Monday, January 14, 2013

#700 John Mayall with Eric Clapton - Blues Breakers

I'm been suffering this cognitive dissonance with respect to Eric Clapton. Cream, eh, ok, sure. Yardbirds, perfectly solid. Solo stuff, downright mehhhhh....hhhhhh. Derek and the Dominoes had Layla, that was pretty good?

End result? A solid B- rating, I'd say. I don't know that I get Eric Clapton, one of the biggest, baddest, most important guitar players ever. Am I bad at rock and roll listening?

This album provides some degree of solace; for once I can unequivocally apprecaite the guitarwork, especially that so-signature overblown Les Paul. What a killer tone, here still wild and wooly and writhing around with a mind all its own. The actual album, as with Davy Graham's album, is undermined by weak vocals, sounding thin-throated and reachy and strained. But hey, at least the songs, instrumentally, are killer, especially on the rollicking faster songs that leave you stumbling to catch up and eager to keep trying.

I always knew Clapton was good, its nice to finally feel it, even if only briefly. But then maybe that's just the cognitive dissonance talking 4/5

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