ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

‘A Hard Road’: How John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers Blazed Their Own Path

‘A Hard Road’ is one of the cornerstones of the 60s British blues boom, and made the UK Top 10 for John Mayall in March 1967.

Published on

John Mayall A Hard Road album cover web optimised 820
Cover: Courtesy of Decca Records

The second in the trilogy of albums that took John Mayall from scuffling around the clubs to blues-rock legend – if not quite for the reasons he would have wanted, perhaps – A Hard Road is a great record. It ranks among the finest of the British blues boom LPs, and not only because of the presence of Peter Green on guitar.

Listen to John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers’ A Hard Road right now.

By late 1966, Mayall was regarded as the most authentic British bluesman of his time. That was largely due to the pure blueswailin’ sound of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton, the LP that preceded this one. If he was bothered about replacing the fretwork of the departed Eric Clapton, and if Green was fretting about filling Clapton’s Hush Puppies, you won’t hear it on the utterly confident A Hard Road, recorded over several sessions in late 1966.

The album made the UK charts on March 3, 1967, and, later in the month, went top ten, an unusual feat for a pure blues record. Pure blues? Well, Mayall may not have sounded like Muddy Waters or Magic Sam, but never pretended to. He was presenting the music his way; it was more honest than playing the “my skin is white but my soul is black” game, and sincerity defines the blues. Mayall was a white man from Macclesfield, Cheshire, not an African-American from somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line.

The Super-Natural

Click to load video

Green delivered the guitar goods, evidenced by the spine-icing “The Supernatural,” an instrumental that revealed his facility for endless sustain – the antithesis of some modern axemen’s 1,000 notes-per-minute typewriter playing. The bandleader sits back and lets him work his magic, offering sympathetic organ that perfectly underpins Green’s tear-stained sound.

Aynsley Dunbar’s drumming on the record is also noteworthy, using mallets on tom-toms, an art now abandoned by blues drummers. “The Supernatural” had a baby Green called “Black Magic Woman,” which he would deliver in his next band, Fleetwood Mac, formed with John McVie, the bassist on A Hard Road.

The roots of Mac also surface in the cover of Freddie King’s “Someday After A While (You’ll Be Sorry),” a prototype for their version of “I Need Your Love So Bad,” but even more authentically R&B thanks to the horn section of Alan Skidmore and Ray Warleigh, whose warm, fulsome flush lights up three tracks here. They also cover Elmore James’s “Dust My Broom” which would form the template for almost an entire Fleet Mac album (Mr. Wonderful) A further shot of rhythm and blues lurks in the punchy cut of Willie Cobbs’ “You Don’t Love Me,” covered by acts as diverse as Sonny & Cher and Grateful Dead, and also known as Dawn Penn’s “No No No.”

At the end of the original LP, “Living Alone” offered a mix of 60s beat in the clanging guitar chords, slashing slide work, and a rhythm that verged on funk, which some US bluesmen of the era were using to compete with soul music. A thirst for harder rockers was slaked by “The Stumble” and especially “Leaping Christine,” a case-hardened boogie. Cohesive, uncompromising, and sympathetically produced by Mike Vernon, A Hard Road is a shortcut to a good time.

John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers’ A Hard Road can be bought here.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. johnny mochan

    March 4, 2017 at 4:53 pm

    Caught thease cats at San Bernardino Swing killer show .Tha Hells Angles were there kicking ass no worries I handed one of the biggest member three hash joints he escorted my girlfriend and I to the gate and told the SB sheriff’s there with us .The year was like 1967 had ben playing drums for four years Mr Dunbar was my guy .Classically trained percussionist in Detroit at nine years old .

  2. Andrew Clare

    March 4, 2018 at 10:29 am

    The first album I purchased. Before that I had listened to my sister’s Beatles records and Fresh Cream given to me by my cousin. It had a big influence on me. Still have it now on CD.

  3. siafu Antony Lipski

    March 7, 2018 at 7:22 am

    Don’t need to listen to a Hard Road ever again, as every single note is etched, nay BURNED into my memory from those teenage years when I learned Greeny’s solos painstakingly note for note, and played each number, especially the stumble & the supernatural endlessly . .

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Billy Idol - Rebel Yell LP
Rebel Yell (40th Expanded Edition) (Marbled Limited Edition) 2LP
ORDER NOW
Def Leppard - Pyromania 2LP
Def Leppard
Pyromania 2LP
ORDER NOW
The Who - Live At Shea Stadium 1982 3LP
The Who
Live At Shea Stadium 1982 3LP
ORDER NOW
Keane - Hopes And Fears 20th Limited Edition 2LP
Keane
Hopes And Fears 20th Limited Edition 2LP
ORDER NOW
Abba - Waterloo 50th Anniversary
Abba - Waterloo 50th Anniversary (Limited Edition 3 x 7" Box Set)
ORDER NOW
Bob Marley - Songs Of Freedom Limited Edition 6LP Box Set
Bob Marley - Songs Of Freedom Limited Edition 6LP Box Set
ORDER NOW
uDiscover Music - Back To Top
uDiscover Music - Back To Top