If Eric Clapton hadn't quit the Yardbirds, the 1966 masterpiece pictured above might not have happened.

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Forty-eight years ago today, guitarist Eric Clapton quit the Yardbirds. It's one of the best things that ever happened, period.

Clapton, a self-declared blues purist, thought the band — which included singer Keith Relf, guitarist Chris Dreja, bassist Paul Samwell-Smith and drummer Jim McCarty — was getting too commercial (Hmmm ... didn't he later record a duet with Tina Turner and then release both Pligrim and Reptile?). And so, after playing on their most commercial song to date (and their first hit), "For Your Love," Clapton was gone.

This move was great for:

• The Yardbirds: Without Mr. Stick In The Mud, they were able to evolve, freely, into a successful, slightly harder-edged British Invasion band. The Clapton-free version of the band enjoyed a string of hits, including "Heart Full of Soul," "I'm a Man" and "Over Under Sideways Down." They also got a lot more creative and experimental, eventually evolving into the band that would eventually evolve into Led Zeppelin.

• Jeff Beck: Although he was getting noticed with his blues band, the Tridents, Beck's upward trajectory didn't start until he replaced Clapton in the Yardbirds in 1965. His brief solos were fuzz-drenched mini-masterpieces, making him a bona fide guitar god and eventually giving him the nerve and justification to quit the band and go solo, eventually becoming the revered "guitarist's guitarist" he is today.

• Eric Clapton: After quitting the Yardbirds, Clapton joined — on two occasions in 1965 — John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, a serious, powerful blues band that had no aspirations of pop stardom. He also traded in his mediocre Telecaster/Vox tone for a magical, solid sound created by playing a 1960 Les Paul through an incredibly loud, overdriven Marshall combo. Clapton, his Les Paul, his Marshall — and the other three members of the Bluesbreakers — recorded one of the most important guitar albums of all time, 1966's Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton. Clapton's god-like status grew in England, and he soon left the band to form Cream and — well, the rest is history, isn't it?

Damian Fanelli is the online managing editor at Guitar World Follow him on Twitter! Or not!

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