“Smashed it on the floor”: The tour that made Jeff Beck walk out on The Yardbirds
It takes more than a passing fight to get someone to walk out on a band. Even though some people might not be getting along every time they come out onstage, it’s easy for most professionals to put on a happy face and at least pretend that everything is alright before hammering on each other in the background. However, Jeff Beck was always on thin ice in the Yardbirds, and this tour was enough to make him want to create his own brand of rock and roll fury.
Looking at what Beck did on his own, though, there was hardly any need for him to have too many people surrounding him. He and Rod Stewart may have made quite the dynamic duo when making albums like Truth, but whenever someone showed up, there was no doubt that everyone was paying attention to him getting the most out of his guitar rather than what kind of bluesy inflexion Stewart was doing.
Everyone has to get their feet wet at some point, and The Yardbirds was practically a breeding ground by the time Beck got there. Eric Clapton had already been long gone, and with the next wave of blues artists arriving like Jimi Hendrix, Beck was starting to create his own fretboard acrobatics by using his whammy bar to conjure up the sound of a human voice whenever he performed.
Even when having a partner like Jimmy Page next to him, Beck was singular in his performance style. Page may have done the lion’s share in writing ‘Beck’s Bolero’, but this was a vehicle for the guitar maestro to work his magic, especially towards the end of his run with the group when he started spreading things out.
This was closer to jazz, though, and that wasn’t what was putting asses in seats at the venue. The Yardbirds were meant to be a pop adjacent band in the label’s mind, and even though Beck could tolerate a song like ‘For Your Love’, he knew that going out with them on the Dick Clark tour would never have satisfied him. That was reserved for pop-rock acts, and he had much better things on his mind.
When talking about his run with the band, Page remembered one massive argument between Beck and vocalist Keith Relf being the final nail in the coffin, saying, “It was on the Dick Clark tour when there were a few incidents. One time in the dressing room, I walked in and Beck had his guitar up over his head, about to bring it down on Keith Relf’s head, but instead smashed it on the floor. Relf looked at him with total astonishment, and Beck said, ‘Why did you make me do that?’ Fucking hell.”
While Beck didn’t quite then and there, Page would go on to say that he wasn’t going to be playing along for the rest of the tour. He had given the group a notice that he needed to go to the doctor’s to get his tonsils looked at, but given that he spent that appointment at the Whiskey A-Go-Go, it’s not like he was necessarily worried about his dental health all that much at that juncture.
It’s hard not to see the writing on the wall when it comes to Beck’s departure, though. He was meant to soar much higher than anyone else in the band, and if this was how he announced his departure, maybe Page figured out he had the right idea when eventually leaving to form Led Zeppelin.
