Eric Clapton’s departure from the Yardbirds was a touchstone moment in the history of electric guitar. It opened the door for future members Jeff Beck and, later, Jimmy Page, both of whom brought a more energetic and sonically innovative sound and style of playing to the group. And it was Clapton’s follow-up stint with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers that brought him acclaim and set in motion his move to form Cream, rock's definitive virtuoso power trio.
But while it’s often said Clapton left the Yardbirds out of a desire to play in a bluesier style, a former bandmate reveals there was another catalyst.
“That is partly the reason,” former Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty told Forbes in 2019. “But he also had a bit of aggravation with the bass player, Paul Samwell-Smith.
“The two saw life differently. Eric aligned himself with the lower class, the working class, at that time. Paul wanted to be much more upper-crust, even though he was from the working class as well.
“His parents adopted the last name Samwell-Smith — they put their two names together so his mother would not have to be Mrs. Smith. From that, Paul wanted to be upper-class. I think that was the basis of their differences.”
Clapton's roots were indeed working class. He was raised in Ripley, Surrey, by his grandmother and her second husband, whom he believed were his parents. HIs discovery around the age of nine that his “sister,” Patricia, was actually his biological mother left him feeling unwanted and abandoned.
“Eric was coming from a difficult upbringing, because he wasn’t really brought up by his parents,” McCarty told Guitar Player. “He was brought up by his grandmother, who he thought was his mother. We met her, and she was a lovely woman, very chatty and very friendly. But that gave him a challenged outlook on things, and I think he took the blues up as his personal crusade.”
McCarty also compared and contrasted the Yardbirds’ three most famous guitarists for Forbes, noting, “Eric was a great purist. If he ever stayed with you, he’d be up early in the morning, playing before he even had breakfast. He was very dedicated and also very much into clothes.
“Jeff was completely different from Eric,” he continues. “He couldn’t care less what he wore. He’d just wear dirty old jeans that he could lie under his car with. His playing had much more variety to it. He liked jazz, rockabilly, and old-time electronic music. He loved Les Paul, double-tracked stuff. He would play much wider than Eric, who stuck to B.B. King and Buddy Guy.
“Jimmy was different again. He was the ultimate professional because he used to play in studios in London on other people’s records. He did what people asked him to do, very exact and businesslike. He was a session man.”
Beck and Page worked together fleetingly after Beck left the Yardbirds, while Page went on to form Led Zeppelin from the ashes of the Yardbirds.
Clapton, meanwhile, features on Joe Bonamassa’s new B.B. King tribute album after a singer demanded his presence on a cover of his most challenging track.
