1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die - #73. John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - John Mayall's Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton (1966)

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - John Mayall's Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton (1966)

Label – Decca
Producer – Mike Vernon
Art Direction – Decca Publicity Art Department
Nationality - UK
Running Time – 37:06

Track Listing (standout tracks listed in bold)

1. All Your Love
2. Hideaway
3. Little Girl
4. Another Man
5. Double Crossin' Time
6. What'd I Say
7. Key To Love
8. Parchman Farm
9. Have You Heard
10. Rambling On My Mind
11. Stepping Out
12. It Ain't Right

Now THIS is a great album!! “Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton” was Clapton's first real album as a blues guitarist. It is also considered by many to be THE seminal blues album of the 1960s, the best British blues album EVER, and the best LP ever recorded by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. High praise? Perhaps – but well founded.
This was Clapton’s transition record between leaving the Yardbirds and forming Cream. While this may seem like a one off hurried affair when you look at the body of work Eric Clapton stuck in between those famous bands – but this was actually the culmination of a full year of playing and living with John Mayall, with the record capturing what was very close to the group's stage performances at the time
Giving credit where it is due – the producer - Mike Vernon and Mayall himself knew they had hit a sound that was working and once they entered the studio let the purity and simplicity of the songs transfer to the record, and didn’t really try to ‘produce’ the record – but let the songs produce themselves. Other producers of this era tended to ‘overproduce’ the blues and basically sanitize it for release.
This is a great band. Future Fleetwood Mac pop/rock superstar John McVie and drummer Hughie Flint provide a rock-hard rhythm section, Mayall's organ playing, vocalizing, and second guitar, and of course Clapton himself. His guitar naturally dominates most of this record, and he can also be heard taking his first lead vocal on “Rambling On My Mind”. But make no mistake the ‘cradle’ laid down by McVie and Flint are just as intense and give Clapton something special to solo over with each track. With this record the phrase “Clapton Is God” was born. Whatever one might say about Clapton, his guitar playing was phenomenal.
This record is often referred to as ‘The Beano’ album - because the photograph on the album cover shows Clapton reading “The Beano” a well-known British children's comic.
Much of the album is composed of blues standards by long-established blues artists such as Otis Rush, Freddie King and Robert Johnson, as well as a few originals. Clapton left the Bluesbreakers only months after this album was made, but it was still a huge step forward for his playing as far as improvisation and guitar tone – all of which he would explore with Cream in the coming months.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 195 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Everyone should own this record! It is HIGHLY recommended.


You can purchase the CD here.