The Yardbirds

United Kingdom, 1963–1968

London blues-rock group whose lead guitarists were, in turn, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.

MusicRoots documents 4 artists who influenced The Yardbirds and 7 artists The Yardbirds influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced The Yardbirds?

• Sonny Boy Williamson II — The Yardbirds recorded a live album with Williamson in 1963; Clapton called him 'the real deal'.
• Muddy Waters — Muddy Waters was the Yardbirds' foundational blues reference, per Clapton.
• Howlin' Wolf — Jimmy Page named Howlin' Wolf as the sound the Yardbirds were aiming for.
• B.B. King — B.B. King was the first guitarist who 'took Clapton's breath away', per his autobiography.

Which artists did The Yardbirds influence?

• Big Star — The Yardbirds were a formative British Invasion influence on Chris Bell, who played their style in his pre-Big Star group the Jynx.
• Lynyrd Skynyrd — The Yardbirds' blues-rock was among the British bands Skynyrd revered as they formed.
• Alice Cooper — Cooper told interviewer Jonathan King the Yardbirds were his favourite band of all time — their raw R&B-driven British Invasion sound was the single biggest musical model for the early Alice Cooper group.
• Scorpions — The Yardbirds' raw riffs were Rudolf Schenker's earliest hard-rock model — he played their material as a teenager, when the Yardbirds and Pretty Things were regarded as the real hard rockers.
• Aerosmith — 'Train Kept A-Rollin'' — Aerosmith's signature song — is the Yardbirds' arrangement; Joe Perry has named Jeff Beck's Yardbirds his primary model.
• The Jeff Beck Group — The band was Jeff Beck's vehicle straight out of the Yardbirds — the blues-into-experiment guitar ethos he'd pioneered there carried into the Jeff Beck Group.
• Jeff Beck — Beck made his name in the Yardbirds — the blues-into-experiment guitar ethos he carried through his career.