An Anthology of British Blues, Volume 2 (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: An Anthology of British Blues, Volume 2

Artist name: Various, including John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Savoy Brown Blues Band, T.S. McPhee, Jeremy Spencer, Dharma Blues Band

Year: 1968

Number of discs: one

Label: Immediate Records

Collection: Friedman

Buy it on Amazon: $15.00

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

This is the second volume of An Anthology of British Blues, which I reviewed a few weeks ago. I gave it 5/5.

What I expected

Electric blues.

What it was actually like

I liked this, but not as much as I liked the first volume.

One highlight was the three Eric Clapton / Jimmy Page instrumental songs: Draggin’ My Tail, Freight Loader and Choker. The second of those was just each of them with a guitar, and it felt like a great privilege to hear those two guitar legends playing against each other like that; the third was with drums and had more of a rock sound.

Mayall’s On Top of the World also had a rock sound, but upbeat and danceable, and was almost pop enough to have been the Monkees or something similar (Roll ‘Em Pete was the most fun and upbeat song on the record).

On the subject of the Monkees, McPhee’s Someone to Love Me was a fast tempo blues song with a great bass line like you can hear in early Kinks records. I liked that it had just a taste of a little harmonica that went a very long way – though I also liked how much the Dharma Blues Band used harmonica in Dealing with the Devil (a lot).

My favorite song was Savoy Brown’s version of the Otis Rush song I Can’t Quit You Baby, since I know it and love it mainly as a Led Zeppelin song, but lots of groups have covered it too, including the Rolling Stones.

Grade

5/5: love it