Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty, two of the original founding members of the British Rock Band The Yardbirds. A blues-based band that broadened its range into pop and rock, Famous for songs “For Your Love”, “Over Under Sideways Down” and “Heart Full of Soul”. The Yardbirds were pioneers in guitar innovations of the ‘60s: fuzz tone, feedback, distortion, backwards echo, improved amplification, etc. Pat Pemberton, writing for Spinner, holds that the Yardbirds were “the most impressive guitar band in rock music”. After the Yardbirds broke up in 1968, their current lead guitarist Jimmy Page founded what became Led Zeppelin. I met with them before their show on Friday September 2, in Norfolk Connecticut on their first stop on a world tour. Being that these guys are a few of the founders of modern rock music, I was a little intimidated by them. I could not help but think about the guitar players that they had played alongside: Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

They were very forthcoming and easy to talk to. Despite the fact they were watching the US Open tennis tournament with one eye and the other one on me. They were very relaxed and unpretentious.

Great to meet you. I am honored to get a chance to talk with you guys about your current tour and your long history in music. I have never met members of the Music Hall of Fame. You guys helped shape much of the music I grew up with. You really made a great impact on me as a teenager. I thank you

Chris: Well sorry about that.

No without your music my teen years would have been much harder.

C: That’s very nice of you to say that.

I would like to start off with something light by asking you, if you have had that one Spinal Tap moment? Or have you had several?

C: Oh my God!

So I guess many?

C: Oh several.

Jim: Well there is one that I told someone else. I don’t know whether it still counts. We were playing on an ice rink and we had to walk out across the ice. When we walked across the ice, all these girls jumped on us and all over and were grabbing us and it was crazy.

Jim: In the mad old days.

Was that in the UK?

Jim: No it was in New York I think.

Chris: Oh does that bring back some old memories.

Chris: Remember that time we were barred from Disneyland? And they would not let Khrushchev in either. He was there at the same time.

I guess a crazy English rock band was too much for them?

Chris: You laugh (but) to be honest with (you), you’re talking about Spinal tap. I think that was based a lot on us in the band at that time.

There seems to be a strong similarity to Jeff Beck (Christopher Guest's character, Nigel Tufnell, has a strong resemblance to Jeff Beck. Beck denied any similarities. He only admitted he inspired his hair style)

Chris: He is based on that I think.

The thing is when we first toured in America, Um; we used to do these shows where we would play here, there and everywhere. What seemed to happen was the band on before us would play all our numbers before we went on stage. Then we would have to go and do it (play the same songs) again. And we had to rent all of our equipment which was always going out the window because it used to blow up. So Jeff used to throw it out the window.

Jim: Oh no Jack kicked an amp out the window once and it was on the first floor. It was quite big and if it had fallen on anyone it would have killed them.

So what was it about that time when you guys were forming that was happening in London that really set the stage for all modern rock?

Chris: Well I would say this is true. Things were very black and white for us in England. You know the war and everything. There was not much for young kids to do. The establishment as we called it still ruled. That would be like everybody, Colonels and Majors, all from the Air force and everything. Youngsters were really seen and not heard. Then Jim and Top (Anthony Topham – founding guitarist for the group) and I were in art school together and so was Eric (Clapton). He was a little more up than us( higher grade). We just heard this great … you know your great American black blues music. And it just turned us totally on. We had very manufactured music at that time you know. This stuff had real soul and color and emotion. Um, that was it. We were fairly entrepreneurial and we merged together with Paul Samwell Smith and Keith (Relf). And they started to find little back rooms and clubs and pubs and it just snowballed quickly didn’t it Jim?

Jim: Yeah we used to go see the Stones (Rolling Stones). They played near us in Richmond.

Was it always a crazy seen.

Jim: Yeah

Drinking, partying and girls?

Chris: Well there was a lot of interaction with the audience and band

Jim: The Stones would play in the club Eel Pie Island. When people danced, the floor boards would go up and down. Just crazy really

Chris: Yeah that was just young people getting out their anal repression. We were providing the sound track. We then took over the Crawdaddy Club after the Stones went on tour so their crowd became our crowd. And then we played like eight times a week around (and) at the Marquee Club. It happened very fast.

Do you think that American audiences were just not ready for the black American music. I mean you had Elvis and some of that but the British rockers like you really brought that music home.

Jim: Well, what I didn’t realize when we came over and played it, that the Americans didn’t know it was their own music.

Chris: And we didn’t know there was all that segregation and such going on. It’s a real irony.

Jim: We were the imposters. We were just playing their music.

