Mayall--An Acquired Taste

[ch willie]

I love the Beano album, but it took me a long time to cozy up to John Mayall's vocals. In fact, the first time I heard the album, I was taken aback by his thinnish voise. I'm not a blues purist: you don't have to be black and from Mississippi to breath soul into the blues. So I listened to Beano more and more. That was long ago.

Now I really like Mayall's voice. I'm listening to the Live in 67--so excellent. For me, that voice was an acquired taste.

I know we have plenty of Beano fans, but do you guys dig Mayall? He has done good service for spreading the blues.

[phantomman]

He never did anything for me.

[Don]

I'm not a huge fan of his voice but it never put me off.

[S. Cane]

I've always liked Mayall.

As a matter of fact it's kinda hard for me to find blues I don't dig...

[ch willie]

To generalize horribly, we Americans have the "real deal" blues and why listen to imitation when you can hear the original?"

Well, the works of Muddy Waters, John Lee, Lightning Hopkins, Robert Johnson, etc--these are national treasures.

But what I find interesting about Mayall's voice is that it is a rock and roll voice, or at least, the rocked out strained way of singing is a hallmark of a lot of classic rock. His is not a rich voice like BB's nor ragged like John Lee Hooker's. He doesn't have the cultural cache to be "authentic." But you can see the way the Brits interpreted the blues, and knowing what came after, you start to understand the Beano album and its importance to the blues rock that would develop over the course of the 60s and 70s.

[lure555]

I have several of his albums, and honestly, I just listen to them for Clapton, Green, and Taylor.

[Old Ranger]

Well his guitar player, Buddy Whittington, was a regular at the shop I worked out of and would stop in from time to time. He's from Hurst, TX (born in Ft Worth) by the way. His playing was textbook perfect with some of the most emotional phrasing I ever heard. Our senior guitar instructor with a PhD in music from Berkley, said once after jamming with Buddy "I just had my ass handed to me and was taken back to blues school." So if you listen to Mayall's newer stuff with Buddy on the guitar, you got a real deal Texas Blues Man on the six string..... Oh, and Buddy replaced Coco Montoya when he left the Bluesbreakers some years ago.

[JDUB]

I like John Mayall alright. I can't help comparing him with Paul Butterfield, though. Mayall gets me tapping my feet, Butterfield has a more profound effect on my physical affectations, forcing me onto the dance floor.