The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation — Doctor Dunbar’s Prescription

One of the revelations of the great Sire collection “History of British Blues (Volume One)” was several tracks by the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. I knew the name of one of the most famous drummers of the ’60s, of course, but had been completely oblivious to his having had his own group after being fired from John Mayall’s Blues Breakers (which made way for Mick Fleetwood). Dunbar went on to play for Frank Zappa and an incredible list of talent, and was even in the near-original iteration of Journey, which landed him in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

The tracks on “British Blues” are fantastic, particularly “Stone Crazy,” which features Jack Bruce, Peter Green, and Rod Stewart – well, it’d be hard for that to go wrong. The other track, sung by Victor Brox, had an amazing feel that made me want more of this Retaliation (so named as a flip-off gesture to Mayall, reportedly).

I was pretty sure I had never seen an Aynsley Dunbar record in the world, so I did something I almost never do, and just up and bought this through Discogs. This and the next one I’ll feature, in fact, at the same time – so certain was I. And: I was not wrong. This is a smooth, slithery blues that reminds me very much of what Hypnosonics did decades later (and we’ll get to them soon).

It’s a smooth, dark blues, a little experimental, a little less boxed in than some of the ’60s British blues could be, and that’s a very good thing. Love this.

This particular issue seems to be part of a French series called “Pop Blues,” and while it’s volume 4 of that series, it was also released as a stand-alone album, in 1968.