John Mayall — The Latest Edition
This 1974 release from John Mayall (without the band name) was my first foray into Mayall, after years of simply ignoring the band. While considered legendary, given their lack of hits I had truly never heard anything they’d recorded, and never had the curiosity to throw a few dollars at finding out. But I found this in the cheap section of a local vinyl store, and thought I really had no reason not to like it. Once I’d finally heard John Mayall, I was down for finally exploring some more. Solid British blues.
Larry “The Mole” Taylor on bass! He was with Canned Heat, also played the bass on many/most of the great Monkees hits, then with Tom Waits on many of his best albums too. A fantastic discography . . .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Taylor
I’m also, like you, highly Clapton averse (With The Cream Exception Rule in play), but I loved Fleetwood Mac, and I love Mick Taylor-era Rolling Stones, so I have one disc each from Mayall’s crew featuring Peter Green and Taylor. Great records. I also got to review Mayall at the Egg for Ye Olde Metroland, which was fun . . .
https://jericsmith.com/1996/03/23/concert-review-john-mayall-and-the-bluesbreakers-the-egg-albany-new-york-march-21-1996/
Didn’t even check the personnel (the personnel map for Bluesbreakers on Wikipedia is complex 😉 ). But I’ll definitely check out Larry Taylor, wasn’t aware of his cross between Canned Heat and Tom Waits, that’s some range. Love that there’s a Cream exception rule, and I know we’re not the only ones.
That came at a time when I probably would have given a Mayall show a chance just because I was so into the blues in those years, but that was a particularly heavy year and given the date I know we weren’t getting out and about much, between the Legislative session and an impending second child.
I’ve recently gotten clean copies of those early Fleetwood Mac albums – had them digitally for a long time but really happy to have them on vinyl since that’s how I’m doing nearly all my listening these days.
OH DAMN He was Mel Taylor’s little brother! Way to bury the lede 😉
Heh! Gotta leave you SOMETHING fun to discover, though, yeah???