Happenings Some Years Time Ago: Then There Were Four

After defining the Yardbirds' sound for a year and a half through several groundbreaking, singles and one masterpiece of an album, Jeff Beck boarded a plane in Corpus Christi, Texas on this date in 1966, leaving the Yardbirds midway through a Dick Clark Caravan of Stars Tour.

As the band finished recording Roger the Engineer in June, original bassist Paul Samwell Smith left the band. Jimmy Page was brought in first as a replacement on bass and later - after rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja shifted to bass - as co-lead guitarist.

The band toured the US and then returned to London in the fall, where they recorded three songs.

The first, "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" (with John Paul Jones on bass) had been started a few months earlier. It is a frenetic bit of freakbeat, featuring the eastern motifs, distortion, and feedback fans had come to expect of Beck. Page's playing is distinctive. Released late in October, it didn't do well on the charts. The flip side, "Psycho Daisies", featuring Beck on guitar and vocals with Page on bass, was a rewrite of Eddie Cochrane's "Somethin' Else" riff.

And that was it, the band's only single with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page on the twin guitar attack.

They also recorded "Stroll On", a rewrite of "Train Kept a Rollin'" for the film Blow Up during the beginning of the month and mimed themselves playing the song for the cameras a week later.

Tight trousers notwithstanding, "Stroll On" features a heavy guitar and full bass sound that was rare for '66.

The band went into decline over the next two years, and today most people can name a Rhino Hi-Five's worth of their songs....but there was so much more.

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