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

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Record basics

An Anthology of British Blues, Volume 2

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

An Anthology of British Blues (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

An Anthology of British Blues

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m not familiar with this compilation, though I do know some of the artists on it, and the song Tribute to Elmore, credited to Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, is likely to be one and the same as Tribute To Elmore James on Second Album by Roy Buchanan.

What I expected

Electric blues.

What it was actually like

This was outstanding and I loved it.

The best songs were the faster ones with a lot of energy: I’m Your Witchdoctor; I Tried, which was very piano heavy; I Feel So Good, which also had a lot more piano and a very prominent harmonica; and Flapjacks, an organ-led instrumental.

I also loved Tribute to Elmore. When reviewing Roy Buchanan’s Second Album, I wrote:

My favorite, though, was Tribute To Elmore James, which may have been exactly why the electric blues was invented in the first place.

And that’s still true.

Snake Drive and West Coast Idea were both slow Eric Clapton instrumentals. The former was the most barbecue restaurant song on the record, and the latter was much more complex with harmonica and guitars playing against each other.

Cold Blooded Woman was also much slower, as was Ain’t Gonna Cry No More, which had a great guitar solo, and I liked the harmonica that really added a lot without grabbing too much attention. Telephone Blues was similar, with amazing guitar and percussion.

To my delight, I was not even bothered by the horns on You Don’t Love Me.

Grade

5/5: love it