{"id":3303,"date":"2024-10-03T00:53:57","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T00:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3303"},"modified":"2024-10-03T00:57:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T00:57:01","slug":"ftv-john-mayall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3303","title":{"rendered":"FTV: John Mayall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The music world lost an icon when the Godfather of British blues, John Mayall, recently passed away at the age of 90.\u00a0 I can\u2019t say that I knew that much about him, but in his lifetime (November 29, 1933 – July 22, 2024) he saw a lot of musicians pass through his bands.\u00a0 Listening to many of his disciples name check Mayall certainly made me aware of who he was, so I guess this makes me more of a second generation fan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mayall was already twenty when I was born in 1953.\u00a0 By then, school boy John had lived through World War II and was sent to Korea that year as part of his national service in the British Army.\u00a0 He avoided active combat as the Korean War had ended just before he arrived.\u00a0 His father Murray was a guitarist and upon John\u2019s return from Korea, the elder Mayall gave him an autographed copy of Big Bill Broonzy\u2019s autobiography.\u00a0 John\u2019s first serious foray into music came via The Powerhouse Four, a band he formed in 1958 while attending the Manchester College of Art.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The year 1962 found Mayall playing in the band called the Blues Syndicate.\u00a0 A supporting gig with Alexis Korner\u2019s Blues Incorporated at the Bodega Club in Manchester made a big impact on John\u2019s musical path.\u00a0 At the time, Blues Inc included bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker.\u00a0 Korner became Mayall\u2019s musical mentor, encouraged him to move to London, and introduced him to the club circuit there.\u00a0 Korner provided valuable contacts in the London scene that would help John immensely as he worked to establish himself as another cornerstone of the British blues scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mayall forged a slightly different path right from the get-go.\u00a0 He was more than just a multi-instrumentalist performer – he was also the band leader and the boss.\u00a0 Unlike most upcoming bands, he did not employ a manager.\u00a0 He told <\/span>Classic Rock Magazine\u2019s <\/span><\/i>David Sinclair, \u201cI\u2019ve kept away from managers.\u00a0 If you can get yourself together with the business end of gigs and your career, why part with a percentage of your earnings which you could make better use of?\u00a0 I\u2019m the manager.\u201d\u00a0 Mayall did employ a booking agent named Rik Gunnell to set up his first American tour in 1968 and Gunnell was amazed.\u00a0 His client returned to London with $2,000 (about $15,000 in today\u2019s money) stuffed into his boots.\u00a0 Mayall explained further:\u00a0 \u201cAt this point in the history of touring bands, I was unique in that I would actually come home with a profit.\u00a0 This was literally unheard of given our modest tour income and the high cost of living in America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How did John Mayall become such a blues nut?\u00a0 It started with the Bill Broonzy book his father gave him.\u00a0 He told Sinclair, \u201cWhen I started playing professionally, in 1963, I was already thirty years old, so I\u2019d had a lifetime of listening to American blues music from the age of ten onwards.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t just Chicago blues, it was all blues, all American blues, that I was exposed to.\u00a0 So it all became part of my musical education.\u201d\u00a0 Once he hooked up with Korner as his mentor, he took a lot of cues form Alexis on how to conduct himself as a bandleader.\u00a0 As a bandleader, he stuck to his musical concept while performing and recording a steady diet of what he loved.\u00a0 In the process, he became the equivalent of an evangelical preacher of the blues idiom.\u00a0 As for the impact of his music and his choice of musicians to work with, he remained humbled about his role:\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m just a man who loves his music and knows what\u2019s out there to listen to.\u201d\u00a0 Mayall\u2019s familiarity with \u2018his music\u2019 made putting together his outstanding bands a simple process.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As I mentioned earlier, I became aware of John Mayall from playing albums by the A-list of guitarists who have passed through his band.\u00a0 The first to really raise his own profile before setting out on his own musical journey was Eric Clapton.\u00a0 Mayall first heard him playing on the B-side <\/span>Got To Hurry <\/span><\/i>which Clapton had recorded with The Yardbirds in 1965:\u00a0 \u201cWhen I heard Eric playing on <\/span>Got To Hurry, <\/span><\/i>I couldn\u2019t believe it.\u00a0 It blew me away.\u00a0 I just had to have him.\u00a0 It was like an instant soul connection.\u00a0 I called him up and offered him a job.\u201d\u00a0 The timing was right.\u00a0 Clapton felt The Yardbirds intentional swing toward more mainstream pop meant they were selling out and he was looking to escape.\u00a0 Eric and John met\u00a0 at Mayall\u2019s house and Clapton signed on (according to Mayall) for a 20 pounds per week wage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In his 2007 autobiography, Clapton remembered the starting wage as 35 pounds per week, but noted it was a set wage.\u00a0 \u201cIt was a set wage no matter how much you worked,\u201d Clapton recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA not untypical night might involve traveling up to Sheffield to do an evening gig at eight o\u2019clock, then heading off to Manchester to play the all-nighter, followed by driving back to London and being dropped off at Charing Cross station at six in the morning.