| Blues Breakers | |||||
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| Studio album by John Mayall with Eric Clapton | |||||
| Released | July 1966[1] | ||||
| Recorded | April 1966 at Decca Studios, West Hampstead, London, England[2] | ||||
| Genre | Blues rock, Electric blues, British blues | ||||
| Length | 37:06 | ||||
| Label | Decca (UK) London (US) |
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| Producer | Mike Vernon | ||||
| John Mayall chronology | |||||
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| Eric Clapton chronology | |||||
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| Allmusic | [3] |
Blues Breakers is a 1966 electric blues album credited to John Mayall with Eric Clapton.
The band name John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers that was used by the band consequently is derived from the title of this album; no original issues mention the Bluesbreakers as band name. The album was also known as The Beano Album because of its cover photograph showing Clapton reading The Beano,[4] a British children's comic. Clapton stated in his autobiography that he was reading Beano on the cover because he felt like being "uncooperative" during the photo shoot.[2]
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Originally, John Mayall intended for his second album to be a live album in order to capture the guitar solos performed by Eric Clapton. A set was recorded at the Flamingo Club, with Jack Bruce (with whom Clapton would subsequently work in Cream) on bass. The recordings of the concert, however, were of bad quality and were scrapped.[5]
With the original plan of a live album now discarded, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers recorded Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton at Decca Studios, West Hampstead in March 1966. The guitar that Eric Clapton used during the sessions was a 1960 Gibson 'sunburst' Les Paul with two PAF (Patent Applied For) 'humbucker' pickups. This guitar, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, is also known as the "Beano" Les Paul, a replica of which has recently been reissued by Gibson.
The band on this album included Mayall on piano, Hammond organ, harmonica and a majority of the vocals; bassist John McVie; drummer Hughie Flint; and Clapton. Augmenting the band on this album was a horn section added post production, with Alan Skidmore, John Almond, and Derek Healey (misrepresented on the sleeve as Dennis Healey).
Much of the album was composed of blues standards by long-established 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", "Ramblin' On My Mind", "Parchman Farm" and "What'd I Say". Although he sang on several Yardbirds' recordings, "Ramblin' On My Mind" was Clapton's first recorded solo lead vocal performance which Eric had been reluctant to do because he did not feel his singing was good enough.[2]
This edition includes all tracks in both mono and stereo: 1-12 as above in mono, 13-24 as 1-12 above in stereo.
This version of the album was also issued by Universal Japan, on the Decca label, in 2001
This release added two bonus tracks from a single:
25, 26, 28, 29, 30, and 31 appeared as singles; 39-43 appeared on Primal Solos with Jack Bruce on bass; 38 is on Looking Back; the remaining are BBC sessions
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1966 | UK Album Chart | #6[7] |
In 2003, the album was ranked number 195 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[8]
Apart from being one of the most influential blues albums, it also started the now-legendary combination of a Gibson Les Paul guitar through an overdriven Marshall Bluesbreaker amplifier.[4]
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