'For Your Love': Its Success Pushed Eric Clapton Out of the Yardbirds

‘200 Greatest 60s Rock Songs Vol. 2’ Book Excerpt

Frank Mastropolo

Castle Pulse/Wave

When the Yardbirds formed in 1963, they called themselves Blue-Sounds; their repertoire was American blues and R&B. The Yardbirds name was inspired by Jack Kerouac’s classic novel On the Road. Kerouac described people he met as he traveled across the US, including those who hung around rail yards. He called them “rail yard hobos.” Another influence was jazz great Charlie Parker, often nicknamed “Yardbird” or “Bird.”

Seeing the success of groups like the Beatles and the Dave Clark 5, the Yardbirds became desperate for a pop hit. Graham Gouldman wrote “For Your Love” for his struggling group the Mockingbirds, but it was turned down by their record company. Gouldman’s manager, Harvey Lisberg, was convinced the song was a hit and offered the song to the Yardbirds.

“My manager, Harvey Lisberg, said, ‘“For Your Love” is such a great song, let’s play it for the Beatles,’” Gouldman told Kirsty MacColl. “And I said, ‘I think they’re doing alright in the songwriting department, actually.’ But he still mentioned the Beatles idea to a publisher friend, who suggested that instead, he should offer it to the Yardbirds, who were playing with the Beatles at a Christmas show at the Hammersmith Odeon.”

Gouldman, who later wrote “I’m Not in Love” for his group 10cc as well as “Bus Stop” and “Look Through Any Window” for the Hollies, gave the Yardbirds a №6 hit with “For Your Love” in 1965. Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty told Songfacts why the song clicked with the group.

“‘For Your Love’ was an interesting song, it had an interesting chord sequence, very moody, very powerful. And the fact that it stopped in the middle and went into a different time signature, we liked that, that was interesting.

“To try and get a hit song in those days was quite a difficult thing to do for us. We could come up with ideas, but our first hit song was very important for us. And with ‘For Your Love’ we heard it and had the demo of it and it sounded like a hit song to all of us.

“Yeah, there wasn’t a problem doing that. It was the sort of thing that you relied on to get into that other echelon, to have a hit song. All our contemporaries were having hit songs: the Beatles and the Stones and the Moody Blues and Animals, they were all having №1 hits and we were really trying to keep up.”

Ironically, the success of the song convinced lead guitarist Eric Clapton to leave the group. Frustrated that the music was becoming too commercial, Clapton reportedly bristled at having to perform the song’s harpsichord riff, played by Brian Auger on the record, on a 12-string guitar.

Epic

Clapton left the Yardbirds in 1965; his exit was so quick that, although he played lead guitar on most of the tracks, Clapton’s name and picture appear nowhere on the For Your Love album. Clapton joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, the next stop on the way to groups like Cream, Blind Faith, and Derek and the Dominos.

Frank Mastropolo is the author of 200 Greatest 60s Rock Songs Vol. 2, part of the Greatest Performances series. For more on our latest projects, visit Edgar Street Books.