Bluesbreaker 'Beano'Album - How influential is it and what can you learn from it ?

guitars4you

Have been asked a few times over the years, by various customers, and again only this week, about what single album should they listen to - Often by a far less experienced player, who are rock/blues influenced, but they need and wish to develop their playing

So which album should they listen to - Be influenced by - Play along with - And milk out as much as they can from it - I suggest the Bluesbreaker Album - I could add to that ,any Fleetwood Mac album with Pete Green - But as a basis to build from and to give you a solid foundation then I see Bluesbreaker Album as a great place to start with - Spend 3-6 mths with it and play along with every track, then I'm sure they will be a better player with a better understanding at the end of this period

impmann

Thats an interesting question.

Playing devils advocate just a little - surely though, that's only relevant if you want to replicate the past/go over well trodden ground?

guitars4you

impmann said:

Thats an interesting question.

Playing devils advocate just a little - surely though, that's only relevant if you want to replicate the past/go over well trodden ground?

It is a relevant question and I agree with the devils advocate - but let's say you start of with Satriani or Vai album, then most players or many players will never get close to a technique level that is required - I'm not a Hank Marvin fan, yet equally I don't dislike him, plus I appreciate what he has done for the guitar market, but I think part of the appeal is that players feel they can at least start to tackle Apache and move from on from there - Some one said don't copy SRV, start of with Albert King, then move on to SRV - I think the point is that it is the basis to build on - I could suggest G Moore and still got the Blues, but surely that is more advanced technique - I suppose ultimately we should develop our own sound, but the building blocks from Beano I feel are a good start

digitalkettle

guitars4you said:

...I suppose ultimately we should develop our own sound, but the building blocks from Beano I feel are a good strat

Worst typo ever!

guitars4you

digitalkettle said:

guitars4you said:

...I suppose ultimately we should develop our own sound, but the building blocks from Beano I feel are a good strat

Worst typo ever!

ooops - sorry and corrected - me and selling Strats etc and auto pilot I bet

Ravenous

As you said it's for a rock/blues oriented player, I'd probably agree. ("A hard road" maybe but I'm just attempting to sound like I know more than one blues album.)

I'd never recommend a Blues album for everyone else though. I mean Bluesbreakers is a brilliant album but a lot has happened to guitar playing since.

For more general rock stuff, I might suggest someone with a wider variety of sounds, tempos and chord progressions on their albums. A pop/rock thing, like Iron Maiden or G&R (not that I like G&R personally!) or any decent selling rock band like that.

fftc

guitars4you said:

I suppose ultimately we should develop our own sound, but the building blocks from Beano I feel are a good strat

Freudian slip? lol

impmann said:

Thats an interesting question.

Playing devils advocate just a little - surely though, that's only relevant if you want to replicate the past/go over well trodden ground?

Unless you really want to be a maverick I would suggest it's best to know what has gone before. If you were to build a winning Formula 1 car you would be a fool to not take on board all the technological advances already in existence.

This question has been posed at a timely moment for me as I am finally delving into that period of music. I only just bought the Beano album a month ago. Only really discovered who Peter Green was last week! Fleetwood Mac were always just 'Rumours' to me, and I never really liked it.
So from my fresh eyes I will say yes, Beano is essential listening, but not the only listening. You would miss out on too much by just naming a single album. Give them a list! Other Bluesbreakers albums are worth a listen too, especially the Peter Green one and Mick Taylors few. In terms of Brit blues I think Chickenshack are worthy of a mention though I rarely see it done. But most of all listen to the guys that were turning on the Brits. The three Kings especially. The Beano album is a distillation, and a very good one but you can't miss out on the inspiration.

Funkfingers

The "Beano" album is one of the earliest recorded instances of somebody playing a Gibson Les Paul through a cranked Marshall amplifier AND of a British blues guitarist producing a credible sound to rival American players.

stratman3142

Retrospectively, I think the Beano album might be a good album to build from. Having said that, I didn't listen to it during my early stages of playing.

In the early days I started with Free Live, Tres Hombres (ZZ Top) and Flowers Of Evil (Mountain). I didn't realise until much later how much Kossoff, Gibbons and West must have been influenced by Clapton. That early Clapton playing appears to have either directly or indirectly (through other players) influenced many players, the obvious ones being Eric Johnson and EVH.

In going back to the roots of rock blues playing, I think it's worth throwing in a bit of listening to Hendrix too, which was a (sort of) parallel path in influencing future players.

ESBlonde

Clapton was fast and had a great live reputaion for a youngun when guitar bands were all the rage, the beano album had that amplifier distortion which was not recorded like that before and that set it apart. Growing up today he would be an also ran, timing is everything.
Peter Green on the other hand has a touch that is timeless so yes to that.
For various reasons (timing again) Van Halens first offering presented an underground existing style to the masses. In another way Oasis kickstarted a new generation with reworked themes, but it inspired lots of players.
For me 'Can't buy a thrill' by Steely Dan with that reelin in the years solo by Skunk Baxter.
A song for you by the Carpenters, That Goodbye to love solo by Tony Peluso.
Frampton Comes alive - Peter Frampton. A proper guitar player plying his trade.

I reckon we each have different triggers depending on our era and taste for music.

fandango

Ravenous said:

As you said it's for a rock/blues oriented player, I'd probably agree. ("A hard road" maybe but I'm just attempting to sound like I know more than one blues album.)

