Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton

Infobox Album |
Name = With Eric Clapton
Type = Album
Artist = Bluesbreakers

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Released = July 22, 1966
Recorded = April 1966
Genre = Blues-rock
Length = 37:06 (original)
75:18 (1998 reissue)
Label =
Producer = Mike Vernon
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:5z6atr39kl4x link]
Last album = "John Mayall Plays John Mayall"
(1965)
This album = "Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton"
(1966)
Next album = "A Hard Road"
(1967)
Misc = Extra chronology 2
Artist = Eric Clapton
Type = studio album
Last album = "Having a Rave Up" with The Yardbirds
(1965)
This album = "Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton"
(1966)
Next album = "Fresh Cream" by Cream
(1966)

"Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton" is a 1966 electric blues album by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton as lead guitarist. It is often referred to as The Beano album because the photograph on the album cover shows Clapton reading "The Beano", a well-known British children's comic.

Apart from being one of the most overall influential albums in blues-rock history, it was likely the first time anyone had heard a Gibson Les Paul guitar through an overdriven Marshall amplifier; this unique sound would become particularly influential. The re-introduction of the Les Paul by Gibson was largely fueled by the blues boom that so often featured it. Clapton's incendiary playing inspired graffiti saying "Clapton is God" on the streets of London around the time of the album's release.

The Bluesbreakers included John Mayall on harmonica and a majority of the vocals, John McVie on bass, Hughie Flint on drums, and John Almond, Alan Skidmore and Derek Healey, misspelt on the sleeve as Dennis Healey, as the horn section.

Much of the album was composed of blues standards by long-established blues artists such as Otis Rush, Freddie King and Robert Johnson, as well as a few originals penned by Mayall or Mayall and Clapton. The majority of the songs serve as showcases for the young Clapton's playing, apart from "Another Man" and "Ramblin' On My Mind." "Ramblin' On My Mind" was Clapton's very first recorded vocal performance. Although Clapton left the Bluesbreakers only months after this album was made, it was still a huge step forward for his playing as far as improvisation and guitar tone, and it formed the bridge between his time with the Yardbirds and his later co-founding of the power trio Cream with fellow British blues-rock players Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.

RS500|195 [http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6599352/195_blues_breakers]

Track listing

# "All Your Love" (Willie Dixon/Otis Rush) – 3:36
# "Hideaway" (Freddie King/Sonny Thompson) – 3:17
# "Little Girl" (Mayall) – 2:37
# "Another Man" (Mayall) – 1:45
# "Double Crossing Time" (Clapton/Mayall) – 3:04
# "What'd I Say" – (Ray Charles) – 4:29
# "Key to Love" (Mayall) – 2:09
# "Parchman Farm" (Mose Allison) – 2:24
# "Have You Heard" (Mayall) – 5:56
# "Ramblin' on My Mind" (Robert Johnson/Traditional) – 3:10
# "Steppin' Out" (James Bracken) – 2:30
# "It Ain't Right" (Little Walter) – 2:42

2001 reissue

This release added two bonus tracks from a single:

13. "Lonely Years" (Mayall) – 3:21
14. "Bernard Jenkins" (Clapton) – 3:48

2002 remastered reissue

Includes all tracks in both mono and stereo:1-12 as above in mono13-24 as 1-12 above in stereo

2006 deluxe 40th anniversary edition

25. Crawling up a Hill (Mayall)
26. Crocodile Walk (Mayall)
27. Bye Bye Bird (Sonny Boy Williamson II, Willie Dixon)
28. I'm Your Witchdoctor (Mayall)
29. Telephone Blues (Mayall)
30. Bernard Jenkins (Clapton)
31. Lonely Years (Mayall)

25, 26, 30, and 31 appeared as singles; 38-43 appeared on "Primal Solos" (with Jack Bruce on bass); 38 is on "Looking Back"; the remaining are BBC sessions

Influences

The guitar riff which begins at 3:32 in "What'd I Say" is borrowed from The Beatles' "Day Tripper," written the year before (1965)

Personnel

* John Mayall - Lead Vocals, Hammond, Guitar, Harmonica
* Eric Clapton - Lead/Backing Vocals, Lead Guitar
* John McVie - Bass Guitar
* Hughie Flint - Drums
* Gus Dudgeon - sound engineer
* Mike Vernon - producer