Over Under Sideways Down: The Flight of The Yardbirds

by Alan Clayson

‘The Yardbirds allowed me to improvise a lot in live performance, and I started building a textbook of ideas that I eventually used in Zeppelin’ – Jimmy Page Alan Clayson has written the only full length account of the legendary British rock band, who evolved from the sleepy suburbs south of London in the 1960s to spawn three of the world’s greatest guitarists - Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. The Yardbirds had a string of international hits throughout the 1960s, including For Your Love, Shapes of Things and Over Under Sideways Down, and their improvisational on stage “rave-ups" became legendary. Although they were together for just five years, their reach has extended far into rock culture. Noted music historian Alan Clayson charts the band’s rise and changing line-up, from the pub and club circuit of the United Kingdom to rock/RnB immortality. This study covers not just the group’s five years of frenetic activity in the sixties but also follows the subsequent careers of individual members. Page’s monumental success with Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton’s rise to guitar god and Beck’s formation of The Jeff Beck Group, as well as The Yardbirds' recent reformation, which sees original members Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty touring to packed auditoriums around the world. Long term fan and contemporary Clayson relates the story of this iconic British band with style and perception, placing them as pioneers of psychedelic rock and early hard rock. This is an intimate and fascinating account not only of The Yardbirds themselves but also of an amazingly creative period of British music history. Many rock critics and historians aside from Clayson credit The Yardbirds' influence on generations of pop acts, right through to punk and the Britpop of the nineties. 'The Yardbirds were the first psychedelic band' - Jeff Beck 'There were four rock bands in the world that really counted, and The Yardbirds was one of them' - Simon Napier-Bell Noted rock critic and author Alan Clayson has written many books on music - including the best-sellers Backbeat - subject of a major film - as well as studies of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. He has written for journals as diverse as The Guardian, Record Collector, Mojo, Folk Roots, The Times, The Independent, and, as a teenager, the notorious Schoolkids Oz. He is also an acclaimed songwriter and performance artist, both solo and fronting the legendary Clayson and the Argonauts.

Genres: Music

236 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 30, 2020

About the author

Alan Clayson (Dover, England, 1951) is of a late 1970s vintage of composer-entertainers that also embraces the likes of Wreckless Eric, Tom Robinson, Elvis Costello and John Otway. While he is still making regular concert appearances, he has become better known as an author of around thirty books - mostly musical biography. These include the best-sellers "Backbeat" (subject of a major film), The Yardbirds and The Beatles book box.

He has written for journals as diverse as The Guardian, Record Collector, Ink, Mojo, Mediaeval World, Folk Roots, Guitar, Hello!, Drummer, The Times, The Independent, Ugly Things and, as a 'teenager, the notorious Schoolkids 0z. He has also been engaged to perform and lecture on both sides of the Atlantic - as well as broadcast on national TV and radio.

From 1975 to 1985, he led the legendary Clayson and the Argonauts - who reformed in 2005, ostensibly to launch Sunset On A Legend, a long-awaited double-CD retrospective - and was thrust to 'a premier position on rock's Lunatic Fringe' (Melody Maker).

As shown by the existence of a US fan club - dating from an 1992 soiree in Chicago - Alan Clayson's following grows still as well as demand for his talents as a record producer, and the number of versions of his compositions by such diverse acts as Dave Berry (in whose backing group, he played keyboards in the mid-1980s), New Age Outfit, Stairway - and Joy Tobing, winner of the Indonesian version of Pop Idol. He has worked too with The Portsmouth Sinfonia, Wreckless Eric, Twinkle, The Yardbirds, The Pretty Things, Mark Astronaut and the late Screaming Lord Sutch among many others. While his stage act defies succinct description, he has been labelled a 'chansonnier' in recent years for performances and record releases that may stand collectively as Alan Clayson's artistic apotheosis were it not for a promise of surprises yet to come.

Reviews

[Bonnye Reed]

MyNextRead

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a well-researched and excellently presented history of an amazing British 60s-era band. For me it was an opportunity to wallow in musical nostalgia. I loved every page.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid, not superb, but information on the Yardbirds isn’t so easily found. A 2002 publication, so facts on the various members’ post-Yardbirds careers stood just short of Birdland