Although I first heard him when "Whole Lotta Love" hit the radio, I later discovered just how far ahead of their time
the Yardbirds were during his tenure.
Not a whole lot of info out there, but I stumbled across this blog the other day.
No diehard Page fan should be without it:
http://yardbirds68.blogspot.com/
A free sample from that blog:
Besides the commonly cited "White Summer" being the obvious source for "Black Mountain Side", and the "Only the Black Rose" being the forerunner of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" for the acoustic ballad slot under Zeppelin, he was also already bowing his guitar and working out the chops for "Dazed and Confused" on the stage in the final Yardbirds days.
The release of the last Yardbirds album
Little Games was woefully ill-timed and bubble-gummed-up by Mickie Most (Herman's Hermits and Donovan's producer) besides; but even Most couldn't dilute the raw power of the other great Page performances on that album:
"Little Games"; "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor", and a cut that was never officially released for over 20 years: "Think About It" which would have been right at home on Zep 1 or 2.
I'm tellin' ya, you won't be disappointed to look 'em up on YouTube.