Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton

by

Eric Clapton and John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers

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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".

One of the first blues records I heard (on vinyl), I quickly outgrew it when exposed to many of originals that are covered here. This album is celebrated because of Clapton's guitar work yet saddled with a mediocre band including Mayall's rather uninspiring singing and playing. Only one who has been exposed to only a smattering of blues would ever suggest such nonsense that this is among the greatest two or three blues albums. On what basis is this album is more of a must than a collection of Freddie King's Federal Recordings or Otis Rush's Cobra recordings or Elmore James' Fire Recordings or Memphis Slim's United/States and Vee-Jay recordings with Matt 'Guitar' Murphy's guitar not to mention other artists (Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, Albert King, Guitar Slim, etc.). If this record leads you to the real blues geniuses fine, but the notion that this is an indispensable 'blues' disc is ludicrous. Blues is primarily a vocal music, and on that basis this is not a memorable blues album.