Salut! Live

What do you make of it so far? I am quite enjoying this series, picking a clip each day - as I will for as long as I can keep it going - to share the bits and pieces of music I regard as special.

We've had the Unthanks, Dessie O'Halloran with Sharon Shannon, Joan Baez, Steeleye Span and the Dubliners. Not a bad start - and you can see the full series by clicking here - but now it is time for something different.

As I have written here and elsewhere, my route to folk music was via American protest singers and the blues.

To find imitations of either genre being performed live back in the 1960s in northern England, your best chance was probably a folk club.

In my case, it could so easily have put me off the music I was looking for, so grim were some of the imitations I encountered (and I emphatically include my own later efforts as I grappled with elementary chords on my first guitar).

But it also opened my eyes and ears to the unexpected pleasures of traditional song and music, mostly from around the UK and Ireland.

I never lost my love of the blues. I attended the American Folk Blues concerts when they reached the North East and marvelled at those old men, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee among them, as they walked, limped or were helped on stage to offer us the real thing, Mississsippi style.

But I never apologised for also liking the pacier, louder and amplified Chicago blues scene or, indeed, the work of pale-skinned Brits like John Mayall.

Long before he was a world celebrity, Eric Clapton was the lead guitarist for Mayall (the Yardbirds, Cream and Blind Faith came later).

We knew he was a cut above the rest, and we generally assumed he knew it too. God was his nickname, and that didn't seem to bother him too much either.

For something a little different, see this account of an open-air concert by a much later line-up of the band: https://www.francesalut.com/2007/07/john-mayall-bea.html

 My treasured vinyl copy of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers LP contained outstanding examples of Clapton's mesmerising ability and style.

But two tracks in particular, one after the other, served as my "lying on the floor" music.

On my old record player, bought on hire puchase with the deposit coming from my first pay packet, I would turn up the volume as high as it would go, lie down with an ear close to the sound output (nothing as grand as speakers) and be entranced.

The first of those two tracks was Have You Heard?, a sublime Clapton solo punctuating Mayall's vocals. The next, Ramblin' On My Mind, written by Robert Johnson and first recorded by him in 1936, gave Clapton his first singing role on disc and it was a quite stunning musical experience for the spotty, prostrate teenager.

It had a classy guitar introduction and another great mid-song solo. I loved it then and I love it still.

Now, looking at the clip above, let us see how well this live version from 1983 has withstood the test of time ...

* Use the Salut! Live Amazon link to buy this and other music discussed on these pages: https://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000249ZZ/salusund-21