"Happenings Ten Years Time Ago"

This was a song released by The Yardbirds in 1966, and was the first song to feature Jimmy Page in the lineup as a second lead guitarist to Jeff Beck. Additionally, future Led Zeppelin Bassist John Paul Jones also appears on this track. Its a pretty cool song, and did modestly well on the charts reaching #30 in the U.S. and #43 in the U.K. It's drenched in Psychedelia from beginning to end, and is quite an in your face sort of number.

Page played his 1959 or 1960 Fender Telcaster on this one. This guitar was actually a gift from Jeff Beck that he is presumed to have purchased in 1961. This guitar would later become to be known as "The Dragon Tele" but at this point it was just your average run of the mill unadorned Telecaster. The next year, Jimmy would stick eight circular mirrors all around the body, before ripping those off and applying a custom paint job of his own. For this song I decided to play my Fender Baja Telecaster through my Vox AC15.

The beginning of the song starts with an intro riff in the E minor pentatonic scale, and it looks like so:

e||------------------------------|-----------------------------|
B||------------------------------|-----------------------------|
G||------------------------------|-----------------------------|
D||--------4--5--7--5--4---------|--------4--5--7--5--4--------|
A||--7--7-----------------5--7---|--7--7-----------------5--7--|
E||------------------------------|-----------------------------|

Not all that daunting, I don't normally play with my pinky, but decided to incorporate it while playing this riff as it just made things more fluid. So, use your pinky to hold down the A string at the 7th fret and then used your index finger to hold down the D string on the 4th fret. Then simply play down the D string, bending up a whole note at the seventh fret, then play back up, and finish off on the A String. Ta da!

From there it launches into the verse portion of the song, which look like this:

e||-----------------4-----4--4--|

B||-----------------5-----5--5--|

G||-----------------4-----4--4--|

D||-----------------------------|

A||--7-7-6-6-5-5-4--------------|

D||-----------------------------|

So what's happening is Page is playing a lighting quick little run up the A string followed by 

an D position framed E chord around the fourth fret so imagine a D chord and simply 

move it downtwo frets. So do the little run then play the E Chord with a down stroke, 

followed by an up stoke, then immediately another down stroke. If you listen it's easy to figure 

out the rhythm, almost jazzy. There is a quiet portion where the chords aren't played and in that area
there is a small fill that looks like this:

e||-------------------|
B||--7-8-8p7-8p7-8p7--|
G||-------------------|
D||-------------------|
A||-------------------|
E||-------------------|

Just play the 7th and 8th fret of the B String back and forth almost like a siren, but make sure you use alot of attack, meaning you really dig into the strings with your pick to make it sound right.

Of course then there is the solo. In this song Jeff Beck played the solo which you can easily tell because he there is a lot of tremolo from his whammy bar all over it and as Jimmy Page didn't have a whammy bar, thus Jeff Beck. I played the solo, but as it isn't Page I won't go into too great of detail about it, but I will provide it to everyone in case you want to do it up.

e||--------------------------------------------------------------------20p17----20p17-----|
B||----------------------------------15b(16)-15b(16)-15p12h15-15b(16)~-------20-------20--|
G||--14-14p12-14--12--14p12--12p11~-------------------------------------------------------|
D||---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A||---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E||---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

e||--20p17----20p17----20p17------20p17----20p17----20p17----20p17------20p17----20p17----|
B||--------20-------20-------20---------20-------20-------20-------20---------20-------20-|
G||---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D||---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A||---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E||---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

e||-20p17----20p17----20p17------20p17----20p17----20p17----20p17------20p17----20p17-----|
B||-------20-------20-------20---------20-------20-------20-------20---------20-------20--|
G||---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
D||---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A||---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E||---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

This is a great song and a great example of the mid-1960's British psychedelia craze.  It's
also a seminal work in the history of popular music where two of the
greatest got together in a really special moment in time. I love this
song, loved learning how to play it, it's a bit tricky but not too insane,
and I hope you enjoy giving this one a go as well.