Next, I had the difficult decision to decide what album I should review, a quick search around lastfm.com, I discovered “A Hard Road”, which was their third album, released in 1967. I haven’t listened to any of them properly yet, but thought, I need to pick and album and stick to it.

Sounds interesting, I think I have heard of that guy before, but then some of the other band members struck me, namely, Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie – three of the founding members of Fleetwood Mac, and then Eric Clapton.

So who is this John Mayall guy?

Released in 1969, at this point, Clapton had left, and the band was now John Mayall (guitar / vocals / piano), Peter Green (lead guitar), John McVie (bass) and Aysnsley Dunbar (drums).

Starting off we blend into something typically blues, it is exactly what I expected from the genre (tune wise). There is a strong drum beat, and guitars and piano mixed in the background, and the vocals have that long sound to them. On my first few listenings, this song doesn’t present anything special, it sounds like a rather typical, average blues song.

This one comes in with a bit of some jazz instrument (horns or something), and has a slightly faster beat to it. Still possessing the components of blues, but this time, no piano, we have some harmonica instead. It’s got a toe tapping rhythm going on, and the harmonica tune is rather catchy. I’m sure that this would be a perfect track to be driving on a summer’s day to; it just has that light, airy feeling to it.

Now this starts nicely, a sweet guitar riff, with a faint hiss of the drums to the right, the piano coming in on the left. The song is originally a Freddie King track, which I suppose would explain the difference in style to some of the other songs, and it is an instrumental too. It is actually an awesome track, the guitaring is neat, and styled. Smooth notes, great sound, and coming in just under 3 minutes, which is rather unfortunate – I could easily listen to hours of stuff like that.

Jumping straight in with the vocals, and a gentle, quieter backing music this time, with a more dominant bass line that the previous songs. So far, there haven’t been two tracks that have sounded the same – always a positive thing. This feels like a much more commercial song, with the strongly sung lyrics of “oh little baby” and so on, it even has just what I was after – a nice guitar solo. More articulate than in ‘The Stumble’, I’m guessing this would be Green working on his own.

Opening with a plonky piano, it sounded a little like a seaside attraction before the rest of the music and lyrics came in. Here we have some dual vocals, one coming from each speaker, again, this features a nice little guitar breakdown, but in a much more bluesy style. The piano really grabs attention, and goes so perfectly with the guitar work, which I didn’t expect to sound quite so melodic.

Another cover, this time of Elmore James, who was affectionately known as the “King of Slide Guitar”, according to wiki, this song is “the blues standard”. It buzzes in with some strumming, and then some beautiful slide guitar. The vocals sound a bit distant, with more onus being on the music, which works fine with me. There is a great little repeat of the opening chords, and then a sweet solo piece which sounds great. The song has a much more distinct blues sound to it, and sounds remarkably 1950’s, if I close my eyes I can just see some little café thingy like there is in grease…

Sounding quite like it’s just a random jam session accidentally left on the tape, with some harmonica work and then some random sounds of someone going “ahhhhh ah ahhhh” in the background, all reverbed and whatnot. At first I was wandering where it was going, but towards the middle fo this 93 second song, there is some more random sounds, which reminds me of Pink Floyd’s “Several Species of Small Fury Animals gathered together in a Cave grooving with a Pick”, which has some strange noises too. In whole, it’s a much more experimental sounding song, and I would have let it run on to proper song length, had they chucked in a little bit more guitar work then it would have been a sterling track.

It begins with yet another catchy little assortment of guitar chords, and then a very 50’s feeling stumming for a while, before returning to the opening chords. The song flows nicely, with the refrain melting softly over the music, Green then brings in a bit of excellent guitar work, creating another short but sweet riff, that would have sounded better a little longer. It ends rather abruptly, so much so I thought I had been struck suddenly deaf for some random reason.

Now if there

Pictures

Young John Mayall

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Possessing a very blues feel once again, it holds a strong piano piece as the main backing, and benefits from a nice little guitar solo in the middle too. The overall sound is perhaps a little too old feeling. Really, really, incontrovertibly 50’s sounding, and incredibly boring with it. This is the first track I am actually disappointed with, it just seems so, common.

Another great opening here, with some nice guitar notes flowing in, and a gentle piano piece in the back, as the vocals start, some jazzy brass instrument flows in the back too. The song is held with a good steady drumbeat, and the guitar is permitted another nice solo, possibly one of the better ones than in other tracks. Musically, it works really well, blending a wall of sound mixed perfectly, which is the sort of thing I really like in my Pink Floyd and Brand New.

Overall, I would definitely say it is a good album, now I can’t compare it to any of there other work, since I haven’t heard any, but that is something I intend to change – yup I am a convert, and will be seeking out some more of this and even buying this album so I can stick it onto my iPod. It has also made me want to give a listen to some of the earlier Fleetwood Mac, to see more of Green’s work.

One criticism I do have however, is that sometimes things felt too short. Songs ended abruptly, and on at least one occasion that made the song feel disjointed, had they perhaps given more time to ‘There’s always work’ they could have created a far more interesting experimental track, and it was made the same year that Pink Floyd were working on ‘Ummagumma’, the studio part of the album was arguably their weirdest stint of music.

You can get this album for just £7.99 from hmv.co.uk, or listen to it free at lastfm.com. I am definitely going to try and get this on CD, (and now I think about it, would sound ace on vinyl too…) and it has introduced me to a new genre of music which I had previously left untouched, so sincere thanks to plod951 for that!