\u201d\u00a0 Brutal, yes, but it had a family feel about it.\u00a0 When Clapton joined The Blues Breakers, he moved in with Mayall and thereby gained access to John\u2019s extensive record collection:\u00a0 \u201cI did all my musical research there and he was such an expert on Chicago blues.\u00a0 I learned all that I have to draw on today in terms of technique and the desire to play the music that I love to play.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Drummer Mick Fleetwood echoed Clapton\u2019s remarks upon Mayall\u2019s death.\u00a0 Fleetwood said, \u201cIt was like losing a father figure.\u201d\u00a0 Guitarist Walter Trout said, \u201cHe is and always will be my musical mentor.\u00a0 I loved him like a father and always will.\u201d\u00a0 All of that respect and love aside, many of the guitarists who performed in The Blues Breakers got their blues Visas stamped and moved along down the road.\u00a0 Clapton\u2019s tenure lasted through one album (<\/span>John Mayall and the Bluesbeakers with Eric Clapton<\/span><\/i> – 1966) that included bassist John McVie and drummer Hughie Flint.\u00a0 The album is popularly known as \u2018The Beano Album\u2019 because the band photo on the cover shows Eric reading a copy of the popular paper of the same name.\u00a0 Upon Clapton\u2019s departure, guitarist Peter Green and drummer Ansley Dubar joined up for the <\/span>A Hard Road <\/span><\/i>album (1967).\u00a0 Green also moved into a flat below Mayall\u2019s and absorbed the lessons he would bring to his next band, Fleetwood Mac.\u00a0 Green was not only a lead guitarist, but he was a singer and songwriter.\u00a0 Mayall encouraged him to write songs and suggested a good starting point:\u00a0 \u201cborrow a line from one of his favorite blues songs and bend it into a new shape that was his own,\u201d according to Sinclair.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0John Mayall was an accomplished player (keyboard and harmonica) and a capable rhythm guitar player.\u00a0 Letting his guitarists step out and shine may have pushed their bandleader to the background some, but that was how he rolled.\u00a0 No one dimensional talent was Mayall, as he painted the cover for his second studio album, <\/span>A Hard Road.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The next Blues Breakers album (<\/span>Crusade <\/span><\/i>also released in 1967) brought another shift in band membership.\u00a0 Mick Taylor (all of 18 years-of-age) took up the guitar slot while the drum throne would be occupied by Keef Hartley.\u00a0 Mayall managed to release yet a third album in 1967 (<\/span>The Blues Alone<\/span><\/i>) in which he did it all.\u00a0 He wrote and sang all of the songs and played all the instrumental parts except the drums.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Across his career, Mayall\u2019s Blues Breakers recorded an astonishing 35 studio albums, 34 live albums, 24 compilation records, four extended players (EPs), 44 singles and four video albums.\u00a0 His 38th album was released in 2022 (<\/span>The Sun Shining Down<\/span><\/i>) under his own name.\u00a0 How did he do it?\u00a0 He told Sinclair, \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to make a record.\u00a0 For me it\u2019s a very quick affair.\u00a0 You just go into the studio in the day and you do it.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 There\u2019s no problem with it.\u00a0 You want to capture the feelings of the songs without belaboring them, and that\u2019s the way it has always been for me.\u201d\u00a0 It is amazing he had time to record albums at all.\u00a0 Mayall\u2019s bands were always gigging somewhere and finding the time to record no doubt helped establish his \u2018get it done\u2019 attitude toward the process.\u00a0 The numbers don\u2019t lie – John Mayall was a busy man.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sinclair had been hired to write a biography of Mayall for his record label in 2006.\u00a0 He said Mayall set the tone right away by letting him know he did not want to rehash the past.\u00a0 \u201cGo look it up,\u201d John told him.\u00a0 Their last interview in November of 2022 was a more jovial conversation.\u00a0 Mayall told Sinclair he couldn\u2019t remember much about the 60s and that he planned to go on touring, \u201cas long as there is an audience out there.\u201d\u00a0 John had forgotten that he had already stopped and his secretary quietly reaffirmed to the author that \u2018health and memory issues had already taken him off the road.\u201d\u00a0 After a lifetime in the trenches, no one can blame Mayall from still feeling the call of the road mentally even if he isn\u2019t out there physically.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Beginning with Eric Clapton\u2019s involvement with the Beano album, Mayall\u2019s Blues Breakers featured many guitarists who would springboard from that band into their own careers, either solo or with other bands.\u00a0 In his tribute included with <\/span>CMR\u2019s <\/span><\/i>retrospective on Mayall, Mick Fleetwood noted, \u201cHe was a guiding light to so many of us young English players.\u00a0 To have been in the Blues Breakers led Peter Green, John McVie, and myself to form Fleetwood Mac back in 1967.\u201d\u00a0 One can not argue with Fleetwood but it should be noted that the Blues Breakers have also featured a good number of American guitarists including Walter Trout, Coco Montoya, and Mayall\u2019s last touring guitarist, Carolyn Wonderland.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Other artists weighed in on the legends passing in <\/span>CRM:\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>George Thorogood, \u201cHe will be missed.\u00a0 Long live his music in our hearts and minds.