"Blues Breakers" by JOHN MAYALL with ERIC CLAPTON - July 1966 UK Debut Album on Decca Records in Mono (December 1969 UK in Stereo) - featuring Bassist John McVie later with Fleetwood Mac and Drummer Hughie Flint later with McGuinness Flint and The Blues Band with Guests Johnny Almond, Alan Skidmore and Dennis Healey on Horns (July 1998 UK Deram CD Reissue with Both Mono (Tracks 1 to 12) and Stereo (Tracks 13 to 24) Mixes of the Album Remastered by Jon Astley) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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This Review And Many More Like It 

Available In my Kindle e-Book (June 2022 Version)

 

LOOKING AFTER NO. 1 

Volume 2 of 2 - M to Z...

 

Your All-Genres Guide To

Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters 
For Music from 1956 to 1986

Over 1,760 E-Pages of In-Depth Information
240 Reviews From The Discs Themselves

No Cut and Paste Crap...

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"All Your Love..." 

 

You have to love the stories and legend that surround this (well) legendary album. 

 

July 1966's "Blues Breakers" on Decca Records is what many believe to be the true starting point for the genre Blues Rock. And not just in the UK either, but in America too where none other than James Marshall Jimi Hendrix was a huge fan and cited it as the influence on him and so many of his contemporaries. 

 

"Blues Breakers" turned gee-tar-players into axe-wielding Guitar Heroes and Rock Gods (and that's just the tremolo arm). Stories like the Mayall and Clapton original "Double Crossing Time" on Side 1 originally being called "Double Crossing Mann" because it was about Cream's Bass Player Jack Bruce walking out on Mayall's new band to join (well) Manfred Mann! Eric Clapton reluctantly stepping up to the microphone (on Mayall's insistence) to cover his Blues obsession of the day - Robert Johnson and "Ramblin' On My Mind" - and thereby kick-starting a career in both Blues and Rock that stills shines now in 2022 with the passion he had for it back in the day. Let's get stuck into the Beano of albums...

 

UK released July 1998 (reissued 2006) - "Blues Breakers" by JOHN MAYALL with ERIC CLAPTON on Deram 844 827-2 (Barcode 042284482721) is a Reissue that offers both the 1966 Mono and 1969 Stereo mixes of the album Remastered onto 1CD that plays out as follows (75:20 minutes):

 

MONO Version 

1. All Your Love [Side 1]

2. Hideaway 

3. Little Girl 

4. Another Man 

5. Double Crossing Time 

6. What'd I Say 

7. Key To Love [Side 2]

8. Parchman Farm 

9. Have You Heard 

10. Ramblin' On My Mind 

11. Steppin' Out 

12. It Ain't Right 

Tracks 1 to 12 are the debut album "Blues Breakers" - released 22 July 1966 in the UK on Decca Records LK 4804 in MONO 

 

Tracks 13 to 24 

As per Tracks 1 to 12, only the whole album in STEREO, first released in the UK December 1969 on Decca SKL 4804. 

 

Bluesbreakers Band:

JOHN MAYALL - Lead Vocals, Piano, Organ and Harmonica

ERIC CLAPTON - Lead Guitar and Vocals 

JOHN McVIE - Bass

HUGHIE FLINT - Drums (Tracks 1, 2, 3, 6 and 12) 

 

Guests: 

JOHNNY ALMOND - Baritone Sax (Tracks 7, 9 and 11)

ALAN SKIDMORE - Tenor Sax (Tracks 7, 9 and 11)

DENNIS HEALEY - Trumpet (Tracks 7, 9 & 11)

 

Having had this Mono album on vinyl for more decades than I care to contemplate, my battered copy (like everyone else's) never sounded this clean I can tell you, or in your face (and for all the right reasons too).

 

But I will readily admit that every time I play the album in the digital age, I start at Track 13 for the STEREO version – why – it absolutely rocks! I love the JON ASTLEY Remaster on both variants yes, but even if the Stereo separation is crude on say the likes of "Key To Love" - brass buried in the left channel while guitars do battle over on the right - I keep playing the STEREO run first. Check out the eerie Stereo imaging on "Another Man" where Mayall goes alone on the Harmonica with only handclaps and air - stirring up his best Sonny Boy Williamson - fantastic audio.

 

The Otis Rush classic "All Your Love" opens Side 1 and sets the tone – great Blues with a smidge of Rock and not too po-faced about either. And who could resist that comic-reading artwork – earnest men on an earnest mission and hoping to have a few highs along the way too. The album includes several so-cool instrumentals – Freddie King’s signature tune "Hideaway" and the Memphis Slim track "Steppin' Out" – while the sheer passion of Mayall’s playing alongside EC for the closer "It Ain't Right" makes you wonder what lucky sods got to see this band in its live prime – wow!

 

The 8-page inlay with new lner notes from PAUL TRYNKA of Mojo Magazine does just about enough work to explain its history and influence and there are period photos too of the four in the studio with Mike Vernon and Gus Dudgeon - Vernon thinking about Blue Horzion Records and Dudgeon dreaming of Reg Dwight (Elton John). But the bully beef is the short-but-sweet track-by-track commentary by John Mayall – fleshing out why for instance he chose "It Ain't Right" to close the LP (his passion for Little Walter of Chess Records fame, Walter's Harmonica style and range suiting JM).

 

Many albums that followed "Blues Breakers" would explore the genre even more and morph into that stunning Blues Rock hybrid of 1967 to 1969 when Paul Butterfield's Blues Band, Chicken Shack, Savoy Brown, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Johnny Winter and Led Zeppelin all took the core music rhythms to another level. 

 

But this wee gem is where they all dipped their liquorice stick into the Sherbet Fountain bag first – the kind of platter the phrase ahead of its time was invented for. Dennis The Menace come on down...