Popping in for a friendly reminder, Valentine’s Day is only a week away. The countdown is on for all of you who make sweet gestures, give gifts, or create special experiences to express your never ending affection for your love. Valentine’s Day is a bit out of hand in my opinion, do we need a national day set aside to do that? Are you someone who boycotts the blatant consumerism push it represents? Or, are you the consummate romantic and must always celebrate love?
What better way to honor romance for Valentine’s Day, than listening to a throwback love song? For Throwback Thursday, I have to share a song which represents that giddy, heart palpitations, weak in the knees kind of love. But actually, this song represents so much more than just the heartfelt expression it conveys.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, The Yardbirds, formed back in 1963, and cranked out bluesy rock and roll. Well, until Graham Gouldman (later the guitarist for 10cc) penned, “For Your Love”. This tune proved to be different from The Yardbirds earlier songs. “For Your Love” was written in a minor key, it stopped in the middle and went into a different time signature, and they added the unusual harpsichord which gave it the mysterious tone. All of these changes to their music prompted Eric Clapton to eventually leave the band. He didn’t like the direction they were heading, and felt like they were becoming too commercial. He also had the difficult task of recreating the harpsichord sound on a 12 string guitar, when they played live. In a crazy twist of fate, Clapton was replaced by Jeff Beck, and then Beck was later replaced by Jimmy Page. The Yardbirds were the birthplace for three of the world’s greatest guitarists! Maybe not as consistent with cranking out the hits like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, or The Byrds, The Yardbirds definitely carved a mark in blues, and experimental rock.
Playing in the band at the time this song was a hit was Keith Relf – lead vocal, Eric Clapton – guitar, Chris Dreja – guitar, Paul Samwell-Smith – bass and Jim McCarty – drums. For the recording they brought in Ron Prentiss – acoustic bass, Brian Auger – harpsichord and Denny Piercey – bongos. Love the bongos!
You might remember Zales used the song for their jewelry commercials…probably promoting Valentine’s giving!
Listen…
Yardbirds-For Your Love
BONUS! Doing a bit of research, I fell down the YouTube hole and watched and listened to lots of bands who covered this song. Humble Pie‘s rendition (jam band style) from the late 60’s is one of my favorite. It is instrumentally creative and it also features a very young Peter Frampton. Enjoy.
Humble Pie-For Your Love
