Birthdays | Remembering John Mayall (29 November 1933 – 22 July 2024)

Photo by Jack Mitchell/Getty Images 

I am pretty sure I have mentioned how important John Mayall was to this burdegeoing precocious blues man as a mere stripling child (13+) following (on and off) all my life but the first few albums were impossibly cool to me. That the irony of his band leadership was not lost on him as his leadership lead to fame for so many of his alumni; Green, Clapton, McVie, Tayor to name a few but that fame never really beckoned for him personally so much no hits and no adulation but this is what befalls the Mayall's and the Horners, the Graham Bonds and the Chris Barbers. They illuminate the pantheon of great British musical institutions and without trying to hammer the hyperbole John shone through the history books brighter than most forever!

"I'm a band leader and I know what I want to play in my band — who can be good friends of mine," Mayall said in an interview with the Southern Vermont Review. "It's definitely a family. It's a small kind of thing really."

A small but enduring thing. Though Mayall never approached the fame of some of his illustrious alumni, he was still performing in his late 80s, pounding out his version of Chicago blues. The lack of recognition rankled a bit, and he wasn't shy about saying so.

"I've never had a hit record, I never won a Grammy Award, and Rolling Stone has never done a piece about me," he said in an interview with the Santa Barbara Independent in 2013. "I'm still an underground performer."

Known for his blues harmonica and keyboard playing, Mayall had a Grammy nomination, for "Wake Up Call" which featured guest artists Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Mick Taylor and Albert Collins. He received a second nomination in 2022 for his album “The Sun Is Shining Down.” He also won official recognition in Britain with the award of an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2005.

He was selected for the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class and his 1966 album “Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton,” is considered one of the best British blues albums.

Mayall once was asked if he kept playing to meet a demand, or simply to show he could still do it.

“Well, the demand is there, fortunately. But it’s really for neither of those two things, it’s just for the love of the music,” he said in an interview with Hawaii Public Radio. “I just get together with these guys and we have a workout.”

By The Associated Press

JOHN MAYALL & THE BLUESBREAKERS

+ Eric Clapton

On this day in music history: July 22, 1966 - “Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton” by John Mayall & The Blues Breakers is released. Produced by Mike Vernon, it is recorded at Decca Studios in West Hampstead, London, UK in March 1966. The album is initially planned as a live recording, but the recordings are scrapped and the band record in the studio instead. It is released to great acclaim upon its release in the UK, further cementing Eric Clapton’s reputation as a brilliant lead guitarist, and is regarded as one of the quintessential British blues recordings. Clapton uses his newly acquired (and now legendary) 1960 Les Paul during the sessions. The albums now famous cover photo features the band posed together looking at the camera, with Clapton eyes averted reading a “Beano” comic book. In 2006, Universal Music Group releases a double CD Deluxe Edition of “Blues Breakers” featuring a remastered version of the original album with the original stereo and mono mixes, with the second disc featuring live recordings made for and originally broadcast on the BBC radio program “Saturday Club Sessions” as well as the stand alone single “Lonely Years” and its original B-side “Bernard Jenkins”. Reissued numerous times on vinyl since 2000, it is most recently remastered and reissued as a 180 gram LP by UMe in Europe in 2016. It is also issued as a limited edition blue vinyl pressing by Sundazed Music in 2018, with both releases using the original mono mix. “Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton” peaks at number six on the UK album chart.

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I think we established early on I was a precocious little sod and by at least 13 was walking about with blues classics under my arm, Josh White, Chris Farlowe, Leadbelly, Big Bill Broonzy especially but then I heard this fellah and bought several albums and things I could find in the bargain bins by Mr John Mayall

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIC!

Born on this day: March 30, 1945 - Rock guitar icon Eric Clapton (born Eric Patrick Clapton in Ripley, Surrey, UK). Happy 74th Birthday, “Slowhand”!!

I first came across the legend that is Eric Clapton with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers [and the Beano cover album for one was a favourite] and have followed his work, life's ups and downs ever since

Quite a few of us bought this when it came out and I was no exception although I think I may've bought it a bit later . . . . . I was obsessively researching blues material from Josh White to Big Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly and others and the work of John Mayall hit us hard . . . . 
There were a few unique sounding Mayall albums in the next few years and I loved them . . . . . . 

On this day in music history: July 22, 1966 - “Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton” by John Mayall & The Blues Breakers is released. Produced by Mike Vernon, it is recorded at Decca Studios in West Hampstead, London, UK in March 1966. The album is initially planned as a live recording, but the recordings are scrapped and the band record in the studio instead. It is released to great acclaim upon its release in the UK, further cementing Eric Clapton’s reputation as a brilliant lead guitarist, and is regarded as one of the quintessential British blues recordings. Clapton uses his newly acquired (and now legendary) 1960 Les Paul during the sessions. The albums now famous cover photo features the band posed together looking at the camera, with Clapton eyes averted reading a “Beano” comic book. In 2006, Universal Music Group releases a double CD Deluxe Edition of “Blues Breakers” featuring a remastered version of the original album with the original stereo and mono mixes, with the second disc featuring live recordings made for and originally broadcast on the BBC radio program “Saturday Club Sessions” as well as the stand alone single “Lonely Years” and its original B-side “Bernard Jenkins”. Reissued numerous times on vinyl since 2000, it is most recently remastered and reissued as a 180 gram LP by UMe in Europe in 2016. It is also issued as a limited edition blue vinyl pressing by Sundazed Music in 2018, with both releases using the original mono mix. "Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton" peaks at number six on the UK album chart.