Musician (The Yardbirds) and photographer Chris Dreja, 79, died on Oct. 2 after a long illness. Dreja was a founding member of The Yardbirds in 1963, and played guitar with them on such numbers as "For Your Love,” "Heart Full of Soul,” "Shapes of Things,” and "Over Under Sideways Down.” He left music for photography, and shot some of the biggest rock musicians of the time, including Bob Dylan, the Righteous Brothers, and Ike and Tina Turner. The Yardbirds, Dreja told Vintage Guitar magazine, “were into the Kinks, the Who, Animals, Bob Dylan, Beach Boys, Lovin’ Spoonful, and Peter Paul and Mary. All genres, really. But the Rolling Stones were the inspiration for us to form a band and start performing. The Yardbirds were a democratic band and if somebody came up with something interesting we would all work on it and see how it developed. Breaking the rules of accepted pop songcraft at the time was always good fun.”
