Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton

I don't like blues, so this is hard for me. Ugh, and at least one with saxophone.

Much like Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, early Rolling Stones, and future Clapton work, the cloud of "white man popularising the black man's music" hangs heavy here. Classic rock & roll, albeit distilled.

I'll give this a 2 for John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers' sake, but any time Eric Clapton was front and center my balls crawled up into my throat. 2/5

Got irritating after awhile. 2.5/5. Raising to a 3.

All lowlights:
-Eric Clapton
- blues
- when I saw this album cover I thought it might be the Beatles, but it sure wasn't
- "colloquially known as The Beano Album"* ???
- 'Little Girl' is kinda creepy

*Beano is the comic mag pictured on the cover, the most successful outside Japan, and the longest running one (1938-present)!!! That's much more impressive than the beano I know about (1990-present).

This album is not my cup of tea. I'm sure it is important in Blues Albums, but if I die without hearing any more of those, I'll live. :P

2.5 stars rounded down. This feels forgettable.

se eu encontrar o eric clapton na rua, acho bom ele trocar de calçada se não o coro vai comer

vai tomar no cu.

Great introduction to EC as a true blues man (moreso than Yardbirds) and JM always brings energy and credibility to the material. Excellent

I’m at a 5.

Eric Clapton before Cream, John McVie before Fleetwood Mac, & then two people I’ve never heard of in Hughie Flint & John Mayall. RIP to John Mayall, by the way. Great drums & vocals though; they shine really well here. Take those 4, do a bunch of blues covers & a couple of originals, and you get a groovy fucking album that showcases their talent really nicely. Yes, I hesitate to give Eric Clapton credit, but his guitar playing more than earns the right to get the co-starring role on the album art. Apparently, it’s kind of revolutionary in terms of the production circumstances, so that’s a big plus.

No misses here, save for “Another Man” being kind of unpolished to my ears, but overall, I enjoyed all of this. All the covers seemingly do justice rather well – even the slightly baffling drum solo thrown into “What’d I Say” is fine. I do, however, wish it had a bit more of the original track incorporated into it. The original tracks are all good, *especially* “Key to Love”. If I have any complaints, it’s that I wish the mono mix gave just a little more room to some of the buried instrumentation, but that’s a really minor nitpick, partially brought on by the technology of the era. There’s moments where you can barely hear an organ or harmonica in the back, and other instruments that I wish had more clarity to them.

All in all, it’s some damn good blues, especially with the way the electric guitar is incorporated. This is the only album recorded by this version of the band’s lineup, and that’s a bit of a shame, but I think it ultimately ended up pretty well for most of these guys. Hell, if you follow the throughline of the Bluesbreakers as a whole, Fleetwood Mac emerges out of it pretty damn quickly. I can see exactly why this is on the list, and I can see why Rolling Stone had it in their top 500 for a while. Pretty fast 38 minutes, and a very enjoyable album. A recommended 5.

I must have been aware that there was a missing link between 50s electric blues records (mostly American musicians) and 70s glam rock (mostly British musicians) and that there must have been a period in the 60s where young British musicians just ripped off the blues without adding any of their own influence or flavor. I'm sure this influenced the next generation of musicians to make more interesting interpretations of blues into rock. That doesn't mean I have to think it's good!

In addition, while I can separate a lot of Eric Clapton's work from his vile personality (separate art from the artist etc), I would struggle to do with this one as it is a one-to-one copy of blues music by black musicians such as Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, all by a man who just ten years later was openly and proudly racist against black people and in favour of a white ethnostate within Britain.

As a result, I have a lot of mixed feelings - mostly negative - about the context of this album. But what about the music, I can hear you asking? The big highlight is unfortunately Eric Clapton's guitar work, he can make the guitar talk in that satisfying way and gives this the bluesy feel it needs. The downside is the rest of the band doesn't really have that bite that blues needs - there's not much emotion here.

So I think all of this writing is for an album that is just not that memorable in the first place. Hopefully this is the last one from this lot, though I have a feeling I'll be hearing from Mr. Clapton again on this challenge...

Whenever I walk into a guitar shop, there is a guy playing something almost exactly like this and I want to walk straight out. I just don’t get it. There’s a crossing point between blues and rock music that I struggle to engage with - people really getting into bending the guitar notes, closing their eyes, feeling the music. It’s just not for me.

10/10 for featuring a copy of The Beano on the cover though.

Its ok

A very good album. I really enjoyed listening to it. The band name was previously unknown to me, in contrast to many of the numerous band members. The album won't find a place in my active long-term memory, but the band will. 4/5

Standard blues rock. Which I can dig.

Meh. This version of blues rock cross over always is a little meh. 1.5/5

Bangin' album, a hommage to all their Blues legends. It's full of covers and thus doesn't really have its own material, so the focus is mainly on how they play it. I'm a sucker for the 60's Blues Rock scene so this is right up my alley. The playing here is brilliant, they don't really stretch the blues songs too far like people would later in the 60's, but there is still room for them to stretch and solo the songs. Claptons guitar playing takes center stage, but I love the drums and singing here as well. I think there are other, more interesting British Blues albums, but this one is still a pleasant listen.

Mixed bag on this one. A couple of the instrumental-only tracks are really solid. Any track with singing suffers though. Too bad Clapton is so unlikeable as a human being, he really shreds.

Some of Clapton’s best playing outside of Cream. Tasty licks abound.

Excellent blues rock! Don’t know why something is stopping me from giving it a five. Maybe the vocals? 4.5 I guess.

Great album from top to bottom. A lot of British bands took their shot at it, but this is the best.