DaFiz wrote:
Eric did the right thing by leaving this band and joining the Bluesbreakers ?
The thing that shocked me when I started exploring his work with the Yardbirds was:
he wasn't that good. ???
John Mayall didn't help him purely by taking him away from pop music (bear in mind the Yardbirds had a lot of heavier tunes than this one). He also helped by exposing Clapton to blues guitar masters and gave him a solid education. As a result he blossomed like a lotus flower. The most obvious difference in his playing?
Vibrato.
You listen to those early Yardbirds records and he practically has no vibrato at all. On the Beano record he has one of the most amazing liquid vibrato techniques in blues guitar. I'm sure that had to be Mayall's influence, since he made a big deal not long after of mentioning how critical vibrato technique is to playing blues and how it takes a long time to get right. I'm sure Mayall must have pointed this out to him.
Mayall wasn't a great musician. At least he wasn't a great instrumentalist, vocalist, or song-writer. But he was a great mentor of blues musicians: Clapton, Green, Taylor, Mick Fleetwood (love his drumming - can't get enough of it. Huge swing and lots of bassy work on the floor tom), and bass-player John MacVie (hence: Fleetwood Mac).
