Stroll On

I was thinking of the movie Blow-Up today and the infamous scene where the Yardbirds play and Jeff Beck smashes his guitar. The movie is slow, but hypnotic and that scene is so great. It's timeless--could be any indie show in Philly, today. Bored hipsters standing around with their arms folded waiting to be entertained. A couple of weird kids dancing off in a corner. I love how everyone lose their minds and start screaming when he throws the guitar off stage. That part definitely brings you back and reminds you it's the sixties.

The Blow-Up performance was during that brief stretch in time when the Yardbirds had dueling lead guitarists--Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Two guitarists who both happened to be pretty incredible musicians. Beck was heavy into experimentation at the time and turned the band on to a more psychedelic sound.

Posted above is the scene from Blow-Up. Below is another one of my favorite Yardbirds' songs called "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago." The video quality kind of sucks sadly. Nonetheless, it is incredibly rockin, and way ahead of its time. Some consider it to be one of the first psychedelic songs ever. Beck shreds it in the end (uh sorry, did I just say shreds?). Ok, mostly I just posted it because Page looks so dang cute playing his guitar (0:45).