The Yardbirds: The Most Blueswailing Futuristic Way-Out Heavy Beat Sound

by Peter Stanfield

The Yardbirds were trailblazers in the rapid development of pop music in Britain between 1963 and 1968. With members including Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, they helped to set the basic template of what has been known ever since as rock music, and gave rise to one of the most commercially successful bands of all Led Zeppelin. Peter Stanfield situates the band in the evolution of British R&B and the tumult of the psychedelic era. Obsessively detailed about both the band and 1960s pop culture, this is the book fans of the Yardbirds have always needed.

Genres: Music, Biography

296 pages, Hardcover

Published April 15, 2025

About the author

Peter Stanfield is a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Kent at Canterbury and the author of Hollywood, Westerns and the 1930s: The Lost Trail.

Reviews

[Slagle Rock · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book offers a chronological account of the Yardbirds career during the group’s active years (1963-68) as it was reported at the time in music industry publications and teen pop magazines. The book isn’t billed as such but does promise in the dust jacket to be “the book fans of the Yardbirds have always needed.” Well, as a longtime fan, I enjoyed aspects of this book but found it came up really short on giving meaningful insight into the band’s individual members and supporters, producers and/or economics.
This coverage of the band was superficial, pulling in copious amounts of passé reportage and opinionating on the state music by the group and their pop music peers in the 60s. There are lots of remarks about whether this or that single is as good as their last one or the latest 45 by the Who or Stones, which I found interesting, but only to a point. Many of the extended quotes were repetitive, seemingly drawn off wire reports or press releases from the era. I enjoy pop music culture and old magazines about it as much as anyone but to build the entire book (copyright 2025) on old articles seems like lazy reporting to me. Maybe that is what today’s readers, raised up on twitter slogans and quips, are looking for.
But considering the author is a professor emeritus at the University of Kent, the lack of historical perspective seems negligent. Though many of the 60s stars have died, many are still with us. Why are there no fresh quotes or thoughts about the Yardbirds included here, 60 years on? Some modern thinking on the Yardbird’s legacy and influence would have been a great way to introduce or wrap up the book but none was really included.

[Don Gorman · Rating 1 out of 5]

(1 1/2). I heard about this book when a friend sent me a review of it from the Wall Street Journal. I wish I had not read it, I am not sure the reviewer did. It is list after list after list of gigs and bands and albums and clubs and the entertainment level is totally lacking. The first two thirds of the book were numbing, the last third a little more readable. If it was not for my insatiable appetite in my music education I would not have made it through. Very weak stuff.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this was packed with solid research, it was often a dull read with constant quotes from contemporaneous sources and reviews. Fine and all, but it left no room for a flowing narrative that made you understand the motivations or histories of the musicians involved.