A GUY NAMED JOHN ____THAT CHANGED ROCK FOREVER____

THE BEANO 

On July 22,1966 Deram records released an album called Blues Breakers by John Mayall with Eric Clapton Usually referred to as the Beano Album because Eric is reading 'The Beano' comic book on the cover.

On just one album Clapton sent everyone including me at that time looking for a Les Paul and a Marshall. At the time I did not know this gear even existed. In my neighborhood it was all about getting a Tele and a Fender Super Reverb. Clapton left the then successful Yardbirds because management insisted they stop doing Blues based tunes and do Pop songs written by guys that made a living cranking out disposable crap.

The thing is without John Mayall this would never had happened and we might all still be playing Beach boy inspired Surf music. The cool thing is John Mayall never stopped playing his Blues music. He never retired and is still playing, recording and gigging at 88 years old.

Eric changed the sound of bright twangy clean Rock Guitar into a dirt Blues sound with string bends, hammer ons, and vertical vibrato and over a few years many Blues bands slowly morphed their music into what got labelled Heavy Metal. From that came all the gear millions of players now covet.

No John Mayall, No Beano Album, and hundreds of the best records ever made by countless of artists would not exist. You would not have heard them and you would not have read this because it is improbable that you would even play the guitar. Think about it.

A FINAL NOTE

Clapton was replaced by Peter Green when he moved on and then Peter left and Mick Taylor joined the long line of Blues Breakers. Both Mick Fleetwood and John McVie also were Blues Breakers. Drummer Aynsley Dunbar went from the Blues Breakers to Jeff Beck, Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Whitesnake and Journey just to name a few.

This summer in California John will do his farewell gig. I can not help wonder what other players may show up.

Besides the obvious, guys like Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons, Jimmie Vaughan,

Alex Lifeson, Joe Bonamassa, Todd Rundgren, Joe Walsh and Steve Cropper, have either guested live or on tracks.

I just hope they film it.