Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

This topic may have been covered before but....many of us in the US got into electric blues via some UK releases by bands who already were. The impact of John Mayall And The Bluesbreakers w/Eric Clapton stands above the rest for sparking the interest in many of us to learn about our roots music...this is how I got introduced to Freddie and Albert King...that Lp opened many musical doors for a lot of us!

Oh yeah. Big time for me. I remember distinctly looking at the label on one of the sides of Cream’s Wheels of Fire and wondering to myself “Who is this (Willie) Dixon guy.” And then it was just a small leap to Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Lightin’ Hopkins, Rev. Gary Davis and on and on. Oh gosh. The best.

Same thing happened with folk too. As I’ve might have mentioned a couple hundred times, my favorite Airplane song (Other Side of This Life) was written by Fred Neil.

Opened up a whole new universe.

The Stones and The Animals to name two were doing covers of many US R&B artists also...Jimmy Reed and others..The British groups at that time seemed to want to give credit to these artists that inspired them..the pairings of Clapton and Howlin' Wolf..the Yardbirds and Sonny Boy Williamson...

I have thought many times how bad the British radio must have been for kids to have listened to the blues sung by old guys, not of their generation. Certainly before the Beatles the pop music offered to them by UK performers was pretty awful.

Same with me too, Mark! Also - Skip James. Boy, if you really want to listen to a guy who really HAD the blues -- he's the one!

An interesting thesis George and one that may indeed hold true in the generic sense.

In practical terms for myself, however, I credit my most salient exposure to the Blues to The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the guitarist Mike Bloomfield in 1965. He was a master of technique and sadly died at the younger age of 37.

I can still hear those riffs whenever I think of him.

Well said...The first Paul Butterfield Blues Band Lp was also an early blues influence on many..myself included. While Clapton with the help of John Mayall introduced us all to blues styling and riffs that opened our eyes wide, Bloomfield's playing (if I may be so bold) had much more soul than EC's. The BBB Lp opened up Chicago inspired blues to the larger audience. About a year ago I exchanged a few emails with Mike's brother regarding an amplifier I had.He
told me to "play it with the passion that Mike played with"...still working on it...

"I have thought many times how bad the British radio must have been for kids to have listened to the blues sung by old guys, not of their generation. Certainly before the Beatles the pop music offered to them by UK performers was pretty awful."

From talking to guys brought up in that era in London it seems that the music spread through the clubs & word of mouth, most of these records were imports also. They would not have had a clue what the guys looked like or age unless they bought an import LP which were even rarer than singles!

Seems that the music said enough, something that is now lost in the MTV & video, boy/girl "bands" & Karaoke era!

As far as I am concerned from my perspective there was not that much interest in the blues amongst the youth of Britain, can't comment on London scene but up here in North of England definitely not. Even those bands who purport to have been influenced by various blues singers were in my view only partially influenced, The Stones record success in commercial terms was not based on the blues, Little Red Rooster being about the closest they got.

Those who did supposedly represent the blues had little commercial success, take Long John Baldry he had no commercial success till he turned to mainstream pop really and then years later denounced that success.

I know John in his reference to British radio is referring to blues but can't agree that pop music offered to us Brits, before The Beatles was pretty awful, some of it was pretty darn good.

I recall a guy in the for want of a better phrase "gang" I went round with buying a couple of blues albums by likes of John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson, he brought the albums to a couple of parties I recall and was soon told where to stick 'em when he put them on the turntable.

I've always liked the collaborative recordings with Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf backed by Clapton, Winwood, Watts, Butterfield, etc. I still enjoy them. I wonder how well these went over in England?

Also I read somewhere that Lennon's "Yer Blues" was a tongue-in-shreik reaction to the OVER-popularity of blues in England at the time. Fro my money, that one is a lot more compelling than Jimmy Page playing with Sonny Boy Williamson.

One other gem: I still love "I'm Your Witchdoctor" from John Mayall, with a little help from Page. Some of those British Blues were Pretty Darn Good.

I hate to be a wet blanket but I don't think much of the English "blues" was very authentic even though I liked a lot of it just as I don't think much of the stuff today that's supposed to be "blues" is authentic. The Stones were influenced by Chuck Berry more than anyone I believe and had left the blues far behind by their third or fourth album for the most part. Fleetwood Mac were pretty good and tried hard.

I too loved Mike Bloomfield, his playing always sounded like it was on the verge of losing it, was almost out of control, was great. I especially love what he did on Dylan's Highway 61 revisited, which is my favorite album of his. I have the early Butterfield stuff too which is pretty good, first album was out in 1965 and is I think usually considered to be the first real white Chicago blues album.

Sorry I should have added above that Blues was just one of the types of US music (mostly but not exclusively Black) music that became popular on the underground & club scene in London in the early '60's amongst many other genres.

The older Guys I know used to laugh at English bands trying to play US music in small clubs at the time like the Stones & the Yardbirds! Even though one of them often had Clapton sleeping round his house & even persuaded him to ring on John Mayalls doorbell because he was looking for a guitar player!