Bluesbreakers: With Eric Clapton

A few months ago I saw John Mayall perform at a small club in Victoria, B.C. It was a great show; the man is 78 years old and he can still outperform musicians less than a third of his age.

During the show, Mayall played some of his 1960s material that I haven't listened to for years. It's great stuff so, since seeing that Mayall concert, I've been revisiting and rediscovering many of these classic 1960s British blues albums.

It's easy to forget what a masterful player John Mayall was, and still is. This 1966 album with Eric Clapton on lead guitar - often called the Beano album because Clapton is reading a copy of Beano magazine in the cover photo - is a groundbreaking and very influential album in blues history. Among other things, it was the first recording of Eric Clapton doing an all blues album. Clapton had recorded previously with The Yardbirds but The Yardbirds, while certainly influenced by the blues, weren't strictly a blues band; John Mayall's band was, without doubt, a blues band.

Shortly after this album was released, Eric Clapton left John Mayall's band to form Cream with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.

Apart from Clapton's guitar playing, this was the first album to feature a track with Eric Clapton doing lead vocals.

It's worthwhile to give John Mayall's 1960s albums a listen or a re-listen. For those of you who haven't heard Mayall's 1960s material, you should check it out. This album and Mayall's 1967 "Hard Road" album with Peter Green on guitar are, in my opinion, the best of John Mayall's 1960s albums. I would go as far as to say they are both essential recordings for any blues fan. Both are certainly worth a listen. This is a very influential album in blues history.

4 1/2 Stars

This is a thorougly enjoyable blues album that I bought after Lonnie Brooks and Cub Koda recommended it as one of the 25 essential blues albums of all time in their Blues For Dummies book (great intro to blues, btw). Now I still have a dozen or so of those albums to hear, and while I probably would not put this cd in my top 15 selection, I think it does fit in the top 25.

Excellent guitar and blues harp playing and songwriting here. No particular song has made a standout impression on me, but that's because they are all of an uniform, high quality level. The only criticism I have is that Mayall's singing, that appears on most of these songs, is pretty weak, thin and undistinguished; however, that may not be that bad of a fault, because it allows the listener to focus more on the guitar, organ and harmonica.

If you, like me, have wondered how Clapton still maintains his "legendary guitar god" status in rock and blues, it has to be because most people remember his work on this album, as well as with Cream and Derek and the Dominoes. It is unfortunate that for the last quarter century Clapton has abandoned any desire to play creative, emotional and hard-edged guitar and instead has devoted himself to writing and promoting AOR suitable for the commercial market.

This sounds fantastic on CD, better than the original LP. Clapton really plays his guitar very loud on some cuts. This is also John Mayall's first and best recording of British blues that copies the original American bluesmen for inspration.