Chris: Like Jim so rightly said at the induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I want to thank you for copying your music and bringing it back to you. But that was a classic statement.

When we started to tour America extensively we were able to jam with people like Buddy Guy and get down to the south side (American South) but it was terribly segregated. Your country to us, in our black and white phase, (referring to the very class structured British social structure) just seemed so glamorous and extraordinary…full of things like 77 Sunset Strip. Just the land of plenty and it was… but we had no idea just that our idols actually lived in little shacks on the outskirt of town. You know. One couldn’t use the same toilet.

Jim: I went to a gospel show once. (People) said oh that guy in the bar will kill you. But we didn’t experience that.

Chris: Didn’t we used to go to the Apollo Club up in Harlem. But Chicago was quite different. It was the start of the Electric Blues sort of thing. But our music was very based in the blues. But you know some Wag (slang for Wives or Girlfriends) called it the Surry Delta (referring to English blues music)… But in the process we put our stamp on our own music.

Yes, when I listen to your music I do not hear strictly the blues. I don’t hear just a cycle of sevenths played over by a minor pentatonic. I hear you really branching out with the psychedelic and the pop songs. What was your inspiration for moving away from the blues form?

Jim: We did move off and we were trying to do something different.

Chris: Everyone in the band had great ideas and a lot of energy. Jim, Paul, and Paul Samwell-Smith and Keith Ralf were kind of natural composers. The Irony, some of the things we did then were considered ground breaking because everyone does it. But the sort of sounds we were attempting to do… well you couldn’t just go to the BBC. If you went to BBC they would refuse to record them. “Distortion come - on please”

What did you guys do to get that early distortion?

Chris: We just turned them up to number 59.

Jim: We just had to turn it up to get the sound you know. If you don’t turn it up you couldn’t get that...

Chris: We also had the best amps which we still use now; The Vox AC30 Top Boost. It is a sweet amp if it is not the Chinese one. The original amp is just fantastic.

Do you think there was anything in the class structure in Britain at that time that drove you guys to do what you did?

Jim: That is the thing about the sixties all the classes broke down. It was like a revolution so…

Chris: During that time Jim lived of Fulham Road… and had all these friends with titles didn’t you Jim?

Jim: Yeah Yeah.

Chris: Didn’t one of them drive our van.

All: (Laughs.)

Chris: The whole world is gone crazy. Now Mick Jagger is a Sir. Jeff (Beck) is a Doctor of music.

Did Eric Clapton really quit the band because you were successful?

Jim: Yeah but that thing was really involved. Because the main thing is he thought we had sold out.

Chris: But (edit) in his background with (edit) (dealing) his Illegitimacy, which now is all common knowledge, he really identified with people who had really suffered, like Robert Johnson. He was very much a purist at that point in his life… but in those days to break out of the London scene you had to have a hit. But until then we never broke past the top fifty, until we did a song (called) “For Your Love” and that changed history for us.

Jim: We were quite desperate then. Because all the other bands had hits and the only way we could get on was with a hit.

Chris: Eric was such a perfectionist he would spend the whole weekend practicing a blues lick in front of a mirror. But that was not the route we wanted to go in and I am glad we did. Otherwise we have been just another cover band playing the blues.

How did the whole psychedelic thing come about?

Chris: Well there were no rules then. Then Jimmy joined the band. We had already experimented with world music.

Jim: A lot of that had to do with Jeff and all the sounds. He liked all sorts of different sounds. He had fuzz boxes and wah- wah pedals and things.

Chris: Then Jimmy came in and kind of took over and took that on

Jim: It was something we liked. Kind –a (of) wacky you know.

Chris: When we playing those West Coast Clubs that eventually became psychedelic … we were not high or anything. The audience was, but we could not play if we were. We got high off the audience. My self personally did not drink or smoke until years after the Yardbirds.

Would you say that Jimmy was more of a business guy? I get that impression reading about the history of the band?

Chris: Yes he is one of those unique guys who can do both. Well he did have a lot of experience in that… having worked for Grey Engineers and Producers. There is some funny stories… our co-manager Simon Napier–Bell said to Peter Grant. They are a bit moody bunch the lot of them. Especially watch one who keeps asking too many question about the money (meaning Jimmy Page) Yes a very brilliant producer. But he does have a business brain. I loved Jimmy he is an amazing guy. He learned a lot from Peter Grant… (edit) who really changed the business. … (edit) So by the time he was ready to carry on playing live he was very astute.

Well thank you very much for your time. I appreciate you openness.