Posted on by Rob Jones · 2 Comments

Cream Play “Crossroads”

creamwheelsoffireListen to this track by British power trio, “supergroup”, and hard-rock pioneers Cream. It’s their live performance of Robert Johnson’s 1936 song “Crossroads Blues”, a take on the song that also quotes another Johnson song, “Travelin’ Riverside Blues”, and showcases the three-way assault of each member of the band (For you stereo listeners: Bassist Jack Bruce to your left, drummer Ginger Baker just behind you, and Eric Clapton to your immediate right).

The song itself is a tale of an unnamed dread, a fear of nightfall and being out on the road alone. Many associate this song with the legendary and very often repeated tale of a deal going down at a crossroads in Misssissippi, where Robert Johnson is rumoured to have sold his very soul in order to become no less than King of the Delta Blues Singers. Johnson’s influence is certainly proven by this cover version, performed in March of 1968 at San Francisco’s famed Winterland Ballroom, a mecca of rock ‘n’ roll history. Cream scored a #28 hit with this rendition of the song.

But, what is the real story behind this tune, and the real source of dread hinted at in its lyrics? Is it the terror of a supernatural force, or is the threat the song’s narrator is alluding to more of a mortal concern? Read more

Posted on by Rob Jones · 2 Comments

The Yardbirds Play “Heart Full of Soul”

theyardbirdsheartfullofsoul-519504Listen to this track, a slice of fuzztone-sizzling, proto-psychedelic raga rock from vital blues-rock champeens and garage rock forefathers The Yardbirds. It’s the band’s 1965 hit single “Heart Full of Soul”, the second single released after the departure of talented, and deeply earnest, purist blues guitarist Eric Clapton. Clapton would be succeeded by another upcoming guitar player of considerable reknown –  Jeff Beck.

One of the sore points that drove Clapton to seek his fortunes elsewhere was the band’s movement away from the blues and into other areas (read: the pop charts). Their intial single in this new direction was the blantantly commercial “For Your Love”, which was certainly a hit, and modeled after a Beatlesque pop sound, which Clapton couldn’t get behind. He left to join John Mayall’s group, the Bluesbreakers.

Initially, Clapton was to be replaced by Jimmy Page. But eventually the spot went to Jeff Beck on Page’s recommendation when Page himself balked at leaving his lucrative session player salary. The Yardbirds would get Page later, though. And despite his stylistic rigidity at the time, Clapton would later befriend the Beatles, and be one of the only guests to play on one of their songs.

As Chuck Berry once said: you never can tell. Read more

Posted on by Rob Jones · 7 Comments

Blind Faith Play ‘Can’t Find My Way Home’

Listen to this track by bona fide, albeit short-lived, supergroup Blind Faith, featuring Steve Winwood (vocals, keyboards, guitar), Eric Clapton (guitar), Ginger Baker (drums), and Ric Grech (bass guitar).  It’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” as taken from the band’s 1969 self-titled and sole LP Blind Faith, a folky and atmospheric gem that sits as a centerpiece to the record, and remains to be a celebrated track, covered as it was by acts as disparate as  blues-rock maven Bonnie Raitt to No Wave band Swans.

For many, the era out of which this song and this group came presented new vistas in rock music, particularly those holding the purse strings at the major labels. In this case, it was three – Polydor, Island, and Atantic Records, distributed through the Atco label.

All the while, the name of the band was something of an ironic nod to the fact that for all of the hype and expectations surrounding it, the band members themselves knew that it was a union assembled informally and without much of a plan for world domination.  Despite this, label support would roll out formal preparations for a tour and an album, counting their money as they did so in an act of, you guessed it, blind faith.  I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

Read more

Posted on by Rob Jones · 3 Comments

John Mayall Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton Perform ‘All Your Love’

Bluesbreakers_John_Mayall_with_Eric_ClaptonListen to this song, a scorching slice of electrified blues straight from the peak of the 60’s London R&B boom.  It’s “All Your Love” from the very brief 1965 line-up of John Mayall Bluesbreakers, a combo which created Mayall’s, and arguably the band’s guitarist Eric Clapton’s, greatest achievement of the period on the 1966 ground-breaking disc Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton.

Eric Clapton had been the fulcrum of The Yardbirds since 1963, starting from the tender age of 18 as an idealistic, serious-minded, and supremely gifted blues guitarist informed by electric players like  Otis Rush and Buddy Guy, as well as older, spookier blues traditions as exemplified by Skip James and Robert Johnson. When called upon to record the more Merseybeat-aligned (and more commercially-motivated) song “For Your Love”, Clapton’s blues muse wouldn’t allow him to continue with the Yardbirds. That honour went next to Jeff Beck. And the song was a big hit.  But, Clapton’s path lay elsewhere.

Seeking an outlet for a purer blues sound, Clapton fell in with Mayall, something of a blues purist himself, although with a love of soul music that would certainly inform his outfit, the Bluesbreakers.  The resulting collaboration between the two, plus bassist John McVie (later of Fleetwood Mac) and drummer Hughie Flint, sent a shockwave through the scene.  And it resulted in some interesting graffiti through out London: “Clapton Is God”.

Sometimes known as the “Beano” album, because of Clapton’s rapt attention to the funny papers on the cover of the record, this track and the rest of the tracks on the album reflect a harder-edged approach to the blues.  Before this, British blues bands were reverent when it came to the source material which fed the scene.  Numbers were performed exactly as they had been on the original sides on labels like Cobra, Chess, and Checker by bands who considered the originals as sacred texts.  Not so with this record, which lays a foundation that is tougher, louder, and more sonically pliable. And the songs mix the traditional with the new, penned by Mayall.

And with these new innovations, this record is more than just an evolution for British musicians playing, and mastering, an American musical form.  It is also the birth of a new subgenre; blues-rock.

Clapton’s stay with Mayall wouldn’t last even until the record was released.  But, it fed his ambition to help to evolve the blues even further when he went on to form Cream with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.  Mayall wouldn’t be stopped in his tracks by Clapton’s departure either, and provided his own contribution to the furtherance of the blues, working first with Peter Green (also like McVie, later of Fleetwood Mac), and also with soon-to-be Rolling Stone Mick Taylor.

Both Green and Taylor can be comfortably described as guitar gods themselves, of course.  But, for a while, there was only one God, at least where London spraycan enthusiasts were concerned. And it’s his performance on this album that created a new theology when it came to rock guitar playing.

John Mayall is an active musician, with decades of service to the mantle of electric blues and blues-rock.  Check out his site at Johnmayall.com

Enjoy!