Hi everyone, welcome to our Suggested Listening posting for this week!
Suggested Listening postings are published on Fridays; and our next Suggested Listening posting will be out on Friday, August 2, 2024.
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This week we’re celebrating the music of the great British bluesman John Mayall, who died this past week at the age of ninety; by featuring a dozen of his songs.
It is hard to sum up the life and music of a figure as influential as John Mayall in a couple of paragraphs, but I will try! (And yes indeed, as a disclaimer, Linda is a big John Mayall fan!)
John Mayall, was born in Macclesfield, England (U.K.) in 1933. As a youth, he was a huge music fan and compiled an in-depth record collection of blues artists, while learning to play the piano, organ, harmonica and the guitar; he moved to London in his early thirties and formed a band, which shortly thereafter morphed into his Blues Breakers band*
And it quickly became apparently that Mayall was exceptional at finding talented young players for his band! His second album, released in 1966, and the first one to be credited to John Mayall & The Blues Breakers, featured a guitarist who was known to music fans, having previously played with The Yardbirds, but was not the internationally renowned guitarist he would shortly become; and his name is Eric Clapton. The full title of that seminal second LP is John Mayall’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (1966).
Some of the other musicians who played in John Mayall’s band in the sixties, who also became internally well-known include: the great guitarist Peter Green who co-founded Fleetwood Mac with fellow John Mayall’s Blues Breaker alumni John McVie and Mick Fleetwood, guitarist Mick Taylor who replaced Brian Jones in the Rolling Stones; and briefly, after his stint in the Graham Bond Organization and before he co-founded Cream, bassist Jack Bruce; and that is only a few of the great players who went through Mayall’s band over the years.
And too, Mayall came out with some terrific albums all on his own; and kept touring and recording albums for decades, right into the 2020s; indeed, his last studio album, The Sun Is Shining Down, was released in 2022!
And on a related ironic note, I recall listening with amusement to a song on Mayall’s 1990 album, A Sense Of Place, called I Can’t Complain, and during the song he sings “I never got invited to the Grammy show, if my luck every changes…I really don’t know.” And I’m struck by the fact that John Mayall is being inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame in October of this year, by being awarded a Musical Influence Award; and unfortunately, he won’t be there to receive the award, although at least he knew that honor was belatedly coming his way. And as a long-time fan, I think he’d probably like it best if instead of watching the Rock Hall of Fame ceremony in October, you listened to some of his music, or any blues music for that matter.
And on that note, you can check out a number of John Mayall albums via the Hoopla catalog, including the three great guitar albums featuring Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor; listed below is a brief, early-to-mid-sixties discography which includes those LPs:
The first five John Mayall albums can be checked out via Hoopla, accessible through the app or line at https://www.hoopladigital.com, and they are:
1. John Mayall Plays John Mayall (1965) (recorded live and featuring a very young John McVie on bass; McVie can also be heard playing the bass on the albums: John Mayall’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, A Hard Road and Crusade)
2. John Mayall’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (1966)
3. A Hard Road (1967) (featuring Peter Green on guitar)
4. Crusade (1967) (featuring Mick Taylor on guitar)
5. The Blues Alone (1967) (Mayall played all the instruments on the LP, except the drums)
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And here are a dozen songs by John Mayall and his band, in chronological order:
R and B Time: Night Train/Lucille by John Mayall
From The Album: John Mayall Plays John Mayall (1965) (Recorded live in December 1964 and featuring a very young John McVie on bass)
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Hideaway (featuring Eric Clapton on guitar)
From The Album: John Mayall’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (1966) (this album too features John McVie on bass)
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Rambling On My Mind (featuring Eric Clapton on vocals)
From The Album: From The Album: John Mayall’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (1966) (Ditto, this album too features John McVie on bass)
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Someday After A While (You’ll Be Sorry) by John Mayall and the Blues Breakers (featuring Peter Green on guitar)
From The Album: A Hard Road (1967)
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The Stumble by John Mayall And The Blues Breakers (featuring Peter Green on guitar)
From The Album: A Hard Road (1967)
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My Time After A While by John Mayall and the Blues Breakers (featuring Mick Taylor on guitar)
From The Album: Crusade (1967)
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Snowy Wood by John Mayall and the Blues Breakers (featuring Mick Taylor on guitar)
From The Album: Crusade (1967)
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Bare Wires Suite by John Mayall and the Blues Breakers (Note: This is a long late sixties jazzy-blues-rock song, clocking in at 22:59!)
From The Album: Bare Wires (1968)
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Vacation by John Mayall
From The Album: Blues From Laurel Canyon (1968)
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Chicago Line by John Mayall’s Blues Breakers
From The Album: Chicago Line (1988)
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I Can’t Complain by John Mayall
From The Album: A Sense Of Place (1990)
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Wake Up Call by John Mayall with Mavis Stapleton on vocals and Mick Taylor on guitar
From The Album: Wake Up Call (1993)
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Hoopla Recommend Album of the Week
A Hard Road by John Mayall and the Blues Breakers
And from the album the song
The Super-Natural (featuring Peter Green on guitar)
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* The official John Mayall biography can be found on his website via the following link: https://www.johnmayall.com/bio
And the complete John Mayall discography, can be accessed on the discography page on the same official John Mayall website, found here: https://www.johnmayall.com/discography
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Have a great weekend,
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Online Catalog Links:
StarCat
The catalog of physical materials, i.e. print books, DVDs, audiobooks on CD, etc.
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The Digital Catalog, web version of Libby
The catalog of e-books, downloadable audiobooks and a handful of streaming videos.
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The Libby App
Libby is the companion app to the Digital Catalog and may be found in the Apple & Google app.
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Hoopla
A catalog of instant check out items, including eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, comic books, TV shows and movies for patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.
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