While 'Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton' was the album which finally put John Mayall on the map, it was to be a short-lived success, as while the album was still in the charts, it was revealed in the music press that Clapton had teamed up with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker to form Cream, which meant that he would have to leave Mayall's band. This was something of an embarrassment to Clapton, who had not said anything about this to Mayall, and his last gig with The Blues Breakers was in July 1966 in Bexley, south-east of London, and Cream played a warm-up gig just a couple of weeks later. Mayall now needed to find a new guitarist, but luckily for him he succeeded in persuading Peter Green to return to the fold. During the following year, with Green on guitar and using various other sidemen, some 40 tracks were recorded, with the album 'A Hard Road' being released in February 1967. It's another British blues classic, showing that Green was the perfect replacement for Clapton, and a few months later the band released an EP recorded with American blues harpist Paul Butterfield. Also in 1967 the Ace Of Clubs label released a collection of blues tracks called 'Raw Blues', including otherwise unavailable recordings from Mayall, Clapton, Green and Steve Anglo, otherwise known as Stevie Winwood, alongside songs from Otis Spann, Champion Jack Dupree, and Curtis Jones. Soon after the release of 'A Hard Road' Peter Green gave notice that he was starting his own band with Mick Fleetwood, and later bassist John McVie, who stayed with Mayall for a while after Green left, before teaming up with his former bandmate in Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. This second volume of rarities features some of Mayall's contributions to 'Raw Blues', the complete Butterfield EP, and a few stand-alone singles and their b-sides.
Track listing
01 Sitting In The Rain (single 1967) 02 Out Of Reach (b-side of 'Sitting In The Rain')03 Curly (single 1967) 04 Rubber Duck (b-side of 'Curly') 05 Please Don't Tell (previously unreleased 1967) 06 It Hurts Me Too (single 1967) 07 Double Trouble (b-side of 'It Hurts Me Too') 08 All My Life (single 1967, with Paul Butterfield)) 09 Ridin´ On The L. And N. (b-side of 'All My Life') 10 Little By Little (b-side of 'All My Life') 11 Eagle Eye (b-side of 'All My Life') 12 Burn Out Your Blind Eyes (from 'Raw Blues' 1967)12 Long Night (from 'Raw Blues' 1967)
