck and Jimmy Page, with the former quitting mid-American tour in late 1966.
The version we’re interested in here was the one who’d suceeded The Rolling Stones as house band at the Crawdaddy Club. Steeped in the nascent blues scene which was catching like a bush fire in the capital, when guitarist Top Topham was replaced by one Eric Clapton, the quintet had acquired both an enormous talent but also something of a puritan when it came to the music being made. From the start a collision course was set.
Although there was little doubting their quest for authenticity, the group’s now seminal live album Five Live Yardbirds failed to make an impression. Rumblings from Clapton about direction came to a head when they recorded a song written by future 10CC singer Graham Gouldman which had been rejected by his own label. For Your Love was a world away from the Delta and much more Kings Road, a clean, crisp and pop orientated song sprinkled with a little garage. It’s not often that a first hit is the last straw, but Clapton left after it’s release, to be replaced by Beck. Sometimes the prodigiously talented don’t play well with others.
The Voice Of Unreason 
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