How “Shapes of Things” by The Yardbirds Helped Set a Standard for Other Guitar-Driven Bands

Just as Bill Haley and Elvis Presley changed the landscape of popular music a decade earlier, The Yardbirds ushered in the psychedelic age of rock. Feedback had appeared on records, but Jeff Beck was finding new ways of expressing himself in his guitar playing on some of the band’s biggest hits. “Shapes of Things” starts like many other songs of its time, but where it goes from there is where you can see into the future. Let’s take a look at the meaning behind “Shapes of Things,” the groundbreaking rave-up by The Yardbirds.

The Recording

The Yardbirds were fascinated by American music. Blues, jazz, and rock ‘n’ roll seemed to be from another world to these young British musicians. After The Beatles and The Dave Clark Five kicked down the doors, American teenagers were anxious to see what the next wave would bring. The Animals, Herman’s Hermits, and The Yardbirds were exactly what those kids were looking for.

Beck had recently replaced Eric Clapton in the group and was trying to find his place as the group was growing away from 12-bar blues and expanding into new forms. It was on that first visit to America when The Yardbirds made a stop in Memphis, Tennessee to record a couple of backing tracks at the Sam Phillips Recording Studio with the legendary engineer himself behind the controls. “Shapes of Things” was recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago, where Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and Howlin’ Wolf recorded the records The Yardbirds had grown up with. The Rolling Stones had recorded four songs in the famous studio just over a year earlier. The Yardbirds recorded backing tracks to “Shapes of Things” and the Bo Diddley song “I’m a Man.” 

Shapes of things before my eyes
Just teach me to despise
Will time make men more wise?
Here, within my lonely frame
My eyes just heard my brain
But will it seem the same?

New Territory

The song is credited to drummer Jim McCarty, singer Keith Relf, and bassist Paul Samwell-Smith. 

McCarty recalled in an interview with Carl Wiser in 2010, “We were really coming from not trying to create a sort of a three-minute piece of music. It was just something that seemed natural to us. We started with the rhythm, we used a bass riff that came from a jazz record, got a groove going with that and then added a few other bits from elsewhere, other ideas that we’d had. And I think it was a great success for us. It was a good hit record that wasn’t really selling out. And it was original.”

(Come tomorrow) Will I be older?
(Come tomorrow) Maybe a soldier
(Come tomorrow) May I be bolder than today?

The Baseline

It certainly was original. The bass riff McCarty refers to was from “Pick Up Sticks” from Dave Brubeck’s Time Out. The lyrical content of “Shapes of Things” is philosophical and timely. The Vietnam War began to be part of the daily news, and Relf and Samwell-Smith provided the words.

Now the trees are almost green
But will they still be seen?
When time and tide have been
Fall into your passing hands
Please don’t destroy these lands
Don’t make them desert sands

Rattles and Squeaks

In the 2018 documentary The Jeff Beck Story: Still on the Run, Beck reflected on the song “Shapes of Things”: “Amazing. I remember distinctly, ‘How is it we had to come this far to get the sound we want?’ In England, the studios didn’t get it. The engineers back in England were more pure. They didn’t like anything that rattled or squeaked. Bring on the squeaks. We don’t care about it. Instantly, we hear the playback. We were all looking at each other saying, ‘This is the stuff, you know?’”

(Come tomorrow) Will I be older?
(Come tomorrow) Maybe a soldier
(Come tomorrow) May I be bolder than today?

The Solo

This is where the song takes off. Beck was inspired by Indian music. He had been at Jimmy Page’s house listening to ragas by Vilyat Khan and Ravi Shankar. He pondered adapting the string bending and droning into a pop song. Beck wanted to play a melody on a series of bent notes with droning feedback.

Page revealed in the same documentary, “He’d play me the sort of first cuts of the records, and I remember him playing ‘Shapes of Things,’ and when it came to the solo, I thought, ‘This is the most extraordinary solo.’”

The Rerecording

After Beck left The Yardbirds he started a new band, The Jeff Beck Group, with Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, and Micky Waller. The album Truth was released in 1968. The opening track was a reworking of “Shapes of Things” but slowed down and drawn out. Stewart sings slightly different lyrics, and Beck adds a Sho-Bud steel guitar. In the two short years since The Yardbirds’ version, rock music had incorporated psychedelic elements. The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream were taking the guitar to new levels. Beck felt he needed to take the song further. 

Beck was quoted by Annette Carson in the book Crazy Fingers as telling Stewart, “Let’s slow it down and make it dirty and evil.”

Here, within my lonely frame
My eyes just heard my brain
Will time make men more sane?

In The Jeff Beck Story: Still on the Run, Page said, “The work that Jeff did in The Yardbirds was of paramount importance to guitar-based groups because he had an incredible ear, and he set an amazing standard, also that his technique was extraordinary as well. I must say, when I heard that, I understood what Jeff was capable of.”

The Yardbirds had more success in the States than in their home country. They started as a blues band, grew into a psychedelic group, and then morphed into Led Zeppelin. The ingredients of Jimmy Page’s post-Yardbirds group included all of those elements. 

May I be bolder than today?

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Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images