“Beautiful”: the 1965 Eric Clapton solo that blew Jimmy Page away
It’s always a great sign for establishing a legacy when a band produces a member who goes on to forge their own path as an artist, but in the case of The Yardbirds, they were fortunate enough to have three consecutive guitarists leave the band to move on to brighter things.
It’s absolutely no slight on the abilities of the band that three illustrious members would depart to do their own thing, as they were a clearly talented bunch who just happened to give these three performers the freedom to express themselves and hone their craft. Think of The Yardbirds as the stepping stone for guitarists to make a name for themselves before going on to further cement their place as all-time greats of the instrument.
Eric Clapton would be the first to leave the band, with them choosing to hire Jeff Beck as his replacement, and even though they spent time together in the band, their third guitar legend, Jimmy Page, would eventually usurp Beck as the sole lead guitarist in the group. Having had all three pass through their ranks is an almost unmatched set of circumstances in the history of rock music, and the fact that they barely spent any time working together is considered by many to be one of the only downsides to their separate stints.
However, despite the fact that they’d all ostensibly put their predecessors out of jobs, whether intentional or not, it’s clear that the trio all learned from one another and had the utmost respect for their counterparts’ abilities.
For example, Page has always been a vocal fan of both Beck and Clapton, and with both of them having been active on the blues circuit before him, they were figures he’d been looking up to for a long time before he became more closely associated with them.
However, it’s one of Clapton’s solos from his tenure with The Yardbirds that Page once proclaimed was one of the greatest lead breaks of all time, and that it completely floored him, demonstrating exactly why Clapton was untouchable as the bastion of British bluesmen.
“His solo in ‘I Ain’t Got You’ is something else,” Page reflected during a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone. “He got the feeling of tremolo before anyone else over here. He had such an understanding of the blues. It was paramount.”
Page continued, further explaining how Clapton’s attitude towards his craft was a large part of the reason why he was so successful and engaging to him on a creative level. “He was a purist, but he did it so well,” Page remarked, before calling his style “beautiful, lyrical”.
There’s a real aggression to Clapton’s playing on the track that is immediately striking, and even though he’d arguably become more of a refined player later in his career, this absolute rawness is irresistible. What’s more, there are plenty of elements of Clapton’s playing on the track that Page would go on to echo in his own approach as he grew into his career with The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin. They may not have spent any time together in the band, but what Clapton had done just a handful of years before Page would go on to massively inspire his future replacement.
