Huffington Magazine Issue 15 | Page 121

epilogue Music & Literature HUFFINGTON 09.23.12 Author Jim Shepard on the Albums That Blew His Mind The Yardbirds Featuring MICHAEL LIONSTAR Performances by Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page My lifelong connection to the British Wave began when I awoke one morning after a sleepout with a friend (we were on the cement floor of my screened-in back porch) to my older brother having cranked up The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” in his bedroom over my head. I was flattened by it, like so many other people were. It was 1964. I was seven. The Kinks became my soundtrack for anarchic release, as did The Dave Clark Five, with their cheerfully unsubtle and headlong string of hits, as well as The Bea-