Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton

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With Eric Clapton
With Eric Clapton cover
Studio album by Bluesbreakers
Released July 1966
Recorded April 1966
Genre Blues-rock
Length 37:06
Label Deram
Producer Mike Vernon
Professional reviews
Bluesbreakers chronology
John Mayall Plays John Mayall
(1965)		 Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton
(1966)		 A Hard Road
(1967)
Eric Clapton chronology
Having a Rave Up with The Yardbirds
(1965)		 Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton
(1966)		 Fresh Cream by Cream
(1966)

Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton is a 1966 electric blues album by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton as lead guitarist. It 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.

Apart from being one of the most overall influential albums in blues-rock history, it was likely the first time anyone had heard a Gibson Les Paul guitar through an overdriven Marshall amplifier; this unique sound would become particularly influential. The re-introduction of the Les Paul by Gibson was largely fueled by the blues boom that so often featured it. Clapton's incendiary playing inspired graffiti saying "Clapton is God" on the streets of London around the time of the album's release.

The Bluesbreakers included John Mayall on harmonica and a majority of the vocals, John McVie on bass, Hughie Flint on drums, and John Almond, Alan Skidmore and Derek Healey, misspelt on the sleeve as Dennis Healey, as the horn section.

Much of the album was composed of blues standards by long-established blues artists such as Otis Rush, Freddie King and Robert Johnson, as well as a few originals penned by Mayall or Mayall and Clapton. The majority of the songs serve as showcases for the young Clapton's playing, apart from "Another Man" and "Ramblin' On My Mind." "Ramblin' On My Mind" was Clapton's very first recorded vocal performance. Although Clapton left the Bluesbreakers only a year after this album was made, it was still a huge step forward for his playing as far as improvisation and guitar tone, and it formed the bridge between his time with the Yardbirds and his later co-founding of the power trio Cream with fellow British blues-rock players Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 195 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. [1]

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. "All Your Love" (Willie Dixon/Otis Rush) – 3:36
  2. "Hideaway" (Freddie King/Sonny Thompson) – 3:17
  3. "Little Girl" (Mayall) – 2:37
  4. "Another Man" (Mayall) – 1:45
  5. "Double Crossing Time" (Clapton/Mayall) – 3:04
  6. "What'd I Say" – (Ray Charles) – 4:29
  7. "Key To Love" (Mayall) – 2:09
  8. "Parchman Farm" (Mose Allison) – 2:24
  9. "Have You Heard" (Mayall) – 5:56
  10. "Ramblin' On My Mind" (Robert Johnson/Traditional) – 3:10
  11. "Steppin' Out" (James Bracken) – 2:30
  12. "It Ain't Right" (Little Walter) – 2:42

[edit] 2001 reissue

This release added two bonus tracks from a single:

  1. "Lonely Years" (Mayall) – 3:21
  2. "Bernard Jenkins" (Clapton) – 3:48

[edit] 2002 remastered reissue

Includes all tracks in both mono and stereo: 1-12 as above in mono 13-24 as 1-12 above in stereo

[edit] 2006 deluxe 40th anniversary edition

  1. Crawling Up a Hill (Mayall)
  2. Crocodile Walk (Mayall)
  3. Bye Bye Bird (Sonny Boy Williamson II, Willie Dixon)
  4. I'm Your Witchdoctor (Mayall)
  5. Telephone Blues (Mayall)
  6. Bernard Jenkins (Clapton)
  7. Lonely Years (Mayall)

25, 26, 30, and 31 appeared as singles; 38-43 appeared on Primal Solos (with Jack Bruce on bass); 38 is on Looking Back; the remaining are BBC sessions

[edit] Influences

The guitar riff which begins at 3:32 in "What'd I Say" is borrowed from the Beatles' "Day Tripper," written the year before (1965)

[edit] Personnel