The Yardbirds' “Lost Woman”

Paul Samwell-Smith’s Complete Bass Line

- Stevie Glasgow 

WHILE THE YARDBIRDS ARE RIGHTLY FAMED FOR HAVING KICK started the careers of three British guitar legends—Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page—the band was far more than a mere nursery for six-string superstars. Their freewheeling mid-song interludes (dubbed “rave-ups”), deft combination of blues and harder-edged sensibilities, and willingness to engage with non-mainstream ideas such as Gregorian chant exerted a powerful influence on their mid-’60s contemporaries and presaged many developments in the worlds of experimental and heavy rock. In its heyday, the group enjoyed success on both sides of the Pond with such hits as “For Your Love,” “Heart Full of Soul,” “Shapes of Things,” and “Over Under Sideways Down.”

Like many other low-enders, the band’s founding bassist, Paul Samwell- Smith, started out as a guitarist. “When the Yardbirds started, under the name of the Metropolis Blues Quartet, [Yardbirds vocalist/harmonicist] Keith Relf was playing guitar, and playing rather well, so I volunteered to play the bass—well, someone had to!” he says. The Surrey, England-born musician cites Ricky Fenson of the Cyril Davies Band as an early influence. “He blew my mind when I watched them play … I copied much of his style, as did others, including Bill Wyman.”