\u201d\u00a0 David Coverdale, \u201cAnother giant has passed.\u201d\u00a0 Mick Jagger, \u201dSo sad to hear of John Mayall\u2019s passing.\u00a0 He was a great pioneer of British blues and had a wonderful eye for talented young musicians, including Mich Taylor – who he recommended to me after Brian Jones died – ushering in a new era for the Stones.\u201d Geezer Butler, \u201cJohn\u2019s album with Eric Clapton as the Blues Breakers inspired tons of British bands.\u00a0 Safe to say without that album there probably wouldn\u2019t be a Black Sabbath and definitely not a Polka Tulk Blues Band (an earlier band that morphed into Black Sabbath).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Clapton was effusive in his praise of Mayall saying, \u201cJohn was my mentor, and, as a surrogate father, he taught me all I really know.\u00a0 He gave me the courage and enthusiasm to express myself without fear, without limit.\u00a0 And all I gave him in return was how much fun it was to drink and womanize when he was already a family man.\u00a0 I wished to make amends for that, and I did that while he was alive.\u00a0 I shall miss him, but I hope to see him on the other side.\u201d\u00a0 Walter Trout recalled seeing his mentor on Mayall\u2019s 90th birthday in November of 2023:\u00a0 \u201cI had no idea it would be one of the last times I\u2019d see him.\u00a0 As usual, he was funny, generous, and kind.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0During his first tours of America, Mayall fell in love with the country, in particular the West Coast and Los Angeles.\u00a0 In May of 1968, he disbanded the Blues Breakers and returned to California.\u00a0 During what would become an experimental stage of his career, he hung out with Frank Zappa and various members of Canned Heat.\u00a0 The results are well documented in the 1968 album <\/span>Blues From Laurel Canyon<\/span><\/i> (where he made his home in 1969).\u00a0 Mayall\u2019s next group was a mostly acoustic quartet with whom he released two albums; <\/span>The Turning Point <\/span><\/i>(1969) and <\/span>Empty Rooms <\/span><\/i>(1970).\u00a0 He then regrouped with an all-American lineup featuring guitarist Harvey Mandel and bass player Larry Taylor (both from Canned Heat).\u00a0 Still a drummerless operation, they put out his second 1970 album, <\/span>USA Union.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 He frequently changed band members (nothing new to Mayall\u2019s way of doing business) and musical directions with albums like <\/span>Jazz Blues Fusion <\/span><\/i>(1972), <\/span>Notice to Appear <\/span><\/i>(in collaboration with Allen Toussaint in 1976).\u00a0 Unfortunately, his life hit a snag in 1979 when a brush fire cost him his home and his treasure trove of master recordings and personal effects.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A temporary renewal of the Blues Breakers with a line-up featuring Mick Taylor and John McVie in 1982 revived Mayall\u2019s interest to restart the band\/brand in 1984.\u00a0 With guitarists Walter Trout and Coco Montoya on board with drummer Joe Yuele, he found he was still held in high esteem by fans and musicians alike.\u00a0 Other than guitarist Buddy Whittington taking over in 1993, this version of the Blues Breakers remained constant until 2007.\u00a0 Considering the five year \u2018glory years\u2019 period that saw Clapton, Green, and Taylor enter the revolving door of guitarists in the 1960s, this was an unprecedented period of stability for John Mayall.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Highlights of this period were many.\u00a0 In 2003, Mayall celebrated his 70th birthday with a UNICEF benefit concert at the 4,500 seat King\u2019s Dock in Liverpool.\u00a0 It marked his first appearance with Eric Clapton in the 38 years since the Beano album was released.\u00a0 In the liner notes for both the DVD and double CD of this event, John wrote, \u201cFor so many years I have dreamed of something like this event being possible.\u201d\u00a0 The BBC capped the year with an hour long documentary entitled <\/span>The Godfather of British Blues.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The 2005 Queen\u2019s Birthday Honors award Mayal with an OBE Medal (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) at Buckingham Palace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Blues Breakers were finally taken out of service in 2007. \u00a0 Mayall said he felt it was time to retire the \u2018brand\u2019 to give himself more opportunities to work with other artists.\u00a0 It did not seem to matter to the faithful – long before he retired the Breakers for the last time, the lines between\u00a0 blues, British blues, John Mayall, and Blues Breakers had blurred to the point of being irrelevant.\u00a0 John Mayall was all of these things and more so labeling his music became unnecessary.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even as Mayall\u2019s life wound down, Sinclair felt, \u201cIn his mind\u2019s eye, he was indeed still out there somewhere on the blues highway readying himself for the next gig: \u2018And it\u2019s a hard road until I die\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 R.I.P. John Mayall.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 John Mayall and Coco Montoya make an appearance on David Letterman’s show in 1990.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The music world lost an icon when the Godfather of British blues, John Mayall, recently passed away at the age of 90.\u00a0 I can\u2019t say that I knew that much about him, but in his lifetime (November 29, 1933 – July 22, 2024) he saw a lot of musicians pass through his bands.\u00a0 Listening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3303"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3306,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions\/3306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}