Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
178 of 190 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the album that started it all, October 20, 2001
If you've never heard this album then this remaster is the best way to hear it. It's clean, has good separation and features two
bonus tracks recorded by John and Eric. Now for the anorak, trainspotting details of WHY this album is important. Quite simply, as far as tone, technique and temperament, Eric Clapton at this time was revolutionary. In the guitar world there are two periods; BB (Before "Bluesbreakers") and AB (After "Bluesbreakers"). First, tone. NO ONE had this kind of overdriven, aggressive and harmonically rich sound before 1966.
Literally, what we associate with rock/blues guitar sound for the last 35 years can be traced back to the tones Clapton was getting in '66. Second, technique. Imagine yourself as young
person in England at this time and you've discovered the great American blues guitarists like B.B. and Freddie King but figure
you will never see them unless you go to America. Then you hear about AN ENGLISHMAN your age who can play that way, plus add
something of his own. Third, temperament. Eric Clapton was able
at young age to both tap into a vastly different world (that of the African-American middle aged bluesman)and supply his own
revolutionary ideas about how the elecrtic guitar could be played. Revolutionary is right. People forget about that all the time but in 1966 Clapton changed everything. It is a tribute to his basic sanity after all these years and personal problems that
he DIDN'T try and continually live up to that standard. He did
other things. Most musicians never have the opportunity to revo-
lutionize anything and very very few can do it more than once.
Whenever anyone looks disparagingly on Eric Clapton's career, and
he had some low points it's true, all I have to say is "Bluesbreakers".
|
|
|
41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Guitar Heaven by Eric Clapton!, June 5, 2001
Few albums have had greater impact than the landmark John Mayall With Eric Clapton "Blues Breakers." Released by the Decca label in Britain on 22 July 1966, literally days after Clapton quit the Bluesbreakers and just a week before Cream's debut, it went all the way to #6, a pretty mean feat since Mayall's band had never had a hit single. This may have been a first in Britain.Of course, this is the album that set the blues and guitar worlds aflame and established Eric Clapton's name worldwide as the most passionate of musical interpreters. If you haven't yet heard "Beano" (as the album is affectionately known, because Clapton is pictured reading "The Beano" comic book on its cover), then you ain't heard nuthin' yet! From the album's first notes, you realize that you're in guitar heaven, as "Slowhand" shows us the way electric guitar can and should be played. Clapton's virtuoso playing is white-hot throughout. Playing with maturity beyond his 21 years, the young Eric Clapton was so influential that Gibson eventually reissued the (out-of-production since 1960) Les Paul model guitar, which Clapton then played. John Mayall's Bluesbreakers served--and still serves today--as a finishing school for great musicians and sidemen (Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, John McVie, Jack Bruce, Aynsley Dunbar, Mick Fleetwood, Coco Montoya and others). Mayall's proselytizing the blues (he's 69 years old!), his songwriting skills, and his other musical talents should not be ignored nor taken lightly.
|
|
|
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Classic Album Of The London Blues, April 14, 2005
Well this is one of the most memorable LPs of my life. I have been a Blues fan (fanatic?) for 40 years and it all started with this LP. I probably played along with the first side of this record everyday of my Junior year in High School. I had been introduced, as a teen age American, to R&B and Blues with the Rolling Stones, especially the 12x5 album, when they did Little Walter's (1950s version ala Jay "Hootie" McShann and Walter Brown's 1941 original) "Confessin' The Blues" (still the greatest Chicago Blues tune ever recorded by a British band). That was 1965, I got to know all the Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley originals. But this record opened up the Chicago Blues-But done differently, not just mere imitation-(that has been suggested in previous reviews, but I never believed it-(check out the differences in style and arrangement and sound) they really didn't/couldn't do that and they knew it, or at least Clapton did. Mayall was older than the rest and he really wanted to emulate his idols in Chicago. Clapton had a deeper (and younger) perception on this genre- and was a White British guy! Clapton was a lot like his young protege Doyle Bramhall II on his latest Sessions for Robert J- an extension on his first ever recorded vocal "Ramblin' On My Mind" on this CD. Bramhall confessed he never listened to Johnson much before this session. Well Clapton had been with the Yardbirds (as we all know) and had been getting into Blues with Mayall's extensive record collection. He came to this session also with a fresh mind.
The session was done at a loud- "club-like" sound level which perplexed the sound engineers. The distortion of the Marshall amp with the Les Paul was augmented by the sound engineers to make something really unique. The up front guitar of Clapton was something also never heard before (even with the Butterfield Band). This made it really different than Chicago Blues which tended to blend in overdriven tube amps with vocals and amplified harps. What a great and inspirational sound. This was the thing the caused Hendrix to take Blues to a different level and finally a different genre!
Time is the great equalizer of all music, classical, jazz, blues, folk, it doesn't matter. This album still sounds good, but because it has been emulated by all blues-rockers for the last 40 years it can sound stale to the newcomer, oldcomer, or someone who has just heard it and notices it sounds "familiar" now. Also the tracks are not of uniform brilliance, after all it was just a hiped up night club set that they recorded. Clapton says that his recollection of the session was unpacking, playing, packing up and leaving. This shows to some degree how much we owe to Mike Vernon and the production team.
The highlight of the set is usually ascribed to "Have You Heard", very interestingly redone on the 70th Birthday Concert DVD. However, the original had added horns and some B.B. King style licks from Clapton-something he got more and more into to the present day and he did even more of at the Birthday Concert. The fat and thick sound is the best part of this tune. Also it was an original Mayall penned tune. All of the best tunes on this LP were originals except for Hideaway. Clapton's rendition of the Freddie King's masterpiece took this tune to a new level-something similar to Stevie Ray Vaughan's rendition of Larry Davis' "Texas Flood". It became an old tune with a new sound and style. This is the number, to me, that changed the Blues to Blues-Rock!
The other two classic tunes on this LP are the highly underrated and double-tracked "Double Crossing Time", supposedly about Jack Bruce. It is Mayall's greatest minor key blues, better than "The Death of J.B. Lenoir". The feeling in Clapton's guitar is unsurpassed. The other tune is "Little Girl" with its Jimmy Reed updated rock groove. Clapton does his best solo on this tune with precise bends over a difficult beat to keep up with. Walter Trout also did a good version of this tune with Mayall in the 1980s.
The rest of the record is classic. The band itself was very good with Hugie Flint on drums and John McVie on the bass. Mayall made his international reputation with this disc and it has lasted to this day, he became the "Godfather of British Blues" because of this sound-and remember it was replicated (or tried to be replicated on his next 3 or 4 records). However, it does have some filler with tunes such as What I Say (the Brits loved Ray Charles) with a Day Tripper riff in part of it. And I never could understand why Mayall, who was only ever an average harp player, would do Little Walter's "It Ain't Right". However, this CD, with bonus cuts is essential for anyone who wants to understand the transition of the Blues into the evolution of Rock, Acid Rock, Metal and so on. It is truly a classic recording.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
John Mayall shares his favorite music with Amazon customers. See all artists' picks on our Music You Should Hear page.
~ John Mayall
~ Blind Faith
~ Derek & The Dominos
~ Cream
~ Al Kooper & Stephen Stills
- the new music site from IMDb and Amazon.
