By 1966, Mayall was already 33 years old and having served his national service in Korea and been a student at Manchester College of Art during which period he played with a number of semi-professional bands, he decided in 1963 to devote himself to music full time. Hence The Bluesbreakers were formed. In 1964, Mayall with Hughie Flint on drums, John McVie on bass and Roger Dean on guitar, backed John Lee Hooker on his tour of Britain. A recording contract with Decca Records followed and a live album was recorded at Klooks Kleek in December 1964. It did not sell well and the contract was terminated.
Then, in March 1965, The Yardbirds scored a major hit with the Graham Gouldman song 'For Your Love'. After two years with the group, guitarist Eric Clapton decided they were not moving in the direction he wished, so he replaced Roger Dean in the more blues oriented Bluesbreakers. There were some live dates which attracted a great deal of attention but then Clapton left to travel to Greece. Peter Green was drafted into The Bluesbreakers but eventually Clapton returned and the band went into Decca Studios in March 1966.
The original intention had been to record a live album, but attempts to do so at London's Flamingo Club (with Jack Bruce on bass) ended in poor quality recordings so the band resorted to recording in Decca Studios in West Hampstead, London.
The tracks recorded were mainly drawn from their live repertoire of blues standards by people like Ray Charles, Little Walter, Otis Rush and Freddie King, however they also included four Mayall compositions and one joint composition by Mayall and Clapton. The iconic cover showed the four rather glum looking band members seated on a kerb side in front of a graffiti scrawled wall. Clapton is reading a copy of a popular UK children's comic called 'The Beano', leading to the LP becoming known as The Beano album.
The band play well and are clearly a tight unit with Mayall demonstrating his multi instrumental skills on piano, Hammond organ and harmonica. They are also augmented by a few session players on horns. Essentially however, the album is a showcase for the guitar talents of Eric Clapton.
'All Your Love'
The album kicks of with the distinctive slide guitar opening to this great Otis Rush song. Originally written and recorded by Rush in 1958, the full title was 'All Your Love (I Miss Loving)'. A fairly basic twelve bar blues, it is a great vehicle for Clapton's guitar work and a number of other artists have either covered it or ripped it off. Peter Green, Clapton's replacement in the Bluesbreakers later wrote the hit song 'Black Magic Woman' which he acknowledged was basically a re-write of 'All Your Love'.
'Hideaway'
This instrumental written by Freddie King and Sonny Thompson was first released as a single by King in 1960 and thereafter became something of a staple for aspiring blues artists. King himself has acknowledged that the song was adapted from 'Taylor's Boogie' by Hound Dog Taylor though he may have taken a later adaptation of the song by Magic Sam and Shakey Jake Harris. Eric Clapton had been familiar with King's version for a few years when he recorded his with Mayall using a slightly jazzier rhythm than the original.
'Little Girl'
This catchy little Mayall composition promises the girl of the title that she can forget about the eighteen years of pain she has been through because Mayall is going to leave her with a love child! I'm not sure how that would have gone down with any feminists who were around in 1966 but it's a catchy number nonetheless.
'Another Man'
Coming in at fifteen seconds under two minutes, this inconsequential Mayall composition has little to say. Basically 'Another man done gone', he's 'on the country farm' and 'didn't know his name'. There is no guitar on the track which is redeemed by some fine harmonica vamping from Mayall.
'Double Crossing Time'
Written jointly by Mayall and Clapton, this is a song about being cheated and betrayed. Allegedly it was written in response to Jack Bruce turning his back on Mayall to join successful 'pop' group, Manfred Mann. Mayall lays down the piano backing leaving Clapton to play some fine lines on his then trademark Gibson Les Paul.
'What'd I Say'
This 1959 song broke Ray Charles into the charts and gained him a great deal of attention among both white and black audiences. Mayall plays some fine piano and Hammond organ and even Hughie Flint gets in on the act with a drum solo, while Eric Clapton is restricted to a short but blistering guitar solo. Towards the end he uses the guitar riff from The Beatles' 'Daytripper'.
Side two of the original vinyl album began with another John Mayall composition -
'Key To Love'
The brass accompaniment from John Almond, Alan Skidmore and Derek Healey, really help to keep this track rocking as does the great guitar break from Clapton. A great start to side two.
'Parchman Farm'
Bukka White and Son House had both written and performed blues songs about the Mississippi State Penitentiary (known as Parchman Farm) but this is a cover of a later Mose Allison song that had featured on his 1963 album, 'Mose Allison Sings'. John McVie drives the rhythm on bass while Mayall blows some great harmonica between his vocals. According to Mayall, his young guitar protege found the riff too boring so he sat this one out.
'Have You Heard'
The longest track on the album is a great slow blues composition in the key of C by John Mayall. Introduced by the saxophones of Almond and Skidmore with a plodding bass line from McVie, Mayall eventually comes in on vocals and is answered by great guitar work from you know who. It's a superb band performance and one of Mayall's strongest early compositions.
'Rambling On My Mind'
Being a great fan of Robert Johnson, it was probably Clapton's idea to include this song originally dating from Johnson's November 1936 session. Clapton takes his only vocal on this album (also his first solo lead vocal on record) and of course plays great Delta blues guitar with fine piano backing from Mayall.
'Steppin' Out'
Written by James Bracken (co-owner and founder of Vee-Jay Records), this blues instrumental was obviously a great favourite of Eric Clapton as he continued to perform it with Cream, often going into free-form jazz arrangements with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker lasting up to fifteen minutes. Here, he keeps it down to 2 minutes 30 seconds but packs a lot into that time backed by vamping horns and organ. Mayall even manages to squeeze in one short Hammond organ solo before Clapton is back taking the song to it's glorious climax.
'It Ain't Right'
As one would expect on a Little Walter song, Mayall's wailing harmonica features very heavily on the album's closing track.
The album was very influential, inspiring a number of other bands to pursue the blues. Unusually for a blues album, it also made the UK top ten. Mayall was soon to lose Eric Clapton to 'greater' things but he continued to lead his own band and continually selected the best young musicians to support him. The list of musicians who worked with Mayall, reads like a 'who's who' of UK blues music. He also remained true to his roots and never deviated from playing the music he loved most.
Postscript
In 2006, a 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition was issued featuring both stereo and mono versions of the album along with a host of singles and live sessions from around this period.
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