Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (aka The Beano Album): featuring John Mayall, Eric Clapton, John McVie & Hughie Flint

In the early 1960s I was still at school, somewhat obsessed by folk, burgeoning folk-rock and blues music. I was attending folk and blues all-nighters at the Cousins, getting into early Dylan and buying cheap sampler albums of old blues artists like Lightning Hopkins, Sonny and Brownie, etc. And then came Clapton.

In 1963 the 18 year old Eric Clapton was a teenage guitar prodigy with the Yardbirds. This was about the time he became God overnight, although the truth was rather more prosaic – he was, in fact, a drunkard known for racist outbursts, a drug addict, a car destroyer and a serious philanderer who stole a Beatle’s wife.

And a brilliant guitarist, in a brilliant band. The Yardbirds put out ‘For Your Love’ in March 1965, at which point young Eric left and Jeff Beck (another prodigy) moved in. Jimmy Page was in the band too … sounds like a joke today. Sadly, there is no recording of the three of them together at that time, but they did record a session together in the 80s.

Anyway, back to Clapton. As Beck joined the Yardbirds lineup he left to join John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, the best rolling blues band of the time and one that every competent musician seems to have done a stint with. A band with probably more line-ups than any other in the history of modern music. In Mayall he met a fellow blues purist, like him more into music than fame and fortune. They bonded. Clapton dropped his Fender for a Gibson Les Paul and ran it through a Marshall amp; the result is there on vinyl for all time.

The album was the breakthrough that Mayall was looking for, and made #6 on the UK album charts. Today it is recognised as one of the most influential blues albums of all time. But by the time it was released in July 1966 Clapton already had left the band with Cream in mind, to be replaced by Peter Green (did I say everyone who was anyone played with Mayall?). And as for the Beano album, well if you just listen to one track, ‘Steppin Out’, you’ll see why one morning all over London Clapton was hailed as God.

Track list
All Your Love (Otis Rush)
Hideaway (Freddie King, Sonny Thompson)
Little Girl (Mayall)
Another Man (Mayall)
Double Crossing Time (Clapton, Mayall)
What’d I Say (Ray Charles)
Key to Love (Mayall)
Parchman Farm (Mose Allison)
Have You Heard (Mayall)
Ramblin’ on My Mind (Robert Johnson)
Steppin’ Out (L. C. Frazier)
It Ain’t Right (Little Walter)