One band from the London suburbs launched Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, and in just five years mutated from Chicago blues purists into the architectural blueprint for heavy metal. This episode treats the Yardbirds as a living organism, starting in 1963 with Keith Relf and Jim McCarty's Metropolitan Blues Quartet, the two competing origin stories for the Yardbirds name, replacing the Rolling Stones at the Crawdaddy Club, and backing Sonny Boy Williamson II on tour.

We follow Clapton quitting over the harpsichord-driven pop hit For Your Love, Jimmy Page declining the job and recommending Jeff Beck, and Beck weaponizing fuzz tone, feedback and Middle Eastern scales on Heart Full of Soul and Shapes of Things, widely considered the first psychedelic rock classic. The conversation covers the Roger the Engineer album, the Oxford gig wher ...