The song Jimmy Page shared between The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin
The connective tissue between British blues pioneers The Yardbirds and hard rock icons Led Zeppelin is more direct than just about any other two bands in rock history. Jimmy Page had been recruited into The Yardbirds in 1966, just long enough to see his old friend Jeff Beck out and take over the lead guitar role. During his two-year tenure, Page was more or less the primary creative force guiding the band toward psychedelic and experimental sounds that was miles away from their blues-infused origins.
In the spring of 1968, The Yardbirds recorded a series of demos at Columbia Studios in New York. By that point, singer Keith Relf and drummer Jim McCarty were already looking to leave the band. After a few more performances, The Yardbirds officially split up, leaving the demo recordings from New York unfinished.
Page was informed by the band’s management that they still had touring commitments in Scandinavia to honour. With Relf and McCarty out, along with bassist Chris Dreja leaving to pursue a career in photography, Page was tasked with assembling a new lineup. Dubbed “The New Yardbirds”, Page’s new additions included fellow session ace John Paul Jones on bass, plus relative unknowns Robert Plant on vocals and John Bonham on drums.
After returning from their tour in the fall, The New Yardbirds had established their own identity separate from the original Yardbirds. In search of a new name, Page recalled the discussions he had with The Who’s John Entwistle and Keith Moon while recording ‘Beck’s Bolero’ in 1966. Page entertained the idea of putting a supergroup together, but either Moon or Entwistle proclaimed that the idea would go over like a lead balloon. Page modified the phrase, taking some liberties with the spelling, and eventually came up with Led Zeppelin.
After two albums of blues-based hard rock, Page was ready to embrace folk music on the band’s third LP, Led Zeppelin III. While sorting through demos, Page recalled one of the songs that he had recorded at the final Yardbirds session in New York, ‘Knowing That I’m Losing You’. With a bit of polish and a new re-write of the lyrics, Page came up with ‘Tangerine’, one of the few Led Zeppelin tracks credited solely to him.
With its origins relating back to ‘Knowing That I’m Losing You’, there has been some debate over who the proper lyricist on ‘Tangerine’ was. In the 2016 book Yardbirds: The Ultimate Rave-Up, both McCarty and Dreja claimed that Relf had written the words to ‘Knowing That I’m Losing You’. The extent to which Page modified Relf’s original lyrics is unknown – when Page included ‘Knowing That I’m Losing You’ on the compilation album Yardbirds ’68, Relf’s lead vocals were wiped from the final mix.
Check out ‘Tangerine’ down below.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter
All the latest stories about Led Zeppelin from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.