My time after a while (John Mayall) (LP 1037 - 1040)

John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers  Crusade (CD, London Records, 1967) ****  

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers  Diary Of A Band Vol 1 (CD, Decca Records, 1967) **

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers  Diary Of A Band Vol 2 (CD, Decca Records, 1967) **

John Mayall  The Blues Alone (Vinyl, Decca Records, 1967) ***  

Genre: Blues rock

Places I remember: Amoeba Music (Los Angeles); Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Man Of Stone (Crusade)

Gear costume: Sonny Boy Blow (The Blues Alone)

Active compensatory factors: He was pretty busy in 1967. These three albums plus A Hard Road come from that year - hence my grouping them together.

Crusade is the third Bluesbreakers album in two years. Given that it's Mick Taylor's debut and he was only 18 at the time I guess it's natural there wasn't much fanfare at his arrival, given that both Clapton and Green had jumped ship after an album each.

It's a third brilliant album in a row for Mayall and band (Taylor and Mayall are joined by John McVie and drummer Keef Hartley plus horns). All three Bluesbreakers' albums have different approaches and remain fresh and essential listening for blues rock fans in 2023.

The Diary Of A Band Volumes one and two (they were released separately at the time but my CD copy compiles both sets) are pretty rough live documents from 1967 (featuring basically the Crusade version of the band), as opposed to the studio recordings of Crusade and The Blues Alone, so approach these with some caution.

The Blues Alone is the result of one day's work (1st of May 1967) with Mayall doing everything except playing drums on some tracks - that's Keef Hartley's area of expertise. He even wrote all of the songs and designed (as usual) the cover art. Given all that it's another remarkably confident set by Mayall, with some inspired harmonica from him featuring in particular.

Phew - 1967! Quite a momentous year!

Where do they all belong? The sixties versions of John Mayall will continue to gather steam.