Yardbirds - Interview with Jim McCarty

  by Lisa Torem

published: 17 / 4 / 2025

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Article

Drummer Jim McCarty was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 as a member of the Yardbirds, which is one of his favorite memories. 1992 was the same year, the Liverpuddlian began performing with the reformed Yardbirds, a new iteration of the legendary British Invasion band which he formed in 1963 with vocalist Keith Relf, lead guitarist Anthony “Top” Topham, rhythm guitarist Chris Dej and bassist Paul Samwell-Smith. McCarty currently tours with: guitarist John Idan, bassist Kenny Aronson, vocalist/lead guitarist Godfrey Townsend and percussionist/vocalist Myke Scavone. This is his second interview with pennyblackmusic and we’re excited to catch up with him. PB: Hi Jim. Let’s go back a bit. How did you learn to play drums? JM: I was a self-taught drummer. I played the snare drum with the Boy’s Brigade, a military drumming unit in the UK. I also listened to American rock and roll records by Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash and The Everly Brothers. I just mimicked them, really. PB: Who have been your drum heroes? JM: All the jazz players. I loved Joe Morello of the Dave Brubeck Band. I loved Ginger Baker and Keith Moon—they were great drummers, and Hal Blaine from The Wrecking Crew. PB: In your memoir, you talked about engaging in camaraderie with like-minded musicians at Eel Island early in your career. JM: I always loved that kind of music, and then a while later, I listened to blues music, which came out at the same time on the underground. We didn’t listen to it on the radio. You had to get the albums at a jazz shop in London. It had to be word-of-mouth; people like, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and Bo Diddley. All that stuff came about at the same time, and it was very exciting. And we wanted to play those songs in our area. PB: You attended the American Folk Blues Festival featuring Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Victoria Spivey, John Lee Hooker and other notable artists. Then, Sonny Boy Williamson was asked to return to the UK on tour and asked The Yardbirds to back him up. JM: Giorgio Gomelsky, our manager, was involved with the National Jazz Federation and he brought over all of those great, blues people so we used to go see them. One day, he brought Sonny Boy down to see us because we were playing at a pub near the venue. Sonny Boy started talking to us about doing the dates with him and doing some recording with us, which was funny (laughs). PB: You became famous, quickly. JM: It was very quick, just a few months. We got to play where the Rolling Stones played in Richmond at the Crawdaddy Club. They’d had a couple of hit records and moved on. We asked Giorgio Gomelsky, who was the promoter of the club, to book us. He saw us audition and we got to play at that club every week and got a following. We were looking to make a hit record and eventually we recorded ‘For Your Love.’ PB: The Yardbirds were famous for the “rave-up.” JM: Rave-up came about because of Paul Samwell-Smith. He would double-up the time on bass, build up to a crescendo, bring it all down, and then we would all drop down quietly again. I think it was just an idea to get things going with the audience. In this current show, we’ll show it. PB: You once said, “If you want to hear old records, play them. If you want to hear somebody doing something new with the music, see us.” You’re open-minded. JM: We played covers and we wanted to put our own twist into it to make it more interesting and synch our wonderful and weird ideas together to get the excitement going with the rave-up. Then, of course, Jeff Beck came in. He had all these sounds at his fingertips, and we loved that. That psychedelic period is something people remember about us. PB: Three guitarists: Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and jimmy Page worked with The Yardbirds and then went on to have successful careers as virtuosic guitarists. Was there something going on at rehearsal or during your shows that facilitated that success? JM: The sets of improvisation when we played? That was always going on and that sort of blues music was always a platform for our guitarists. It left a lot of space for a lead guitarist to play. When they followed each other, each one had already set a standard. We were very lucky to have one after the other. PB: Tell us about your early recording history. JM: We did about three or four recordings before ‘For Your Love.’ We were playing at The Beatles’ Christmas Show and had gotten our demo disc to a publisher. It was Paul Samwell-Smith’s idea to use a harpsichord and a standup bass. We always thought it was a great song; very moody and very evocative. It had that time change in the middle, so it was different, as well. PB: How did you feel when you heard ‘For Your Love’ on the radio for the first time? JM: (laughs). Oh, very very nice. ‘Oh, we’re on the radio.’ It was very gratifying and very timely. PB: ‘Shapes of Things’ has been referred to as the first psychedelic song. It featured feedback and a theme about the environment. What’s your reaction? JM: I’m very happy with that. That’s probably the favorite song that we do. It was recorded at a good time for us, at the time of The British Invasion and everyone wrote it together. Jeff (Beck) does a fantastic solo in the middle, so I think it was one of his best performances. We never said we were going to be a psychedelic band. Somebody coined that phase somewhere along the line. ‘Oh, it’s psychedelic music. It’s The Yardbirds.’ PB: I remember seeing an interview of Ringo Starr, early in his career. He was asked, ‘What will you do when The Beatles are no longer famous?’ He said he’d probably become a hairdresser. Did you ever imagine at the start of your career that you’d be touring years and years later? JM: I used to work in London with a stockbroker in the city. I worked 9 to 5 when the band started. I was doing both and it was getting tiring. I told him that the band would probably fold in a year or two, and if that happens, ‘can I have my job back?’ He said, ‘Yes. Of course,’ but I never went back. PB: I read that original Yardbird Keith Relf’s father, Bill Relf, was reluctant to drive the band around at first, but then, he got excited. JM: We bought this Chevrolet, like an Estate Car. We were very proud of that. Yes, Keef’s father, Bill, used to wear his sports jacket. We used to set him up all the time and take the mickey out of him. PB: As a drummer, how have you adapted to the various lineup changes in The Yardbirds since the bands’ formation? Have you had to change your style or perspective? JM: I didn’t really change my style very much, but my manager realized what I was doing. Everyone could go crazy and I would keep it straight in the back. I carried on because I loved the great repertoire and I enjoyed playing the music. PB: You have played Yardbird material for many years. What has that been like for you? JM: They still stand out and they still sound fresh. I don’t get bored with them, it’s not like we’re playing every day of the year. We’re just playing short tours and the idea now is we do this history of the group onstage. John Sebastian, and the manager of The Loving Spoonful, said to me one day, ‘Why don’t you do the history of The Yardbirds?’ I’d done so many interviews, so they said, ‘Why don’t I turn that into a show, so I don’t have to say too much?’ On stage, we do a narrative and we have a back projection, which is illustrating what I’m talking about. And then, the band I’m with-we’ve been together a few years, they’re playing all of the songs as they come up. Then, we get to the end of the story and we rock out with about four or five songs. PB: Regarding playing live with your current lineup, is the idea to play the songs as closely as possible to the actual records or to come up with alternative versions? JM: Some of the arrangements are the same. Every musician has his own style of playing, and they always put their twist on it. It works well with this band. There’s good chemistry. It’s not exactly like it was. It’s modern now. We have a better P.A. system. We had primitive equipment in the 1960s. PB: The Yardbirds toured on a cruise ship recently and now you’re doing this North American Tour. What’s your favorite way of reaching your audience? By land or by sea? JM: (laughs)The cruise we do is the Flower Power Cruise. We get to meet with brilliant audiences and that has gotten to be a tradition. We get to meet with brilliant audiences everywhere. Fingers crossed. PB: You’re probably meeting fans who remember when the Yardbirds started. Are you reaching younger audiences, as well? JM: That’s developing. That’s getting better. It’s really nice to see. PB: How has touring changed? JM: It’s very well-organized now. Our tour manager, Marya, books us remotely. She organizes everything without even being with us. We have a new manager with us, too. PB: Tell us about your current tour. JM: We’re going on the East Coast to New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania but only as west as Des Plaines in the Chicago area. PB: Can you, please, update us on any new activities? JM: We have a new manager Keith Putney. We haven’t had a manager for years. It’s all a bit of an experiment. You never know. We might get in a new recording. He’s also working with Peter Asher. They do a lot of production. We might get together with him and another Brit. PB: If you could relive one day in your life? JM: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was a great day, suddenly being honored like that and on the same bill as Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Cash, and lots of other people that were being inducted on the same evening. It was really gratifying. PB: Do you have any advice for people starting out in the industry? JM: I always say that you need to be in a team because that’s how we got going. It was always a team. If you’re a young musician, you need to have friends and play other instruments and have the same tastes in music. Then you can form a band and you’ll all be heading in the same direction. PB: Thank you. Photos by Arnie Goodman

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https://www.theyardbirds.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yard

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