Artist: Mayall, John
Label: Decca Records
Release: 1967
Length: 37:13
Rating: 4/5
A Hard Road is John Mayall’s third album, on which the godfather of British blues boldly builds on the legacy of its far more famous predecessor, Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton. The unexpected success of the Clapton adventure gave John a fresh burst of energy and convinced him that the wider British public had a real taste for blues as a genre. Armed with Peter Green’s talent and the rock-solid rhythm section of old acquaintances John McVie, Aynsley Dunbar and Mick Fleetwood (and let’s not overlook the excellent horn section, powered by the cheerful Alan Skidmore and Ray Warleigh), Mayall this time charges in with a bigger stash of original material in his pocket, which, much like the trio of well-executed covers, brings him closer to his big goal: studying and ultimately mastering the language of traditional blues. The album is raw, yet so effectively polished in production that the average ear could easily mistake it for a collection of nothing but covered blues standards, since its 14 superbly arranged tunes consistently hold a high bar that the vast majority of blues purists across the pond would envy.
That the Bluesbreakers are no joke is clear from the budding opening gem A Hard Road, which comes across as raw material without rivals on the British music scene of the day. Green does a phenomenal job here with his fitful presence. It’s Over carries on at a slightly livelier tempo, and thanks to the sharp, winding harmonica lines it briefly brings us close to Sonny Boy Williamson’s approach. Plenty of character here, export-grade stuff. Another Kinda Love delights with fearsome horn work, while the nonchalance of Hit The Highway and Top Of The Hill isn’t thrown off by oddities like the organ interlude of simple working-man character There’s Only Work, which is actually a typical Mayall creation, written strictly for a harmonica horn band.
With covers of demanding blues standards, Mayall shows himself to be an exceptionally mature interpreter, especially considering the guy was only 33 when the album was made, and it’s no small thing either that the flavors of authentic blues had splashed across the pond onto the Isles barely 5 years before its release, at best. While the Rolling Stones and Yardbirds, dabbling in blues and mixing its essential elements with more obedient, pop-oriented approaches, still bowed cautiously to public taste, John stubbornly hunts for the shape of his own voice in the rawness of traditional blues. On top of that, Uncle John, unlike his colleagues, sounds completely unforced. With his cover of James’s Dust My Blues (originally Dust My Broom) he successfully improvises in a language of passion and bold emotion, melting in endless slide variations into Peter Green’s hot-blooded playing. Mayall’s other favorite is Freddie King, with whom he keeps on relentlessly draining his rich knowledge of blues culture. Mayall pays tribute to the legend with inspired takes on two of the great guitarist’s classics, Someday After a While (You’ll Be Sorry) and an instrumental dive through The Stumble, which remains Peter Green’s domain.
Peter Green writes himself into the ranks of the immortals with a single stroke. The Supernatural is an instrumental fantasy that makes the up-and-coming guitarist famous as both composer and performer. The track carries a barely bearable emotional charge, and Green’s strong, deep tone, in which the threat of a sob is constantly felt, fills it with the character of the devil himself. Compared with his buddy Clapton, Peter Green is less radical in his take on the blues when it comes to respecting tradition. You can feel a spirit of poetry, unlike Clapton’s strictly traditional rhetoric, with which Mayall’s little crew often travels beyond its usual musical frames of expression. Following Clapton’s example, Green also tries his hand as a vocalist, first on The Same Way, but he’s far more convincing on Willie Cobbs’s You Don’t Love Me.
There’s no doubt that in Peter Green John Mayall found the ideal “sparring” partner to carry on the saga, which with A Hard Road was already outlining more concretely the contours of an anomaly in the Isles’ 60s scene. What’s more! The revolution with Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton, followed by A Hard Road and Crusade, painted the “godfather’s” success story, despite the lack of commercial success, in its own way as a reflection of the ultimate reach of the British R & B and blues boom.
Lineup
John Mayall: vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards
Peter Green: guitar, vocals
John McVie: bass
Mick Fleetwood: drums
Aynsley Dunbar: drums
Paul Butterfield: harmonica
Production
Mike Vernon
Tracklist
1.A Hard Road
2.It’s Over
3.You Don’t Love Me
4.The Stumble
5.Another Kinda Love
6.Hit The Highway
7.Leaping Christine
8.Dust My Blues
9.There’s Always Work
10.The Same Way
11.The Supernatural
12.Top Of The Hill
13.Someday After A While (You’ll Be Sorry)
14.Living Alone
