Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 65

Record label: Decca

Produced: Mike Vernon

Recorded: Decca Studio 2, London; April 1966

Released: July 1966

Chart peaks: 6 (UK) None (US)

Personnel: John Mayall (v, g, hm); Eric Clapton (g, v); John McVie (b); Huey Flint (d); Gus Dudgeon (e)

Track listing: All Your Love (S); Hideaway; Little Girl; Another Man; Double Crossing Time; What’d I Say; Key To Love; Parchman Farm (S); Have You Heard; Rambling On My Mind; Steppin’ Out; It Ain’t Right

Running time: 37.32

Current CD: Universal 9841801 is a 2-CD set with mono and stereo mixes of the album plus numerous live sessions and unreleased tracks.

Further listening: A Hard Road (1967) with Peter Green shows the band flourishing post-Clapton; Cream’s Wheels Of Fire (1968) is Eric at his acid blues best.

Further reading: Strange Brew: Eric Claption And British Blues Book 1965–1970 (Christopher Hjort & Charles Horton); www.johnmayall.net

Download: iTunes; HMV Digital

‘I was arrogant, and I had an accelerator going,’ says Eric Clapton, explaining his dizzying ascent to star status in 1966. Eric Clapton quit The Yardbirds in March 1965; within a month, Mayall had sacked his guitarist Roger Dean, and persuaded Clapton to join up. Clapton describes Mayall as ‘a real father figure. I grew a hell of a lot in a short period of time with his help.’

Mayall and producer Mike Vernon played Eric the latest records by Freddie King, Otis Rush and other Chicago greats. As well as copping their riffs, Clapton aimed for a similar density of sound. Seeing Freddie King photographed with a Gibson Les Paul, Clapton bought a second-hand Les Paul Sunburst and combined it with a newly-designed Marshall amp, to achieve a radically new sound; distorted, creamy and sustained: ‘I wanted some kind of thickness that would be a compilation of all the guitarists I’d heard, plus the sustain of a slide guitar,’ he remembers.

A June 1965 single, I’m Your Witchdoctor, demonstrated the band’s raw power and helped Vernon persuade Decca to re-sign them. When they entered Decca’s Studio 2 the following April they were all at their peak.

The songs included covers of Mose Allison, Little Walter, Ray Charles, some Mayall originals and Robert Johnson’s Rambling On My Mind – Clapton’s vocal debut. ‘He was a little reticent about singing it,’ remembers Mayall, ‘but I had no doubts whatsoever.’

There was one hurdle to clear. To achieve his sound, Clapton had to drive his Marshall amp to unprecedented volume levels. Freelance engineer (and future Elton John producer) Gus Dudgeon was staggered by his insistence on positioning the microphone – and refusing to turn it down. Vernon let Clapton have his way. Mayall credits this as crucial: ‘Mike had the foresight not to mess with something that was happening live, to just get it down on tape, keeping all the spontaneity and feel.’

Before the album ended its 17-week stay in the British charts, Eric Clapton had already left to form Cream. Mayall had the ideal replacement lined up in the shape of Peter Green. Neither party would ever look back.