I'd never recommend a Blues album for everyone else though. I mean Bluesbreakers is a brilliant album but a lot has happened to guitar playing since.

For more general rock stuff, I might suggest someone with a wider variety of sounds, tempos and chord progressions on their albums. A pop/rock thing, like Iron Maiden or G&R (not that I like G&R personally!) or any decent selling rock band like that.

Got John Mayall's "Hard Road" on play this past couple of weeks. Love it. And maybe the lesson is in the rhythm rather than the technique. And that's despite Peter Green playing some wonderful stuff on the album. The Supernatural should be up there alongside Apache as an instrumental. Not as catchy as the Shadows number, but still good to learn. Now I've said that, I'm going to have to get my fingers working at it .. .but at the rate I learn new songs, I'll see you in a few months ...

impmann

impmann said:

Thats an interesting question.

Playing devils advocate just a little - surely though, that's only relevant if you want to replicate the past/go over well trodden ground?

Unless you really want to be a maverick I would suggest it's best to know what has gone before. If you were to build a winning Formula 1 car you would be a fool to not take on board all the technological advances already in existence.

Yes but the point is if you were approaching music from a non-blues rock perspective, then its not an influential album.

I've just got half way through it before switching off - I'm sorry but Mayall's out of tune, out of his range wailings grate on me massively. The use of the cranked Marshall is ground breaking (well, sort of) and some of Clapton's vibrato/playing is nice, but its not a great example of 'control'. By that I mean most of it was bridge pickup, similar tone, similar attack (flat out) and lots of wigging out - as a piece to learn from, I'd say its not great as its teaching all the cliches in one go. Plus its not a dynamic album - arguably the Peter Green Fleetwood Mac stuff is *much* better at that, plus Peter's playing was always more melodic and contained less 'widdle'.

However, it has to be said that if you were going to try to take on board what had gone before, I'd start with Freddie King - Clapton did. Eric just turned up the volume a little. Peter turned the volume down a touch, added reverb and chilled out.

scrumhalf

I loved the Beano album, must have worn out a copy playing along to it.

But the biggest thing I learned from it? That Freddie King was brilliant.

Other great play-along albums:
Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac.
Led Zeppelin I - IV

rossi

You had to be there .

EricTheWeary

The Beano album isn't consistently a great listen, I don't think many of the Mayall or early Fleetwood Mac ones are either. I'm not knocking the good bits but there was some real filler on them too. 

I think one of the things about Clapton was that he did the guitar god thing whilst playing in standard tuning ( later on he did some open tuning slide but not much), straightforward tones ( for the most part ie guitar+boost+amp), pretty standard technique ( not even a tremolo arm to worry about) and fingerboard patterns. If you can play the guitar to a reasonable standard then playing like him seems quite obtainable. I'm not saying everyone who can play the guitar can easily emulate his touch or phrasing but it seems a lot more doable than Alan Holdsworth or even Albert King ( odd tunings, etc),etc,etc, even if you never get there.
The Beano album is also so well dissected that if you were looking for tab or lessons it would be an easy place to start.

But Clapton, Green and Stan Webb lifted wholesale off Freddie King. His Let's Hideaway and Danceaway album is pretty much the resource material. It does, however, probably not sound how anyone who is into blues rock might think it sounds. But , if it's how to carry a tune, use dynamics, not get stuck with 12 bar patterns then it's great source material.

If someone is into blues or blues rock and hasn't listened to Albert King then shame on them but he'd be a very difficult artist to learn from. BB was standard tuning,etc, and a clear influence on Green but because he was finding holes in big band arrangements those licks don't necessarily work in other band line ups.

For a single album I'm tempted to say Clapton's From The Cradle. It's an overview of the genre, he was on top form and it's probably a more complete listen just not as widely influential.
My friend knows Ian Parker ( singer songwriter and excellent blues based guitarist ) and he told me Ian learned guitar almost from scratch with a copy of Cradle and the tab book. If any guitars4you customers become anywhere near as good as Ian that'd be a job well done. 

richardhomer

I'm a massive EC - but I'm not wild about the album. At the time, the tone and attack in many of his solos was probably ground-breaking - but to more jaded ears, I think his playing on it is fairly sloppy and lacking in variation. 

Probably heresy to many - but I think he did much better things later in his career.

mburekenge

Love the album - wish there was a mix without the vocals though tbh!

I'm working through a lot of this era Clapton stuff at the moment and transcribing it myself rather than using videos and tab etc and finding it hugely rewarding. 

Personally I think that all the way from John Mayall, through Cream, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos (especially the live album) he is great.

It was a gateway drug for me. As soon as I realised how much was directly lifted from Freddie/Albert King etc, it really turned me onto those guys records.

I also love 'From the Cradle' but it's a bit challenging for a beginner, no?

richardhomer

mburekenge said:

I also love 'From the Cradle' but it's a bit challenging for a beginner, no?

For my money, he was absolutely at the top of his game on that album. Things like 'Someday After a While' and 'I'm Tore Down' are superb.

Bucket

ESBlonde said:

For me 'Can't buy a thrill' by Steely Dan with that reelin in the years solo by Skunk Baxter.

I have to correct you there - Elliott Randall.

Skunk is on it, but playing rhythm.

Strat54

....or just listen to some Freddie King and skip Claptout

fftc

mburekenge said:

Personally I think that all the way from John Mayall, through Cream, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos (especially the live album) he is great.

Just bought Disraeli Gears recently to see what the fuss was about.

Thought it was shit.